Can you believe The Road Warrior is the only Mad Max movie I hadn't seen? Having mentioned it to a friend who told me he had seen it as a boy and become the belle of the ball the next day at school, he lent it to me and... yeah, it holds up! It's the most like Fury Road - the look, the action, the vehicles, the convoy under threat, the low amount of dialog - and where the first Mad Max was kind of a cop movie, this one has George Miller define the postapocalyptic aesthetic, not just for his franchise, but for generations of content creators to come. It's all there. It's original even if inspired by sword and sandal films and westerns. This is a movie where a man wets his lips at the thought of finding gasoline, not water, and it's a rollicking good time that while pretty straightforward, still surprises you with who survives and who doesn't. Miller even includes some pigs, which links forward to Babe. Could have done without the on-screen rape, but otherwise, a bona fide, foundational classic.
Most of the costumes could have come from a New Romantic music video from that era. I suspect it didn't just take from the fashion of the times but also influenced some which came after.
“Mad Max 2 is by far the best of the Mad Max series. With its insane vehicles and fearful body-armour, it is a vision of Armageddon as autogeddon. Mad Max 2 is punk’s Sistine Chapel.”
-- Quoted in "J.G. Ballard’s Top Ten Science Fiction Films", The Independent, 25 May, 2005.
“I loved The Road Warrior – I thought it was a masterpiece. For ninety or so minutes I really knew what it was like to be an eight-cylinder engine under the hood of whatever car that was; the visceral impact of that film was extraordinary. And seen simply from a science-fiction point of view, it created a unique landscape with tremendous visual authority.”
-- Ballard, interviewed by Jonathan Cott. ‘The Strange Visions of J.G. Ballard’, published in Rolling Stone, Number 512, 19 November 1987.
It has a bit more of a coherent plot compared to the first film but try as I may, I can't seem to get myself into this series of cult films. The gritty post-apocalyptic atmosphere is back in spades and it has all the makings of a cult classic but I'll stick to my explanation I used for the first film in stating quite plainly "it's just not my cup of tea."
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Comments 1 - 15 of 19
johnnyg
Why are people wearing assless chaps in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland? This I ask you.steamRobot
A great example of how a sequel should be done, a natural progression and not just a rehash of the first.Realenur
a beautiful example of a strong successor.Landovva
@johnny_greeley That was the first thing that I was wondering about.I quite enjoyed this, despite the assless chaps. Fantastic style.
Siskoid
Can you believe The Road Warrior is the only Mad Max movie I hadn't seen? Having mentioned it to a friend who told me he had seen it as a boy and become the belle of the ball the next day at school, he lent it to me and... yeah, it holds up! It's the most like Fury Road - the look, the action, the vehicles, the convoy under threat, the low amount of dialog - and where the first Mad Max was kind of a cop movie, this one has George Miller define the postapocalyptic aesthetic, not just for his franchise, but for generations of content creators to come. It's all there. It's original even if inspired by sword and sandal films and westerns. This is a movie where a man wets his lips at the thought of finding gasoline, not water, and it's a rollicking good time that while pretty straightforward, still surprises you with who survives and who doesn't. Miller even includes some pigs, which links forward to Babe. Could have done without the on-screen rape, but otherwise, a bona fide, foundational classic.Earring72
Great action movie, still holds up!Shidan
Way better than the first movie, but still not as good as Fury Road.the3rdman
Hated the first, but this wasn't too bad.mayshake
A gentle desert breeze becomes a relief for post-apocalyptic desert hemorrhoids perhaps?oligneisti
Much better than the original.Most of the costumes could have come from a New Romantic music video from that era. I suspect it didn't just take from the fashion of the times but also influenced some which came after.
monty
“Mad Max 2 is by far the best of the Mad Max series. With its insane vehicles and fearful body-armour, it is a vision of Armageddon as autogeddon. Mad Max 2 is punk’s Sistine Chapel.”-- Quoted in "J.G. Ballard’s Top Ten Science Fiction Films", The Independent, 25 May, 2005.
“I loved The Road Warrior – I thought it was a masterpiece. For ninety or so minutes I really knew what it was like to be an eight-cylinder engine under the hood of whatever car that was; the visceral impact of that film was extraordinary. And seen simply from a science-fiction point of view, it created a unique landscape with tremendous visual authority.”
-- Ballard, interviewed by Jonathan Cott. ‘The Strange Visions of J.G. Ballard’, published in Rolling Stone, Number 512, 19 November 1987.
Scratch47
Fairly enjoyable, tense and corny, but frustratingly patchy.DisneyStitch
It has a bit more of a coherent plot compared to the first film but try as I may, I can't seem to get myself into this series of cult films. The gritty post-apocalyptic atmosphere is back in spades and it has all the makings of a cult classic but I'll stick to my explanation I used for the first film in stating quite plainly "it's just not my cup of tea."enderspeaker
Boring. The first film was about family and justice, this one is about...getting gas?Dieguito
I preferred the first but this is the most classicShowing items 1 – 15 of 19