Summer of 1982 II: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

I had to delay this installment by a day because Alamo Drafthouse’s official showing was a Rolling Road Show down at a racetrack in Kyle, TX. It sounded really awesome, or in ’82-speak…awesome to the max (for the record, I never spoke in such a moronic manner when I was 13). First there was a demolition derby between four post-Apocalyptic cars followed by the Punk band Rocktansky that only does songs about Mad Max films. Then the movie started around 9 PM. However, I prefer to watch movies inside so I missed out on the introduction from The Film School Rejects. It might have been for the better, I did encounter a couple guys at my screening who went. They said it was OK but the racetrack controlled the concessions and all the decent seats were occupied early. The Saturday screening was fine; the Conan showing got me addicted to the fanfare I missed.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is a relatively important flick in its own right:

• It contributed to Mel Gibson’s rise as an Action movie star.
• It was the first truly successful Aussie movie in the States raking in $23 million (over $50 million today) not bad for something costing $4 million Oz dollars; its predecessor Mad Max had a tepid American reception despite being the first International Aussie blockbuster. I do recall Mad Max making the rounds on cable and VHS with certain circles of classmates.
• It paved the way for directors Baz Luhrman, PJ Hogan and Jane Campion.
• It added to American interest in Aussie culture which was spearheaded that year by Men at Work’s hit songs “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now?” Not all worked out. Remember Young Einstein or the dude from the battery commercials?
• Vernon Wells, who played the main antagonist Wez, also got noticed and became mainstay villains in other Eighties faves: Commando and Weird Science. The former SAS soldier continues to work if you check out his imdb.com page.

The Alamo Ritz did get everybody fired up with the pre-show material. This consisted mostly of car chase-sequences; trailers for Smokey and the Bandit, Deathrace 2000 and Crazy Larry, Dirty Mary; Apocalypse humor such as an Onion: In the Know debate, Epic Tales from the Internet Post Apocalypse and the best one was by an actual Aussie; hilarious without using a torrent of profanity (some people like the other douche and his lazy game reviews). They’d be negligent to omit the two trailers for Mad Max and Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome.

I never did see MM2:RW in theaters. Once again, the R rating meant an automatic veto from my parents. The movie’s existence wasn’t even known until I saw an incredibly long trailer for it during TRON in late July/early August. One friend commented, “I think I’ve seen this so why do I need to go.”

I saw it on TV within a couple years. I want to say it was an edited version on NBC yet my memory is hazy on this due to viewing the actual film later on. MM2:RW is definitely the strongest of the Mad Max Trilogy. Mad Max feels like a low-budget cop-revenge flick set in the Australian equivalent of America’s Deep South. There’s no clear indication of civilization unraveling from what I could tell; Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome just plain sucked all way down to the goofy Tina Turner song. The latter does live on in the Pop culture lexicon via Thunderdome’s main rule…two men enter, one man leave!

How was Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 30 years later? Beyond all the drama regarding Mel Gibson’s life over the last decade, I think it remains one of the best Post-Apocalypse films ever produced. Some elements are dated which honestly can’t be avoided when dealing with a story set in the near future. The main highway battle at the end is a hundred times better on the big screen and remains one of the best five “car chases” in film history. I had forgotten how young Mel was then (25-26, he looks 30-plus) and how little he spoke…16 lines total. Alamo showed the Australian cut which didn’t appear radically different. It’s about a minute longer so no additional insight was gained.

Ratings:

1982 (13-year-old me): A-. Contrary to Reagan’s apologists, a nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union was a strong possibility; the B-movie actor’s saber rattling was a huge factor. This story was more cathartic than The Day After or Wargames because it gave me a desire to move Down Under in order to be amongst the probable survivors. What did the Aussies have for the Soviets to nuke other than their major cities? The minus comes from the Feral Kid’s presence. I hated “cute” additions to gritty stories or more appropriately what I would call a Disneyfication.

2012: A+. Post-Apocalypse films preceding this were pretty weak, cheap and/or dumb: Damnation Alley, The Omega Man, The Ultimate Warrior and Logan’s Run. The genre after the Eighties shifted from nuclear war as the catalyst to the improbable, namely these films now being littered with zombies: too many to list except for The Road which is a vague ecological disaster. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior remains one of the ideals in this genre thanks to the story, its action scenes and the focus on how much people will prey upon each other when energy becomes scarce.

I will conclude with the movie’s life lessons Somara and I figured out in order to keep up with Conan‘s precendent:

1. When it all hits the fan, raid a sporting goods store for armor and weapons; I’m not sure how Aussies got ahold of American football and hockey gear though
2. Law enforcement can’t ticket you anymore but seatbelts remain a good idea
3. Canned dog food is as appetizing as Chef Boyardee or Dinty Moore Stew…if you close your eyes

Next up in the Summer of 1982: Rocky III.