MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR
Review / Analysis
© by Rob Ager 2007
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part one
part two
Since its 1981 release Mad Max 2, A.K.A The Road Warrior, has been elevated to cult status by a hardcore fan base. Its post-apocalyptic sci-fi punk imagery has been mimicked endlessly. It’s ultra-violent and meticulously edited action scenes altered the whole action-movie genre and have been openly acknowledged as key influences in action classics such as The Terminator films. It also shot Mel Gibson to international star status, who would later direct some of the most powerful and controversial films of the past decade.
Conceptually Mad Max 2 does not present as a complex or challenging film. It can easily be watched as a straight forward piece of action entertainment, but there are deeper psychological elements that have aided its popularity. What makes it stand out as a classic for this reviewer is the meticulously well thought-out attention to detail. Every aspect of Mad Max 2 combines perfectly into a believable and engrossing experience.
As an action film it is second to none. The action manages to thrill without distracting from the story and, while being relentlessly violent, maintains a shocking realism. The battle scenes definitely win this reviewers vote for the best chase scenes of all time. Motorcycles crushed under the wheels of an oil tanker, cars being flipped over or smashed to oblivion, men leaping from one vehicle to another at high speed, deaths from shotguns, flamethrowers, arrows, flying blades, petrol bombs … and of course a truly breathtaking head on collision between hero and anti-hero – this film is a triumph of choreography, stunt work and editing and it succeeds without the corner-cutting aid of modern digital effects. Everything you see actually occurred in front of rolling cameras.
A short mention on sound design too. Brian May’s score perfectly expresses the mood of the story and combines rhythmically with the engine roars and other impressive sound effects. Combined with superb visual editing, this gives Mad Max 2 a brilliant sense of pacing.
The costume design especially stands out. Those who have maintained their sense of humanity and decency are angelically bound in white cloths and rags, while their depraved opponents are bound in black studded leather and armour. Good and evil are also differentiated in that the civilized are still able to expose their faces, which allows us to see their humanity, while most of the depraved gang members hide behind assorted masks. Their evil leader, the humungus, permanently hides behind a mask of steel and we’re left wondering if even his own gang members ever get to see his real face. He is living proof that brutality and physical strength determine the villains’ social hierarchy.
The regression of humanity into an animalistic state is also played out in the costume design. Many of the humungus’ gang members have Mohican haircuts or fur hats and tails that visually demonstrate their kinship with predatory beasts. The aptly named “feral kid” represents the decaying future of humanity and hence he is even more animal-like than the adult villains. He leaps and howls like an animal, burrows under ground, seems incapable of speech and has learned to kill at a frighteningly early age. And added to all this are fetishist costume elements that demonstrate the sexual extent of the “bad guys” depravity.
The one character of the film whose image totally contradicts his nature is the hero of the piece. Max is dressed more like the villains of the story and is also beginning to look animal-like with a white streak in his hair and an unshaven face. His regression towards primal instincts is made clear in that he has a nameless dog for a companion yet he is unable to accept human companionship. Max and his dog are kindred and he has even taken to eating dog food.
By comparison Max’s would be partner in crime, the gyro captain, wears a flower over his heart – symbolising that he has maintained his spiritual inner beauty. He also is unashamed of his pink scarf and is hence comfortable with his feminine side.
The gyro captain provides a stark parallel throughout the story, by which Max’s wounds are laid bare for us to see. Emotionally maimed by the loss of his family, Max is unable to accept an invitation to join the camp and hence rejoin humanity, while the gyro captain leaps at the opportunity. The image of a naked woman pasted onto the rudder of the Captains flying machine shows that his fantasy of a female partner is still alive. Of the two most attractive females in the camp, gyro captain quickly snatches up a new mate, while Max walks away from a glaring opportunity for love - perhaps he was wise to do so (his admirer is viciously killed in the final battle scene). Gyro Captain is the most inspired man in the film and his flying machine enables him to be free of the hellish landscapes to wonder the open skies. In many ways he could even be seen as the real hero of the story. He replaces Papagallo as leader of the tribe and filling the tanker with dirt to trick the villains was most likely his idea. If Max only had faith enough to accept Gyro’s offer of friendship perhaps his own spiritual healing would begin.
Max initially helps the people in the camp in what for him is a purely business transaction, but abandons them immediately afterward to go on the run again. Even seeing the captured campers being tortured on the hill does nothing to spark him into caring about the tribes plight.
After Max’s car is wrecked and he is left helplessly crawling the desert landscape like a wounded animal, the gyro captain still comes to the rescue despite Max having cynically abandoned the campers. As it turns out Max is not an island. He needs companions to ensure his survival, but this lesson is lost upon him, for he still chooses to go it alone at the end of the film.
We have no doubts throughout the story that with Max on their side the camp occupants would surely triumph over their savage opponents, but our tragic hero is damaged beyond repair. Even after he has helped them achieve their final victory he is still unable to join them on their journey to paradise. So in the iconic closing shot we are left wondering not only how long Max will last on his own, but whether he was a real hero at all. Once again it seems he lead the tribe to victory simply out of necessity after losing his vehicle?
Max was always just one step away from becoming indistinguishable from the villains. His one redeeming feature seems to be his respect for contracts. He promises to let the Gyro Captain live after taking him hostage. He promises to deliver a tanker to the camp occupants. And in both cases he fulfils his contract. This duality is commented on directly by the camp leader Papagallo. One minute he tells Max “You’re a scavenger … you’re a maggot … you’re out there with the garbage … you’re nothing!”, and the next minute he confides in another camper “He fulfilled his contract. He’s an honourable man.”
Contrast this with the Nazi-style propaganda rantings of the Humungus who, through his mega-speaker system, taunts the campers one day and then spouts false offers of a compromise the next. As his dialogue with Wez demonstrates, he is not a man of his word “First the gasoline will be ours. Then you shall have your revenge.” His ability to calm the truly psychopathic Wez with a powerful bear-hug and a few softly spoken words shows us that the Humungus holds his followers physically and mentally in a cast iron grip. With a few simple words he can determine whether his followers rape, torture and kill their prey or whether they show restraint and merely hold them captive. After the campers acquire a much needed tanker Humungus reveals his true nature by orchestrating a torture party of his captured enemies for the remaining campers to see.
As seen in the rape and torture scenes the beast-like villains of the story are devoid of empathy. When one of their ranks loses his fingers attempting to catch the feral kids boomerang, his companions simply howl with laughter … and the psychotic Wez gets off on the pain of pulling an embedded arrow out of his own flesh. This is truly one of the most hostile and terrifying collection of characters ever put on film.
A few clues still remain as to their long-lost humanity though. Some of them are, like our hero, ex-cops and the humungus keeps a picture of what could be lost family members in his gun case. When bear-hugging Wez, he tells him “I understand your pain. We all lost someone we loved.” They have been traumatized and dehumanized, just like Max, but at least they have each other.
Max, on the other hand, seems eternally caught in limbo. He is incapable of bonding with either the camp occupants or the savages and so is destined to drift alone until the day he dies. He is as empty as the barren and hellish landscapes.
The only glimpse we’re given of spiritual hope for Max is after the opening chase scene. He finds a tiny music box in the hands of a dead man, briefly plays it and puts it in his pocket – the music box holds value for him. In a more cynical moment Max searches the body of a man killed by Gyro Captains’ snake. He finds a single dice, which he considers for a moment before tossing it aside – Max is not a man who believes in luck or taking chances.
Later he gives the music box to the feral kid. Upon doing so he is giving the child what little sense of hope he had left and instantly establishes himself as a much needed father figure. Clearly this child is on the same lonely path as Max. Neither of them are fond of speaking and both are brutal and intelligent survivalists. Feral Kid even has a white streak in his hair just like Max.
Feral kid sits in Max’s car with his belongings, ready to leave the campers for the protection of the only adult he can relate to. Despite their kinship Max rejects the child as he does everyone else. This is one of the most disheartening moments in the film, but all is not lost for the feral kid. In the closing narration we discover that he eventually became tribe leader. His memories of a brief bonding with Max have obviously given him lifelong inspiration. So perhaps Max spiritually lived on through this child.
The importance of the Feral Kid as the future of humanity is played out climactically when the child is fought over on the bonnet of the tanker. Max and Wez each pull at the child in what metaphorically represents the struggle between civilization and savagery. For further evidence of how important this battle is for the whole of humanity read the graffiti sprayed upon the tanker and carriage a few minutes into the movie. It reads “the vermin have inherited the earth”. The first five words are written on the carriage section and the last word “earth” is written on the door of the tanker. When Max separates the tanker and carriage this sentence is broken in two so that he delivers the word “earth” to the campers. In the final battle Wez, in his savage determination to destroy the civilized, uses a rope and grappling hook to violently rip this “earth” graffiti door from the cabin. Clearly, the oil battles of this film will determine the future of mankind as a species.
And this brings us to another dimension of the story. Oil wars have become of central importance to world affairs since the release of Mad Max 2. In 1982 this significance would have bypassed western audiences, although in Australia, where the Mad Max films were produced and filmed, oil shortages were already a prominent issue in the media. Like the Humungus and his gang, modern oil companies are not just happy to have their share of the oil markets. They want to have a monopoly on it and are willing to engage in warmongering to achieve their goals – Gyro Captain “watchin, thinking, how they’re gonna get in and get the gas”. The opening montage of Mad Max 2 does not offer explanation of why oil is in short supply, just as the issue of peak oil is hotly debated today as a possible fraud.
The weakness of the Humungus is ultimately his blind greed for oil. He and his followers were chasing an empty pipe dream when they should really have been searching to rediscover their sense of humanity. Whether humanity prevails over oil greed in current real world events is yet to unfold.
The opening montage also seems ambiguous in terms of time periods and dates. It looks more like a vision of WW2 than WW3. We are lead to believe this film is set in the future, yet it is narrated in the past tense, with a thick black border making the opening montage appear even more like an old movie.
Hints at a resurgence of Nazism appear to be an underlying theme also. The aforementioned propaganda rantings of the Humungus. A giant red Maltese cross prominently displayed on one of the gangs vehicles. Also some of the black and white footage in the opening montage looks like it has been plucked straight from WW2 archives. And for the really blatant clue to the Humungus' philosophical leanings, inside his briefcase can also be seen a Nazi skull and bones insignia, as also seen on the hats of Nazi oficers.
Mad Max 2 bears plenty of parallels to wars past, present and future. It simply borrows its main character from the first movie and presents perfectly as a stand alone film. It is not only by far the best of the Mad Max trilogy, but it is also one of the most brutal, original and aesthetically expressive films of all time.