Mad
Max 2 is like 'Mad Max' but with more awesome. The apocalypse happened,
and now Max is bumming around in his car surviving off scraps and
siphoning petrol from wrecks.
This
is how I see Max. An ever wandering hero, ageless and to some extent
nameless - The Road Warrior. A sort of Hercules for the
post-apocalyptic world. Someone who never brags or tells his own
stories, but who features in the legends of others just by being
caught up in events that are bigger than himself and doing his best
to help out.
This
film finds our hero on the search for petrol (which is effectively
being worshipped at this point) when he comes across a working
nodding donkey that's had a fort constructed around it.
At
first he wants in, then he wants out alive, as he gets roped into
helping the inhabitants battle the gang sieging them.
There
are some wonderfully executed chase scenes in this film - the best in the
original trilogy, I'd say. The acting is also pretty solid, with great support
work from Bruce Spence. All of the vehicles and props are such a huge
step up from the previous film though. This is where the extra budget
went (it's more than octupled since the last film), and it helps
bring this world to life. The villains were perfect too, embodying
the classic villain traits from these sorts of things (strength,
mania and deviousness) in separate characters.
I
like that the story was told from someone else's point of view though
(as is the next one) as this continues the Mad Max mythology. The
first film was an origin story that was decidedly his own, but now
the legend of him continues from the perspective of others.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior: 76.4