Sunday, April 25, 2010

Watch The Road Warrior

By Alisha Arnold

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 many movies that work so well as action movies while being one of those films you might consider to be one of the greatest ever made. However, the film is just so incredibly strong on so many levels that you have to recognize how good it is as a film regardless of whether or not you're usually a big fan of action flicks.

If you haven't seen it, and somehow have no idea what it's about: Mad Max Rockatansky is a former cop wandering a wasted outback in Australia. Food and water have become scarce after World War III, as has gasoline. Max is trying to find enough resources just to keep himself alive from day to day as he wanders across the wasteland.

Eventually he must come to terms with his own humanity or lack thereof. Throughout the previous film, the first Mad Max, Max lost touch with his own humanity in the pursuit of vengeance. Now he must reaffirm himself as human, as a member of society, or... What's left of it, anyways.

The movie is essentially one long chase scene, stopping here and there just long enough to give us a breather and some more character and story development. Of course, the majority of character and story is developed through the action, which is how it's supposed to be. Too often, action is only thrown in to get in the way of the story and put the viewer's brain on pause. Here, the action IS the story, just as it was in the days of the old westerns.

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.

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.

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