The Road Warrior (1982) Review

George Miller continues the Max Rockatansky saga with the 1982 release of Mad Max 2 – or what it’s better known as (certainly in the US) – The Road Warrior.

It’s several years since the events of Mad Max, and the world is now an honest-to-goodness barren wasteland, following the World War only hinted at in the original film. Max (Mel Gibson) drives his old “Interceptor” police vehicle, in a never-ending search for gasoline (“the juice, the precious juice”). He happens upon a somewhat civilized community – complete with their own oil well as well as their own band of outside marauders who surround their well-protected compound – desperate to break in and own this fuel. Through a series of unfortunate events, Max allies himself with the oil-owners, eventually resulting in one of the best car chase scenes ever created.

There’s not a ton of dialogue in the film – certainly from Gibson. Max is the strong, silent type (after the events of Mad Max, we can understand why), but he is smart, insightful and no-nonsense. Gibson is at his matinee-idol best here, handsome and always with that quirky side-smirk he so perfectly executes. It’s a tough call to size up Gibson’s performance, as Max is so emotionally shut down. There’s not much for Gibson to pull from the script, but when he makes a connection with The Feral Kid (a “wild child” who lives in the oil compound), you’ll hark back to the tragedy of the first film, and see how Max still has a soft spot despite his rough history. And Gibson keeps it subtle, which only adds to his iconic magic in this role (one he’ll play a total of three times).

The supporting cast is fantastic, but call-outs to Bruce Spence as the Gyro Captain and Vernon Wells as The Wez are certainly necessary. These supporting performances practically outdo Gibson himself – Wells offering a vision of punk-weirdness and no-holds-barred (and creepy) insanity, while Spence offers up plenty of goofy comic relief. The Gyro Captain’s love interest in the film is a tiny token of sweetness in an otherwise brutal film.

The violence is harsh and this matches perfectly with the breakneck pace of the film’s final act. Keep in mind that the now-legendary car chase which completes the film – involving at least 100 vehicles and countless stunts – was filmed long before the convenience of CGI. In other words, the scrapes, crashes, fire-bombs, destroyed vehicles and life-threatening stunts – were all done practically.

The score from Australian composer Brian May is up to the challenge of properly accentuating the feel of the wasteland and the desperate battle which takes place there. It never distracts from the action in the final reel, but without it – the sequence would certainly be incomplete.

Mad Max (1979) started off on the right foot, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) took this world to Hollywood and Mad Max: Fury Road met up with Oscar. But none of them got it as exactly right as The Road Warrior did.

Gritty, ultra-violent and with epic camera and stunt-work, The Road Warrior is a remarkably made film which only gets better with age. For a film that’s 36 years old and which doesn’t enjoy the “benefit” of today’s filmmaking technology, that’s no small feat.

By the way, the film ranks in my personal Top 20 favorite movies of all time – at the enviable #12 position.

The film is available on multiple VOD services. It can also be found on both DVD and Bluray. Bottom line: It’s a must-own.