Wasteland of the soul: A Mad Max 2 overview
I’m just here for the gasoline.
By Tiger Joseph
For directorethos.wordpress.com
The 1980’s ushered in an era of famous motion picture productions. One which is frequently forgotten is Mad Max 2, George Miller’s post-apocalyptic neo-western. Considered the best of the quadrilogy by many, Mad Max 2 is a special film. The unique australian desert aesthetic coupled with the memorable characters and thrilling action sequences push the film into the pantheon of best action films.
Characters of the wasteland
Mad Max 2’s success as an action movie lies with its great characterization. Every main and supporting character has a distinct personality shown through not only dialogue, but body language and excellent costume design from Norma Moriceau.
Max Rockatansky
The title character, “Mad” Max Rockatansky is, in the narrator’s words “ a burnt out shell of a man” after the death of his wife and child at the hands (or tires) of a vicious motorcycle gang. Max wanders the wasteland, blazing the asphalt in his Pursuit Special alongside his highly obedient Australian Shepherd.
Wearing the black leather of the Humongous gang yet never falling to their level of treachery, Max walks the thematic line between order and chaos. A pure pragmatist, Max exploits, negotiates and rescues people for the sole purpose of getting the most valuable commodity in the wasteland, gasoline. He displays little positive emotion throughout the story, with the hints of a smile appearing only in two occasions. Stoic in the face of death, this trait gives the audience some grounding in a world built on violence and bloodshed. Selfish but not hostile, the quintessential survivor of the wasteland.
The Gyro Captain
The Gyro Captain is the antithesis of Max Rockatansky. Played by the excessively lanky Bruce Spence, Gyro is the main source of the comic relief in the film, sporting yellow tights and pink slippers. A goofy source of comic relief, he knows the landscape well and is quite proficient at soaring through the air in his gyrocopter. Funnily enough, he is exploited by Max for the first half of the film While Max prefers direct, forceful action, the Gyro captain is shown to be crafty and set traps. He is shown to be fond of women in a way Max is not, demonstrating a liking to what can be assumed to be the mother of the Feral Kid. Countering Max’s innate desire to be alone, the Gyro Captain welcomes the popularity of the group dynamic encountered at the refinery. Even their choice of eating utensils show the difference in character, with Max wielding a shiny fork while the Gyro Captain wields a homely wooden spoon.
The Feral Kid
Emil Minty’s performance as the Feral Kid is one of the best performances a child actor has given in cinema history, thanks to the script. The boy has no written dialogue, rather he communicates through grunts and snarls, which makes his facial and bodily expressions act as the main form of conveyance. Wielding a boomerang which can pierce through a skull, donning animal pelts for clothes, the Feral Kid is more beast than man. He is somewhat of a physical manifestation of the “lost boy” motif, a boy without a father figure. He has no one to civilize him, to give him purpose. (and no civilization to adapt to). That is, until Max comes along. The boy takes an immediate interest to Rockatansky, and increasingly becomes attached to the wanderer. The Feral Kid also serves another important role, for his future self acts as the films narrator.
Wez
While not the leader of the gang, I would consider Wez the main antagonist, as he directly affects Max’s character arc in this story more than Humongous ever does. Wez is a fanatic, sadomaschoist who carries a vendetta with Max throughout the film. Wez serves as an example for what Max himself could turn into if he submits to his more feral, evil instincts. Capable of performing incredible feats of athleticism, Wez is a physically imposing enemy to the tribe. This intimidating physical strength coupled with his pleasure from pain makes him a terrifying villain, moreso than anyone in Fury Road.
Narrative structure
The film begins with a somber, quite beautiful montage of historical footage coupled a voiceover from an elderly Feral Kid. He explains in vague terms the history of the societal collapse along with back story of Max Rockatansky.
Immediately following this rather heartfelt montage, we are shot through the blower of the V8 Interceptor and thrown straight into the first action sequence. On the run from the deranged biker Wez and two other cars, Max slaloms through rubble while Wez’s gang attempts to pierce him with arrows. Maneuvering tactfully,Wez is the one to be shot by the arrow, while the two vehicles in pursuit are totaled. Stopping near the wreck, Max and his shepard exit the vehicle to gather gasoline and checks the nearby Mack rig, encountering multiple bodies. Wez drives back towards Max, yells a bloodcurdling scream then proceeds to slowly pull the arrow out of his arm. Accelerating towards the Mack rig, Max pulls out his trusty double barrel shotgun, which forces the savage to turn heel with a wheelie.
After driving around, Max finds a seemingly abandoned gyrocopter, with a snake wrapped around it. He duels the snake and grabs it by the neck. An archetypal microcosm at play. Suddenly, the Gyro Captain bursts from the sand, with his crossbow pointed at Max. The gaunt figure commands Max to give up his fuel. Max abides, but when the Gyro goes for the door of the car, out bursts the dog. Max threatens to kill the subdued man, who offers a pleading token of information: There is a massive oil refinery twenty miles away. Max, dog and the Gyro (with Max’s shotgun to his head no less) drive to a hill roughly a mile away. Max and crew set up a small camp while they watch Humongous’ men lay siege unsuccessfully onto the oil refinery, defended by another tribe. WHile in the observation post, he ties the Gyro Captain to a hunk of loose, dry wood. The next day, a few of the defenders try to leave by car, but are quickly attacked by the Humongous gang. Max drives to the scene of the attack and makes a deal with one of the mortally wounded survivors: he will return him to the compound for a tank of gasoline.
Max delivers the man to the compound, who dies of his wounds shortly after arrival. The tribe does not honor the deal, and is close to killing Max, when Humongous’ gang returns to the plains in front of the compound with two prisoners from the attack earlier in the film. Humongous tells them to leave the refinery and he will spare their lives. Suddenly, out of a hole on the ground, The Feral Kid throws his boomerang at Wez, which misses and kills his slave lover. The leader of the refinery, Pappagallo, says they will not accept the deal. This causes the denizens of compound to lay down their weapons and begin arguing amongst one another about what to do with the tanker of gasoline. Max whistles, a hot knife through the chaos. Queue the famous line that sets off the plot:
“Two days ago I saw a vehicle that could haul that tanker. You wanna get outta here? You talk to me.”
After negotiations with Pappagallo, the two reach a deal: Max brings back the tanker, he gets his gasoline. Max and dog takes off on foot during a deep night with multiple gas cans to fill up the tanker. Close to the Humongous’ camp, Max takes a fall and alerts a gang member. Fortunately, the Feral Kid saves him by howling like a wolf. Max continues on, reaching the Gyro Captain slavishly dragging the stump of wood through the sand. They free him and hitch a ride on the gyrocopter to the Mack rig.
Now in the driver’s seat, Max plows the massive rig through the open desert, straight through Humongous’ camp. Part of the gang follows and Wez boards the truck and bursts his arm through the glass, attempting to grab Max through the window. Disregarding the insane man on his shoulder, Max plows the rig into the refinery. Surrounded, Wez demonstrates skillful acrobatics to get out of the walls. In the aftermath, with the damaged Mack truck in the mechanic bay, they ask Max to come with them. True to character, he declines, gets his petrol and speeds off in the V8.
While driving off in the early morning, he alerts the gang. Wez and speeds off in a nitrous oxide boosted truck and breaks Max’s windshield with a truck exhaust pipe, causing Max to tumble and crash down a canyon. The gang scouts the crash site and kills Max’s dog and nearly the heavily wounded Max himself but fail to realize the car is rigged to blow if the gas is siphoned. Max’s Interceptor exits the film in a fireball. At the refinery, the Gyro sees the explosion and proceeds to save his former captor.
Max wakes up in a small medical van in the compound. The tribe is outside discussing the escape plan. He hobbles up, using the Feral Kid as a crutch and offers to drive the tanker, for no pay. Pappagallo accepts. Roaring out of the compound in the now-fully armored tanker with the Feral Kid hanging on to the back of the cab along with three settlers in armed positions and the Gyro Captain in air support, Max bursts straight through Humongous’ line, and the chase begins. Intercut with the tanker pursuit, a few stragglers of the Humongous gang enter the refinery, only to be eviscerated as the rigged compound blows up with a tremendous explosion. Back on the road, the three defenders are killed, leaving Max and the Feral Kid. The incredible action sequence ends with the chaos reaching the peak. With Wez on the front of the truck, Max collides head on with Humongous, killing both of the marauders and causing the truck to capsize onto the side of the road.
In the aftermath, Max rescues the Feral Kid from the wreckage. He looks down and notices the valve on the tanker in spewing out sand, not oil. He was unknowingly playing the part of a distraction to ward away the marauders while Pappagallo’s tribe escaped to the Paradise they longed for.
As an epilogue, the narrator wraps up the story: the Gyro Captain became the leader of the tribe, followed by the Feral Kid himself.
Max was never seen again.
Aesthetics and technicalities of the wasteland
Mad Max 2 is a film whose aesthetic can never be achieved again. With a measly 4.5 million dollar budget, director George Miller crafts a work of art which feels many times bigger than it actually is. There is a certain grit which came from those twelve weeks of shooting in 1981 that
The World
Like Max, the world is spiritually bankrupt. Orange mud, sand, dry brush and grey rocks supplement the chaos happening in and on top of it. Unlike the recent Fury Road, there are no sweeping dunes, no massive citadels for dictators hoarding water and no heavy orange tint. Thematically, the different areas of the world work well. The first stretch of road with the tanker and crashed vehicles serves as a microcosmic example for the rest of the land as a whole. The refinery is in a large valley overlooked by rocky hills. Max and his Interceptor kick up blood red sand as the pair tumbles into a small canyon.
Colors and Lighting
Unlike Fury Road, the films colors are muted and even slightly diluted. The lack of contrast heightens the realism to a great degree by giving the film a “ruined future” look. During action sequences, the sun is always at angle to give full light, Miller even breaks continuity multiple times for the lighting to be dramatically effective. Interestingly, Miller opts for real night shooting rather than the popular day for night shooting. Although it is hard to watch as a viewer, this sheer lack of light gives the night scenes an especially eerie mood. Something waiting to kill you could be mere footsteps away, and you would never know. After the first scene, the sunset contributes to a gorgeous shot when Max speeds off into the wasteland.
Music
Brian May’s score is underrated in the grand scheme of action movie film scores. From the opening scene until the end of the film, a bombastic musical adventure is pathed out ahead for Max and crew. More refined than May’s score for the previous film, it shows a clear improvement in melodic beauty. I very much enjoyed how in certain scenes, the score took time to emphasize of sound effects, such as when Max punches Pappagallo, a high riff plays when the Road Warrior strikes. The “End Title” of the film is my favorite piece. It gives one the feeling of what embodying the empty, exploited soul of Max Rockatansky would feel like.
Props, set pieces and costumes
The most notable aspect of the visuals in Mad Max 2 are the physical objects the characters use in the film. The costume design headed by Norma Moriceau created an indelible aesthetic highly unique to the film. The black leather clad bikers don mowhawks and BDSM spikes lending to an aura of insane wickedness. On the contrasting side, the defenders of the refinery are dressed in whites, yellows and light brown soft robes and shemaghs. This contrast speaks to the characters in play, a classic good vs. bad, order vs chaos color schema.
Along with the clothing, the semiotics of the vehicles reflect the nature of the driver. Max’s V8 Interceptor is the same car from the first film, though a few modifications have been made for easier traversion through the wasteland. The underskirt has been removed and 2 massive gas reserves have been added to the rear of the car. Inside, it has been gutted for storage, as this car acts as a humble abode for The Road Warrior. Lord Humongous drives a six wheel, nitrous oxide boosted truck with two attached poles for strapping prisoners to. Impractical but intimidating as all hell.
Violence and Wounds
Mad Max 2’s violence was directed to be appalling, not appealing. Miller’s decision to write the script with a majority of the weapons being crossbows rather than guns is an example of this. In a sense, the psychological impact of arrow piercing the skin is greater than a bullet wound. The arrow’s physical presence in the body along along with the implied, strenuous procedure of removal. Other than the use of arrows, there is numerous instances of distinctive brutality. People are pulled under tires of moving trucks, smashed into and crushed by cars, incinerated by explosions and impaled by sharpened boomerangs.
One subtle detail I appreciated was the wounds Max receives and how they stay visible through the course of the film. Max sustains three waves of injury in the film. The first being a bruise on his neck from the grip of Wez when he initially drives the tanker. When Wez destroys Max’s car, our protagonist sustains whole body damage and can only see out of one eye. In the final truck chase, Max has a bear claw in his shoulder from a gang member for nearly two thirds of the truck chase at the films climax. I appreciate how Miller physically keeps the wounds present and has the hero sustain more and more damage through the film. By making the damage sustained be visually debilitating, Miller sends a message that violence is a brutal, horrifying act.
Cinematography and Editing
For a film where the action sequences are mostly between cars moving at high speeds, the cinematography needs to be precise, clear and able to capture as much action in one shot as it can. Fortunately, Miller chose to use the skills of Dean Semler, who went on to do the cinematography for Dances with Wolves and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. Stunts are clearly shown and the editing is quick but not choppy, rather it flows with the action well. Interestingly, when headbutts or car crashes occur, Miller will opt for an interesting trick to heighten the impact of the blow. The frame the hit occurs, the brightness will double, giving the frame a white effect imitating the stunning flash of a hit.
Final Thoughts
Being my favorite film of all time, my heavy bias reeks when I say this: Go watch this film. It is a marvel of directorial prowess and recreates a classic hero myth in a post-apocalyptic setting. One of these days, I will have to compare Mad Max 2 with the new Mad Max: Fury Road. Hopefully in that, I will keep my prejudice at bay.
Till next time.
-Tiger
Director Ethos 