Saturday, August 28, 2010

Mel Gibson In Mad Max Two: Review

By Estela Todd

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.

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.

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 really just one big chase scene, only stopping here and there just long enough to give the audience a moment to catch their breath. While a lesser movie might have been made boring by all this action, in The Road Warrior, the action and the story are one and the same. Character and plot are both developed through action, not like the modern action flick where the fights and chases only get in the way of the story.

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.

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. - 40725

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