As Mel Gibson kicks his Hollywood career off again he has been circling his old projects for a possible sequel and the front-runners are Lethal Weapon and Mad Max. I am pulling for Mad Max because I really want them to make a special edition for The Road Warrior and I think that is my best chance to get one. The Road Warrior, alongside Aliens, The Evil Dead 2, Spider-Man 2 and Terminator 2, is one of the few sequels that rise above the first feature and takes the series in a new direction. With the Road Warrior we get the best post-apocalyptic film of all time with one of the greatest action sequences to be captured on film in the epic car battle. Ultimately, whether or not Mel Gibson dusts off the leather pants and sawed-off shotgun we need a stacked DVD and these are a few things I want to see on it.
Madder Max – The first film is excellent, but is a slower, more developed film with little action and a few tender scenes between Max and his family. In the sequel we get a genre jump and Max sheds his kindness as he channels Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) loner character. We should hear from George Miller, the writer/director, on his drive to recreate the series into an action extravaganza and take the film to the next level.
The Epic Car Chase Examined – The finale car battle is one of the greatest action sequences in movie history, and one that was recreated a million times with my G.I.Joes as a youth (The Dreadnoks were made for Mad Max ripoffs). We should get some behind the scenes looks at how the scene came together especially since it was filmed with real stunt driving. And you should send the scene to Paul Greengrass (the Bourne movies) so he can see how great action can look if you hold a shot for more than a half a second.
The WARdrobe – You will seldom hear me talking about the outfits in a movie, but the post-apocalyptic war outfits made all of the characters larger than life. Who doesn’t want a set of shoulder pads with dangerous and unnecessary spikes? And who doesn’t dream of the coming Apocalypse so we can rip off our sleeves and strap a foot long knife to our hips. If my power goes out in a storm I run and put on leather pants and strap on my Rambo 2 knife just in case things go badly and I have to fight for gasoline.
I usually fight for a Commentary and I would love to see George Miller get into the booth with either Mel Gibson (highly unlikely) or Bruce Spence, the crazy gyro pilot (much more likely). Since Mr. Spence was featured in both sequels and is generally an interesting guy I think his inclusion would be a delightful addition.
Ugh. Writing this and then looking over at my faded VHS tape has made me disgusted so I am pleading with Warner Bros. to do the right thing and release a Deluxe Edition.
