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Following the overwhelming success of 1979’s Mad Max, director George Miller and his charming young star returned to the Australian Outback for the action-packed follow-up: 1981’s The Road Warrior.
After losing everything that mattered to him in Mad Max, former police officer Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is now a bitter loner, roaming the post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of the one commodity that still matters: fuel.
An encounter with the eccentric Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) leads Max to a busy refinery in the middle of the wilderness. The band of survivors who run the refinery hope to take their broken-down tanker to the coast—but before they can start their new lives in paradise, they’ll have to get past a bunch of ruthless bandits led by the masked Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). Max offers to help in exchange for fuel, and he soon finds himself in another high-speed battle against the bad guys.
As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And for the follow-up to Mad Max, Miller took that advice to heart. The Road Warrior has the same desolate setting, the same outlandish characters, the same thrilling high-speed chases, and the same charismatic young hero. Of course, the film’s budget was substantially higher than that of its predecessor, so everything is just a little more extreme. The sets are a little bigger. The explosions are a little fierier. The vehicles are more unusual. And the costumes are even more outrageous.
Granted, there are a few changes. Since Max is now wandering the wasteland on his own, the film doesn’t have the same emotional connection. So while there are plenty of quirky characters, you won’t really care about anyone but Max—and, thanks to his prickly personality, even he isn’t always easy to love.
The story, meanwhile, is pretty simple and straightforward. The Road Warrior offers just a glimpse into the events that led to this post-apocalyptic devastation before setting the stage for the coming battle of good vs. evil. And since there’s not a lot of story to tell, that leaves things wide open for plenty of fuel-injected action. So if you love action, you’ll be in high-speed heaven—but if you need a little more story and character to balance out your chase scenes, you may sometimes struggle to stay focused.
This violent road flick also leaves its audience to ponder a number of unanswered questions—like who is The Humungus. The film’s masked villain is given no back story—though I’m sure it would be a fascinating one. Even left to mystery, though, he’s absolutely terrifying—despite his choice of wardrobe: studded leather straps and an S&M diaper. And that leads me to the next nagging question: where, in the middle of this wasteland, did these vicious thugs find an S&M porn star’s closet to raid? But I suppose that that, too, will just have to be left to the mystery that is The Road Warrior.
Like Mad Max, The Road Warrior definitely has its share of quirks. It isn’t as dramatic as the first film in the franchise—but the bleak setting, the outrageous style, and the nearly non-stop action make it worthy of its cult status.
Blu-ray Review:
Now available as a part of the new three-disc, three-movie box set (with Mad Max and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the Road Warrior Blu-ray is just as light on extras as Mad Max was. In addition to a commentary track, it includes an optional introduction by critic Leonard Maltin. It offers some interesting background on the film—and the franchise. But it makes a little more sense if you’ve already seen the movie.
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