Thursday, July 15, 2010

Watch The Sci-Fi Movie The Road Warrior

By Ross Salinas

The Road Warrior, known as Mad Max 2 in Australia, is, simply put, one of the all time classics. It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest action stories ever put to film and, perhaps, one of the all time great films, period. It is sort of the action film answer to Citizen Kane or Casablanca. The movie is well crafted and the story well told. Even with the breakneck pace and chaos within the story, the movie remains clear and coherent the whole way through, and is one of the all time must download movies.

There really aren't many movies out there that work so perfectly on so many levels. In the pantheon of action films, it's comparable to Robocop, and not much else. It's very strong, full of drama, action and, at times, humor and even tragedy.

You probably know everything about the movie, but it's worth a recap nevertheless: After World War III, food, water and gasoline have all become scarce. The outback of Australia has become a wasteland, overrun by ruthless gangs of warlords and thugs. Mad Max is a former cop now just trying to stay alive and find enough gas and water to get from one day to the next, to keep himself, his dog, and his car alive.

Throughout the previous film, Max lost touch with his humanity, becoming just as cruel and ruthless as the villains he pursued. This time, he needs to take a chance at redemption and at getting in touch with his humanity once more by getting involved once more with society, or what's left of it.

The movie is, really, one big chase scene. It stops here and there just long enough for the viewer to catch his or her breath. A lesser movie might have grown boring with this structure, having sacrificed story and character for chase scenes. However, The Road Warrior uses action to tell the story, to develop character. This is how the old westerns did it, and it's too bad that this structure isn't really used anymore.

In the end the movie is really a statement on heroism, delving into Joseph Campbellian mythological structure and coming up with what many Australians consider to be "Star Wars Down Under". It's certainly one of the most successful films to ever come out of that country, and is still considered a national treasure of the Australian cinema all these decades later.

The movie is, really, a classic western in a new setting. It belongs on the same shelf as Stagecoach as one of the all time great examples of how the classic John Ford and Howard Hawks westerns developed their own stories.

The movie is incredibly loud, fast paced, and full of wild, unpredictable characters and stunts. It is, depending on your perspective, perhaps one of the greatest films of all time. If not, then it's at least one of the greatest action films ever made. If, for some reason, you still haven't seen it, put on your movie downloads queue right away. - 39815

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