Mad Max 2 - The Road Warrior (1981) Retrospective / Review

I remember a time of chaos ruin dreams this wasted land but most of all I remember the road warrior the man we call max the warrior max and the roar of an engine he lost everything that became a shell of a man a burnt-out desert man a man haunted by the demons in his past a man who wandered out into the wasteland and it was here in this blighted place how do you learn to leverage there it is or dies on up here how's I gonna get him and get the gas this trash Iran must do a flying round and round attack attack who are you how did you get throughout this what did you find him two or three miles down the road with the day we had a deal he said if I brought him back here you give me some gas just walk away in your the tomboy the Cassady in the whole compound and us very nice remember one thing that is more than just a tanker of gas that is our lifeline you want to get out of here you talk to me you Mad Max 2 arrived on our screens in late December 1981 loosed on a small budget at the time of about two million u.s. dollars it grows over 50 million worldwide it was the first Australian movie to be recorded in Dolby stereo the first episode was the first to be shot in CinemaScope Mad Max 1 was an incredible success being the most profitable film for years produced on an even smaller budget first time director George Miller made a name for himself overnight it was the most successful film in Australia taking more money there at the box office then star wars he did incredibly well in other territories but once it came to the USA there are a number of problems with his distribution American International pictures picked up for distribution but while going through financial problems and they also felt many wouldn't understand the Australian accents and dubbed it over with American actors changing some of the dialogue to remove the Aussie slang this was the dumbest idea ever it took a while for me to view it with the original audio because of the poor marketing of Mad Max it failed to get the audience you deserved in the United States despite its huge success everywhere else when it came to the sequel Warner's had picked up the rights for US distribution and feeling many wouldn't be aware of the character Mad Max they retitled the film the road warrior instead of Mad Max 2 however Warner's were unaware that Mad Max had in fact built up a large audience on cable TV and the public was well aware of him and so on more recent blu-ray and DVD releases of the film it's now titled Mad Max 2 the road warrior to help avoid any confusion the movie was shot in continuity which rarely happens with productions shot on location near Broken Hill in Australia in the middle of winter it was a very short shoot at 12 weeks long because of their location there to wait up to a week to view the developed 35 millimeter rushes George Miller States on the blu-ray commentary that they were making the movie up as they went along they wanted it to be minimal on dialogue and for the storage be told in movie language this film could have no dialogue and you would still be invested and under Stan what's going on very much like Conan the Barbarian which turned up a year later well Gibson was only 21 when he played max in the first movie so when it came to the sequel he had changed a lot he looked more like a man far more grown-up whereas in the first movie he does look his age Mel is obviously more confident in the movie but probably has far less dialogue apparently only having 16 lines in the entire film it just tends to act with his eyes and facial expressions he barely smiles but finally does at the end despite the battering he has received Bruce Spence plays a djaro captain he had just come out of hospital when he shot the film and was still unwell on the shoot the director said he had struggled to get out the ground as he jumped out to surprise Mad Max Bruce Spence is insanely thin I'm a thin guy and he makes me look fat he has had a very successful career and turned up in small parts in Lord of the Rings Star Wars Episode three and I fondly remember him from the Matrix Revolutions as the Train man Virginia hay placed a warrior woman on the oil refinery this was her first movie and possibly her first acting gig she would not have a successful career in TV most people will probably know her from the TV series Farscape the leader of the Marauders is humongous played by some random Swedish bodybuilder originally they thought the character would be goose Max's mate from the first film you got burned in an attack but they decided against it in the end but there are a few hints that indicate this idea such as the horrible burns to his face the use of the police cars and a similar firearm he uses but if you think about it making gusto villain wouldn't entirely make sense having him become what he fought against he would have become more like max Vernon Wells plays where's the very creepy homicidal Punk he is a fan favorite for playing over-the-top villains most formally remembered for playing Bennett in commando who the actor Vernon Wells refers to as freddie mercury on steroids also playing as mr. Igoe in inner space and making a cameo appearance in weird science he has also had a successful career since starring in bad max - and has been heavily involved in the Power Rangers climbing force series the film opens with a prologue shot in the Academy ratio explaining what happened in the future and also shows scenes from Mad Max 1 you never really know what year it is the narration gives many a head start on what's happening I really love this intro and the clever use of stock footage to demonstrate the destruction of civilization is something I wish they'd expanded more in the film but thankfully in the third movie they do address more of the back story and it cuts to glorious CinemaScope with max racing ahead trying to escape from a gang led by a crazed motorcycle rider where's Amanda to take out two of the gangs vehicles where's gets hurt in the process but manages to escape after collecting some fuel on the destroyed cars he spots a nearby autogyro and inspects it for fuel however the autogyro has been booby-trapped by the pilot but max overpowers him and sets his atrocity dog on him in exchange for his own life the pilot tells max about a small oil refinery in the nearby wasteland max arrived just as the Marauders besieged the compound the leader a large muscular man of a hockey mask covering his disfigured face called the humungous tries to convince the settlers to surrender their stronghold in exchange for safe passage out of his territory the gang is desperate for more fuel and is the only valuable substance in the wasteland Max and the gyro captain stake out the refinery and what sugar bursts settlers attempt to escape but the gang captured torture rape and kill the woman whilst our partner is left for dead max makes a deal with a mortally wounded man to bring him back to the compound in exchange for a tank of petrol the man dies shortly after max returns him and the settlers leader can't honor the deal because it wasn't confirmed before the man's death the settlers on the verge of killing Max when the Marauders return and humongous repeats his offer max offers the leader of the group another deal he will retrieve the abandoned max semi-truck he saw a few days ago capable of hauling the settlers tanker trailer fuelled in exchange for his freedom his vehicle and as much petrol as he can take with him the settlers accept but keep Max's car to ensure his cooperation max Nix out joining forces with the gyro captain max drives a semi-truck back to the compound narrowly evading humongus men and thus gains the Suttles trust and they wanted to escape with him but max opts to collect his petrol and leave however his attempt to break through the siege fails rather than miserably as warez gives chase using a nitrous oxide equipped car and runs max off the road wrecking his car and seriously wounding him max hides behind a rock before the game approach the wreckage but they spot Max's dog and kill it with the crossbow before attempting to siphon the fuel from his car however this triggers an explosive booby trap that destroys a car and gang members nearby leaving max is dead where's heads back to the base meanwhile max is slowly losing consciousness the black interceptor driven by max is a 1973 Ford Falcon xB GT coupe a a car apparently exclusive to Australia a limited number of these cars were exported by forward to New Zealand and the UK but never made it to the USA since only about 900 were produced they become highly sought after by collectors it seems to be the original car from the original film from what I read online it was apparently commissioned to be scrapped after the shoot but someone saved it and brought it back for the sequel it makes me laugh during may the car chases us to simulate the intense speed they just speed up the film in post-production many of the cars couldn't go so fast over the bumpy terrain so they had to speed up in post which is understandable but does provide some hilarious results we need to do is just add some Benny Hill music and it will be a nice spoof it had been reported that the amazing stunt pulled off near the end was actually an accident they decided to leave it in when the biker gets knocked off his bike and spins through the air propelling the stop man 65 feet the stuntman broke his leg badly but luckily survived Brian Meg returns to score Mad Max - not to be confused with Brian May from the band Queen as myself and many others I'm sure did his Australian composer who just happens to have the same name the score to the original had a more romantic classical tone to it and felt it belonged to a medieval war epic it's not to say didn't suit the film but in some things it did feel like it belonged to a different genre it also had a beautiful love theme for max and Jessie in the sequel Brian May provides another bombastic traditional score but it doesn't have the heart of the original because obviously the movie deals with different themes as soon as the movie kicks in after the prologue the music just takes over through the entirety of the driving scenes the score always delivers adding more tension to the perfectly executed sequences there are great dramatic moments especially when the gyro captain witnesses the death of the woman it's a really stirring score the soundtrack isn't too difficult to track down and is available on iTunes I don't think the complete score is available on CD as it's hard to tell how much music Brian made kanpai is the CD has a track of sound effects in the film which you rarely find on soundtrack releases the Mad Max trilogy has been spoofed homage and has heavily influenced many films and even cartoons in their visual design and action set-pieces Vistal and all-stars probably the most heavily influenced by the series with the lead character Kenshiro walking around an apocalyptic future battling against thugs who seem to have been taken straight out of a Mad Max movie Mad Max himself is a very likable character despite him being very self-centered and only really out to do things to benefit himself the opening narration to the sequel indicates that the death of his wife and child has changed him he clearly prefers to be alone and it's never suggested what his role is other than just traveling the wasteland even though he does come across as heartless in the sequels he does show signs of his past self showing her connection to the feral kid and had Thunder down where he meets the kids who remind me of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan Mad Max 2 is considered the best out of the trilogy down to its constant action and great case the film feels like one long car chase that never stops for a breather it obviously does stop for dialogue to be exchanged but you barely notice it I think its story is the weakest out of three its wafer thin in content but it does have an incredible atmosphere and as I said tremendous action to make up those shortcomings each film in the series feels fundamentally different to the next they could exist without having any connection they could all be separate movies one of the scenes that always drives me nuts because I don't understand why max can be so stupid is when he leaves the base after getting no petrol he needs and head straight towards the enemy and obviously gets taken out within minutes ruining his chance to escape and he gets his dog killed he could have got out the back and the gang wouldn't have known it's all done to drive up tension and to frustrate the audience I love the photography in the movie especially the great shots of the landscape and the moments before darkness when max discusses his plans to retrieve the tanker but during the night shots it's actually very hard to see what's going on even when I saw it on VHS you can barely see what was happening most filmmakers would cheat and use a filter to simulate the look of night but here they don't do that that year escape for New York used a new special lens to extract the maximum amount of light during night shoots and I think the lens would have helped a lot on Mad Max - the movie does have some great subtle moments of humor mostly exhibited by the mechanics and the interactions between Max and the gyro captain with great moments such as when max pinches his telescope and during humungous speech it just cuts the male looking disinterested eating dog food George mallet is an extremely versatile director who can handle any genre without any problems even look at his body of work he goes from Mad Max and the witches of eastwick to the babe series and Happy Feet he has proved successful in many different genres throughout his career it's great to know he's finally returning to the series he created it's taken years for a fourth movie to happen the new movie is called fury road starring the talented Tom Hardy some reports say it's a reboot whereas on IMDB it says it's set before Mad Max - I'm sure more information will be revealed once the trailer comes out Mad Max 2 is certainly up there in the list of best sequels it demonstrates Miller has improved as a director in a short space of time with the help of the great DP Dean Semler the camera setups really helped create a large movie even on a small budget and the production team provided a technically competent movie that is fondly remembered for its daring stunts and action set-pieces lots of praise has to be given to the stuntmen who went above and beyond to demonstrate they had no fear the film is highly respected by Ordinances and critics alike Roger Ebert awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four saying it was skillful filmmaking and a film like no other critic Leonard Maltin even went out of his way to provide an introduction to the movie on the DVD and blu-ray release despite the discussion being only 5 minutes long he summed up the call to the movie extremely well I know some people don't get on with Mad Max too because if it's like a story and it's dark and violent approach but the film does clearly what it says on the tin it's an aggressive action movie that's not for the faint-hearted a non-stop chase what you see on screen is real no CG or optical effects but behind the mental action scenes is a lead character has universal appeal he is a survivor a champion of the oppressed and that's what makes him timeless what is it with you what are you looking for come on max everyone's looking for something you're happy out there hey wondering one day blurring into another the crash or crash through now at this point that's all they want the tanker so that comes straight actors so we'll use that to punch your way out it was all the same to you I'll drive that tanker and how do you think you'd do it I mean look at you you couldn't even drive a wheelchair you should look at yourself max you're a mess come on cut the crap on the best chance you've got

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 718,880

Keywords: mad max 2 retrospective, oliver harper mad max, mad max 2 review, road warrior review, the road warrior review, mad max review, mad max documentary, mad max 2, road warrior, mad max, Mad Max 2 (Film), retrospective review, the road warrior, ollie harper, overview, feature, 1981, leonard maltin, mel gibson, george miller, brian may, fist of the north star, bruce spence, vernon wells, review, oliver harper retrospective, retrospective, ollyh82

Id: uhRGqd7_GgM

Length: 18min 44sec (1124 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 17 2014