Reely Bernie Faves: The Road Warrior (1981)

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) is the antidote to the braincell-singing surplus of computer-generated imagery we see in today’s action/adventure movie. Every stunt, explosion, and facial scar is real, and the bad guy’s name is The Humungus.

It took broken limbs, an isolated production in New South Wales, Australia, and one take to roll over an 80,000-pound tanker to ignite this rustic wonder to legendary status.

Filmed in chronological order with dozens of stunt people and paramedics on set, The Road Warrior builds up to one of the most epic and dangerous chase scenes ever filmed.

Did I mention that absolutely no CGI was used in the making of this movie?

Although gasoline is the commodity of desire in this post-apocalyptic desert, Director George Miller’s movie runs on pure testosterone and an ostinato-driven score by Brian May. From my first viewing as a kid too young to my adulthood today, I appreciate every tangible/analog stroke of action-packed vision this number presents. From the mohawk hairdos to spiked shoulder pads to barbaric ferocities on wheels, the outcome is frightening, full of energy, and stripped down to the studs in technological feat.

Again, no CGI. Just machines, fuel, and guts.

I always thought of The Road Warrior as an otherworldly re-interpretation of the original Mad Max (1979); Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome (1985) was my first PG-13 movie at the movie theatre, but it kind of lost me at the second half; Fury Road (2015) cheated a bit with the supplemental CGI effects and digital matte painting, but it was one hell of a ride; and, it looks like 5th Mad Max installment (aka The Wasteland) has been recently delayed in production.

In the 80s, my middle brother and I were unhealthily obsessed with anything Mad Max, and it resulted in the naming of our two cats, “Max” and “Helicopter Man” (after the “Gyro Captain” without a name). It took quite a lot of explaining whenever people asked us what our cats’ names were. I recall my dad fake-yelling, “The gaaaaaaate! We go in! We go in!”

At a bare-bones, primitive-cinematic level, The Road Warrior is not only the superior of the series but my favorite action/adventure in general. To go even further, I think the chase scene in the end matches up to anything Bullitt (1968), The French Connection (1971), or Vanishing Point (1971).

Before virtual cinematography and computer simulation took off in the 90s, you had body-sacrificing stunts, pyrotechnics, bizarro costumes, insane, nitrous-boosted vehicles, and the record button. This technically minimalistic but primally executed action/adventure novelty earns its place in my Top Ten.

Reely Bernie Faves:

1. Amadeus (1984)

2. Magnolia (1999)

3. Poltergeist (1982)

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

5. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

6. The Godfather Part II (1974)

7. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

9. Goodfellas (1990)

10. Nosferatu (1922)

11. Pollock (2000)

12. Kicking and Screaming (1995)

13. Jaws (1975)

14. Fargo (1996)

15. Citizen Kane (1941)

16. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

17. The Endless Summer (1966)

18. Back to the Future (1985)

19. Angel Heart (1987)

20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

21. The Goonies (1985)

22. Trainspotting (1996)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

25. Bambi (1942)

26. The Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996-2011)

27. Psycho (1960)

28. Parenthood (1989)

29. Swingers (1996)

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

32. Smoke (1995)

33. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

34. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

35. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

36. City of God (2002)

37. 1917 (2019)

38. Black Swan (2010)

39. School of Rock (2003)

40. Mulholland Drive (2001)

41. Groundhog Day (1993)

42. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

43. The Greatest Showman (2017)

44. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

45. The Florida Project (2017)

46. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

47. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

48. Shadowlands (1993)

49. Steve Jobs (2015)

50. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)