The Road Warrior is one of the most inspired and energetic action films ever made. An Australian film directed and co-written by George Miller, it also benefits from colorful (if cartoonish) characters and costumes, and an appropriately postmodern score by Brian May (Not the guitarist of the British rock group Queen). The film also made a star of Mel Gibson, who was then little-known outside of Australia.

Mad Max (1979) introduced the character of Max (Mel Gibson), a taciturn policeman whose family was killed by a malicious biker gang. These events are chronicled at the start of The Road Warrior, along with The Fall of Civilization as We Know It. Somehow the economy collapsed when the world ran out of oil, the narration explains, for some reason depicting this by showing dramatic film clips dating from the first half of the 20th century.

But it really isn't important how Max ends up as a leather-clad loner, scavenging the desolated countryside for food, gasoline, and anything else of value. Max has everything he needs; a car, a gun, a belligerent dog, and a deserted (but somehow well-maintained) highway. He confronts a tall, scrawny eccentric (Bruce Spence) who owns a pseudo helicopter and claims that an enormous, operational oil refinery is less than an hour's drive away.

The refinery is controlled by a dozen or so well-intentioned but mostly ineffectual people, led by idealistic Pappagallo (Mike Preston). It is under siege by a murderous gang of bizarre terrorists, who have many weapons and vehicles. The gang is led by muscle-bound, hockey-mask wearing Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson), and his wild, acrobatic sidekick Wez (Vernon Wells). Wez sports an orange punk mohawk, and vows revenge on the refiners for having killed his femme boyfriend.

Max sides with the refiners, and agrees to drive a massive tanker loaded with gasoline. The tanker is a diversion, giving the others time to flee to a coastal paradise. In an intense, lengthy chase scene filled with many spectacular stunts, Max must fend off the determined bad guys who are chasing his runaway tanker.

My favorite among the many entertaining characters is the Feral Kid (Emil Minty). He is perhaps seven years old, dresses like a bedraggled little caveman, and makes dog noises instead of speaking. But he is already a better warrior than most of the refiners, with whom he lives.

In a charming scene, Max wins the kid's loyalty with a little music box. The kid is armed with a deadly boomerang, which at one point cuts off the fingers of a toadying bad guy (Max Phipps). The other bad guys just laugh, demonstrating just how heartlessly evil they truly are.

The Road Warrior was known as Mad Max 2 in Australia. When Warner Bros. distributed it in the States, they decided that a name change was necessary, as Mad Max was still an obscure film there. George Miller also directed and co-wrote the other two films in the series, Mad Max and the disappointing sequel Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).

The Road Warrior was unjustly ignored by the Academy Awards. However, the Australian Film Institute showered it with five awards (including Best Director) and two other nominations. The movie also won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Foreign Language Film, surprising those who thought that people spoke English in Australia. (They actually speak Oynglish, a similar but more guttural idiom.) (83/100)


Recommended: Yes