Mad Max 2, the ultimate film in the series. An awesome action film that never ceases to blow people away with it’s interesting/quirky/crazy characters and action packed chase sequences. It sets the standard for every other Mad Max film and stands as one of the greatest action films of all time.
The year is 2021. The world is in the grip of a fearful pandemic. Governments struggle to maintain law and order. George Miller’s The Road Warrior starts in the dying throes of the battle for gas. Max (Mel Gibson) has a cool car (‘the last of the V8 Interceptors’), a loving friend in his dog and a tough, survivalist attitude. Max comes across a peaceful community under siege from various violent malcontents who have penned them into a compound where one of the world’s last few oil-wells is still providing a source of the black stuff. Max manages to get inside, and agrees to help them capture a driving rig to help them export their precious cargo to safety. Once his mission is complete, all Max wants is his car back and a full tank of fuel; “I’m just here for the gasoline’ says Max, but his humanism is stirred by watching a child’s face delighted by the chimes of a music box.
A ‘white-line nightmare’, The Road Warrior is one of cinema’s best action films; a series of brilliant calculations means that despite the futuristic setting, absolutely everything we see on screen looks practical and real because it is; building your own cars, weapons and compounds never looked so probable or impressive. Max is an everyman, simply trying to get by without the aspirations for power and control that others have, and like ordinary people everywhere, he gets shafted over and over again as a result. “The vermin have inherited the earth’ as a bit of graffiti says, and the best result we can hope for against such persistent opposition is to survive another day. The Road Warrior isn’t perfect, use of filters and speeded up film is regrettable, and even on blu-ray some of the night-time scenes look very grainy. But it is a classic turbo-charge tale of men and machines, and in times of crisis, sends out a positive message that someone, some-way, we’ll get through this together, even if ordinary people being the fall guy is the only option in the daily grind.