Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

Mad Max is a lost soul. Through the tedious and perilous journey of the first film, Max survived a dystopian future by fighting automobile villains and dusty roads, but ultimately losing his family. It was an emotional journey, one filled with pitfalls coupled with Gibson demonstrating his acting ability to the screen for the first time. While not the greatest film of all time, there was some ingenuity to the car crashed, the desolate landscape, the Gibson’s personal philosophies. While the film itself hovered around mediocrity, there was some creativity and originality that found bonus points. With Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (sometimes merely called The Road Warrior) none of that originality or emotional characterization came forth. Considered by many as the true “first” Mad Max film (and in some circles the better of the three), this film falls prey to the rinse, wash, and repeat Hollywood spin cycle. With plenty of crashes, no emotion, less development of side characters, a villain that felt more like Casey Jones instead of a genuine baddie, and a story that seemed lacking in anything exciting, The Road Warrior fell. It fell hard.

What should have been a simple sit down to view an iconic moment of cinematic history, in reality transformed into a full week torture-fest. Picking up where the last film concluded, The Road Warrior provides a very quiet opening, with merely explosions and punk skater dog-soldiers screaming into the air. The scenes are set to bring chaos back into Max’s life, but where Road Warrior crumbles is the penultimate question, “Why?” Why does Max care? Is fuel, an unemotional attachment, his only reason for assisting these survivors whom seem to be doing well themselves and have been for quite some time? Transforming a film whose original genre was a bleak view of human existence and personal Australian sentiment into a full-fledged no-holds barred action film proves a disservice to the original film. Max becomes a paper thin character, fueled (no pun intended) by a need to get more energy and slightly pushed by the wild hair of a boomerang boy. Frustration emerges as this film provides no new platform for Max to evolve as a character. As an audience, we are given a further glimpse of this destroyed planet, but nothing that pushes Max beyond the boundary set in the original film. We know he can drive, we know he can fight, but who/what pushes this man? In this reviewer’s opinion, having just spent a week trying to discover the “why” and “what” of Road Warrior, the answer cannot be found.


Disappointingly we are not even pulled into the original film. Where is Max’s memory of his family? Where are the scenes of an internal struggle between the reality of his existence and any current dreams? Road Warrior felt both rushed and disjointed by having too many villains, too many instant connections, and too many “heroes”. The Gyro Captain, the Casey Jones-esque guy merely called Humungus, the red-Mohawk biker, the kid with wild hair, the semi-love interested that floundered, and so forth. This was a film of ideas that were nowhere near final development. This is a sequel; it has the same character from the original, BUT not the same character from the original. This was not the “Mad Max” that we were originally introduced to, and that becomes a big fault to this film. Why build this emotional character only to ignore it the second time out and replace a true apocalyptic drama with nothing more than explosions, fire, and the occasional boob shot. It felt like a cheap knock off, instead of a true addition to the Mad Max world.

Overall, I wasn’t happy with this film. Found in my “501 Must-See Movies”, Mad Max: The Road Warrior disappointed me further than the original did. I was prepared to fully enjoy this entire series (not having seen Thunderdome yet), but they just fell flat. It was like watching, what did happen in many-a 80s action film where character development fell to the wayside and was replaced with the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am action. If you don’t believe me, see the original Rambo vs. the rest released. Watching this “sequel”, I just kept waiting for something to tie me back to the original film, but no luck. Yes, The Road Warrior could stand alone, but did we want it to? Was there a small part of me that hoped that Humungus would take me back to the original? Absolutely. Perhaps my hopes were too high for this film, but with the amassed critical praise, it did not deliver. Mel Gibson solidified himself as an action star when it could have been something more. Yellow highlight with a mark. Much less excited then when I finished the original. Horrible.