ROAD WARRIOR, THE - HD DVD review

Mel Gibson roared onto the movie screen big time in "Mad Max" (1979) and then cemented his star with "Gallipoli" (1981), "Mad Max 2," aka "The Road Warrior" (1982), and "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982). The "Lethal Weapon" series wouldn't begin until 1987, by which time he was a certified big timer.

I asked in my review of "Mad Max" some years ago, What was Max so mad about? I said, "It couldn't be the $100,000,000 this 1979, independent Australian action film earned worldwide or the Australian Film Festival Awards it garnered. It couldn't be the two successful sequels it spawned, "The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." Maybe it was the measly $15,000 Mel Gibson got for starring in this breakout picture." You can bet Gibson got paid more than fifteen grand for doing "The Road Warrior."

In any case, "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior" come down to us today as among the most original and visionary postapocalyptic adventure movies ever made, with "The Road Warrior" outdoing every stunt in the previous film. Which, of course, along with its popularity makes this sequel a perfect candidate for high-definition picture and sound.

If you recall from "Mad Max," a Third World War had pretty much devastated the world, leaving things in ruin, with no governments, no law, and almost no oil. Only the strongest and most cunning now survived, and gangs had taken over the highways. But, as the sequel's narrator (Harold Baigent) tells us, there is hope, as the mythic character of Max Rockatansky (Gibson), the "Road Warrior," leaves the rubble of his life behind and learns to live again, saving most of civilization in the process.

Like any good action movie, and this one is quite good, "The Road Warrior" begins (after a brief prologue exposition) with a thrilling action sequence, a chase, that sets the tone for the rest of the film, which is itself essentially one long chase. The amazing thing to remember is that the filmmakers created the film years before the advent of modern CGI special effects; they did the things you see on screen the old-fashioned way--with real cars and stunt drivers--and the stunts are often spectacular.

As he did with its predecessor, director George Miller made "The Road Warrior" on location in the Australian outback, where the characters in the movie live in the wasteland, half of them trying to maintain some semblance of order, the other half living like animals. The movie's punk hairdos and dark leather clothing set the fashion for postapocalyptic motion pictures to this day.

Gasoline is gold. Whoever's got it is rich. Whoever's got it is also in danger of not having it long, because everybody else wants it. The plot centers on a group of folks barricaded in a oil rig in the middle of the desert with a tanker of gasoline they can't move, surrounded by a gang of terrorists insisting on taking it from them. If they can just get the gasoline to a safe place, they feel they can rebuild civilization. Don't ask.

Enter Max. He doesn't care about saving Mankind. He just wants a little gasoline for his car and otherwise mind his own business. But in these kinds of hero quests, the protagonist always winds up saving the day, and so it is with Max. The movie plays out like an old-time Western, with a fort in the desert encircled by wild Indians, only in this case it's an oil compound surrounded by wild bikers and crazed motorists (say, it sounds like my old morning commute). Mel Gibson plays John Wayne.

The good guys are sweet and lovable, and the bad guys are evil incarnate--mean, vicious, savage, cruel, sadistic, and ugly. Their leader is a big, muscular fellow in a mask, Lord Humungus (Swedish weight lifter Kjell Nilsson), who looks like he's seen Carpenter's "Halloween" too many times. The rest of the cast follows suit, as everybody is a colorful character, like the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), with his miniature helicopter; the Feral Kid (eight-year-old Emil Minty), who seems to be half gopher; and Wez (Vernon Wells) and Pappagallo (Mike Preston) and the Toadie (Max Phipps) and the rest. Needless to say, the script does not flesh out any of these characters very well, yet they remain vividly in memory.

With its reluctant hero growing to legendary iconic proportions, its nonstop fights and explosions, and a final chase sequence that goes on for close to quarter of an hour, "The Road Warrior" provides everything a fan of the genre could want. Heck, it even set up the main character for a third sequel, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," which probably was extending a good idea too far. Like most series, this one reached a point of diminishing returns.

As a matter of trivia, the director and co-writer of the three "Mad Max" movies, George Miller, went on to do "Babe: Pig in the City" and "Happy Feet." Go figure.

Video:
The Warner Bros. video engineers maintain the film's original 2.40:1 aspect ratio in dimensions that measure about 2.20:1 across my screen. This would be about right for most televisions, which usually overscan by about 5-6%. When the picture makes its transition from the intentionally grainy, squarish prologue to widescreen high definition, it's actually quite thrilling. The print shows no signs of age despite its quarter-century vintage, free of fade, lines, scratches, or flecks. It's also free of grain except that which is inherent to the original film stock.

As we might expect, definition is sharp, and colors are natural and realistic, especially facial tones, which so often show up too darkly in movies. Not here; even in nighttime scenes, people look real. "The Road Warrior" doesn't have the most detailed appearance of any HD-DVD in the world, but it's close enough.

Audio:
I love high-definition audio almost as much as high-def video, and while it would have been nice to have a Dolby TrueHD track, the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 English track we get is impressive. There's a terrific front-channel stereo spread, the sounds of thundering cars and booming winds echoing palpably across the front sound stage, with the rear channels getting whatever they can find, which isn't much. Dynamics are clean, with plenty of impact, and bass is deep and taut.

Extras:
There aren't many extras on the disc, although the main one is pretty good. It's an audio commentary by director George Miller and cinematographer Dean Semler, made specifically for the movie's high-def releases. The two men chat pleasantly, sometimes not paying a lot of attention to what's happening on screen but always keeping our attention with their anecdotes and camaraderie. The other bonus is a three-minute introduction to the movie by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who appears to be WB's (and BV's) go-to guy when it comes to film intros.

Rounding out the extras are thirty-two scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen theatrical trailer, which, like Maltin's introduction, is in standard definition only; and English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles. For the HD-DVD, there are also pop-up menus, English captions for the hearing impaired, bookmarks, an indicator of elapsed time, a zoom-and-pan feature, and an Elite Red HD case.

Parting Thoughts:
Few action flicks move as fast or as relentlessly as "The Road Warrior." It's fairly compact at ninety-five minutes, and there is never a dull moment. In high definition picture and sound, it's better than ever for home viewing. A great motion picture? No, but fun stuff. Be advised, however, that the movie is rated R for extensive violence. The boomerang alone is probably worth an NC-17.