Mel Gibson In The Road Warrior

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 aren’t a lot of movies that work so well on so many levels, much less action films, which are typically used just to turn over a quick and easy profit at the box office. The movie is just, very, very strong on all possible levels. It’s exciting, fun and has some moments of great humor, drama and humanity.

You know all about the movie, but it’s worth a recap: The film takes place in a post apocalyptic Australian Outback where gas and water are both scarce. Mel Gibson plays Mad Max Rockatansky. He was a cop before the world fell apart, and now simply drifts from here to there, hoping to collect enough gas, food and water to stay alive from day to day.

Throughout his trials in the previous film, Max became just as much of a ruthless beast as the criminals he’d been chasing. Here, he’s offered a chance at redemption, at becoming a part of society, or what is left of it, once more.

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.

The movie is really all about the nature of heroism. It gets into the Joseph Campbellian concepts of mythology and comes out with a legendary story that many Australians consider “The Australian Star Wars” in terms of cultural importance. It is, of course, one of the national treasures of the Australian cinema, and one of the most successful films ever to come from that country.

It will likely go down as one of the great westerns and western influenced films. It should stand alongside Stagecoach in that regard, in that it really is just great action and physical heroism from beginning to end.

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.

Yes I intentionally skipped over the “George Lazenby Era. Movies On Line The film received four Academy Award nominations. It is now possible to watch satellite TV on your PC or laptop.