Aka - The Road Warrior

George Millers 1981 to follow up to his 1979 classic Mad Max, is undoubtedly my favourite of the three. I love the desolate backdrops of the Australian wasteland and the way Max has evolved from when we last saw him in the first movie. He now seems cracked beyond repair, driven to a life of loneliness by Toe cutter and his mob who murdered his wife and child in cold blood.

Set a few years after the original, the world has now collapsed even further, “Gusoline” is in short supply but on high demand, road warriors rape and kill there way to anything they can find, and Max still wonders the wasteland. Max, along with his humble dog, is accompanied by the Gyro-captain. A sneaky man who on his first meeting with Max tries to steal his fuel, so it takes a while before Max can partially, never mind fully, trust him.

Max and the Gyro Captain

When the Captain tells Max of a place that pumps out “Gusoline”, Max gets him to show him the location where they watch it over night. Eventually Max rescues one of a couple from the base being attacked by some road warriors, the man tells him he can have all the gas he wants if he helps him. Max takes him back to the base, but the man dies. Hence no gas. While at the base Max witnesses the Humongous, a metal hockey mask wearing ruthless “lord”, and his band of road warriors. They are tormenting the base into handing over gas to them. The people of the base contemplate escaping with the gas, but how can they haul it all over the wasteland? Will Max know of a way to help them out?

Wez chases Max, who is driving his classic V8 Interceptor.

The film is not all serious and doom and gloom though. There are some comic elements. Most notably in a scene near the start of the movie when the feral kids bladed boomerang flies through the air and one of the road warriors tries to catch it but ends up slicing his fingers off, much to the delight of the road warriors looking on.

"You can run, but you can't hide" Vernon Wells as Wez

Mel Gibson is at his finest in the role of Max, his performance resembles that of Clint Eastwood in his early western days, cool, calm but equally dangerous. Or even an alternative Martin Riggs, a character Gibson played in the Lethal Weapon movies. Mad Max 2 contains loads of great likeable characters, the giro captain is the film's comic relief for the most part. There is the old army captain in denial at the gas base. And the evil road warrior Wez, who is one of my favourite movies bad guys, they’ve also dubbed his voice deeper to make him seem all the more pshycotic and menacing.

The film does carry some extraordinary action set pieces that make today’s modern computer generated special effects seem rather tame, the brutal final chase for example is breathe taking. The violence given out by the road warriors inparticular is at times disturbing and realistic, which gives the film its desperate, realistic feel. What this film needs is a jam packed DVD release, in wide-screen with all the trimmings. Because this film actually deserves, not like a lot of the movies that I deem a waste of a good disc that gets released today.

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