Some movies you just love, and one of those movies for me is The Road Warrior. Also known as Mad Max 2, the second film in director George Miller’s iconic post-apocalyptic series received a special 35th anniversary screening this past weekend at the brand new Alamo Drafthouse* in Brooklyn. Co-presented by sci-fi convention Wintercon, the event also featured a Q&A with cast members that, for fans, when combined with seeing the film on the big screen, was paradise. The Road Warrior’s old Curmudgeon character couldn’t have put it better himself.
The cast members in attendance were Vernon Wells (who played the insane and dangerous Wez), Bruce Spence (the funny and heroic Gyro Captain), Emil Minty (the fierce, mute Feral Child), Virginia Hey (the tragic Warrior Woman), and Kjell Nilsson (the mysterious hulk Lord Humungus). All had interesting memories and fun anecdotes to relay from the making of the film.
Ah, but the film. With the success of last year’s Fury Road, Mad Max is cool again, but The Road Warrior takes one back to a simpler time for Max Rockatansky, when the production faced relatively low expectations beyond its Australian homeland. The first Mad Max didn’t play well in the U.S. during its theatrical release, at least in part the victim of a botched dubbing job that saw American actors replacing star Mel Gibson and the other actors’ lines. As such, Mad Max 2 -- though a much bigger production than its predecessor -- was a pleasant surprise for all involved when it became an international hit.
Watching it again with an audience, it’s no wonder it did so well in 1981. While The Road Warrior is praised for its car chases, stunts, and action, and rightfully so (read my action analysis dissection of Mad Max 2’s opening scene here), it’s also so strong in the character department that it’s hard not to fall in love with this group of misbegotten survivors who are trying to make a better life for themselves no matter what. Obviously Gibson often holds our attention as the titular shell of a man, a burnt-out, desolate man who is part tragic Western hero, part V8 machine jockey, and part savior. But the secondary characters, and even the tertiary characters, all build out the world of The Road Warrior and make it full and whole and oftentimes surprisingly amusing. Despite the awful reality in which they live, they are relatable, and modern apocalyptic storytelling could learn a lot from this group. Beyond the Gyro Captain, the Feral Child, and the Warrior Woman, there’re also folks like the Mechanic, who despite being disabled is a key player in this flight for freedom, or Pappagallo, the doomed leader of the good guys, or even the faithful dog known as… Dog.
A Road Warrior and his Dog
Dog! The Australian Cattle Dog who is Max’s constant companion in this film is perhaps his last connection to feeling anything when we first meet him in Road Warrior. With Max’s family killed in the previous movie, one imagines our hero formed a bond with Dog (the mutt has no other name) in part because it was a mutually beneficial arrangement at first, but it’s also clear that he cares for the animal, and it for him. When Max is captured early in the movie, the dog leaps out and attacks his master’s captors, and in turn Max jumps to shield the dog from any potential harm. Whether he’s holding a potential enemy at bay with a shotgun-rigged bone in his mouth or making his last stand defending his friend, Dog is great.
Even the villains of the piece leave a lasting impression. Wells, whose Mohawked, shoulder-pad wearing Wez was so unique and visually memorable that he instantly became a go-to inspiration for other end-of-the-world baddies, recalled at the Q&A that he and Miller worked hard to create a backstory for the maniac that, though never seen in the film, strongly informed the character. Wells saw him as survivor, a Vietnam War vet who wanted to lead and not be led (hence his constant conflict with the Humungus). But a key aspect of locking in on Wez came when Miller asked Wells what he would do if the world ended tomorrow, and, say, there was a supermarket loaded with everything he needed at the corner of his street, but other people showed up. “Being arrogant, I said I’d shoot the bastards,” recalled Wells. “And [Miller] said, ‘Congratulations, Wez.’”
So the bad guys in Road Warrior, and let’s face it -- they’re really, really bad people -- have a basic human motivation too for how they became what they are in the blighted landscape of the Mad Max reality. Wez is hateful, but he loves the Golden Youth and is driven even more insane by his death. Humungus, in his full roided-out, Jason-mask-wearing, atomically-scarred immensity, still keeps a picture of his (grand?)parents with him in his gun case. And the first time we meet the Gyro Captain, who so often serves as comic relief, he’s portrayed as an enemy when and almost murders Max with his poisonous snakes. (But as he later reminds Dog, they’re his snakes and he trained them and he’ll be the one that eats them.)
As with all three Mad Max sequels, The Road Warrior ends on a hopeful note for its supporting cast (or at least those who survive). But Max himself seems eternally consigned to roam the Wasteland, unable to accept any lasting connection with the characters he’s befriended and saved, seemingly offering himself up to the winds of the dessert in penance for allowing his wife and child to die. He always does the right thing in the end, sometimes against his better judgment, but there’s no magic cure-all for the unhealable wound that made him Mad to begin with. Pappagallo says as much when he scolds Max. “We've all been through it in here, but we haven't given up,” he says. “We're still human beings with dignity, but you? You're out there with the garbage. You're nothing!”
The message is clear: The world may have gone to hell, but you don’t have to go with it. And Wells sees this as being more relevant today than when the film was released 35 years ago.
“I’m not being sarcastic,” he said. “If you take a look at where we are and what that film portrays, you know, we’ve got two choices. We change who we are and what we’re doing, or we get f#@ked.”
The cast of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn
*A note on the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn: This was my first visit to the new theater, and it certainly is a huge win for New York-based movie fans. The Alamo Drafthouse chain is well known for its great programming (not to mention its food and, most importantly, drink service during screenings), but the Brooklyn location’s wax museum in its downstairs bar is unforgettably mood-setting.
Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.
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