To those who weren’t around back then, there was a time in the pre-internet stone age when movies “snuck up” on you and suddenly there they were, released to movie theaters in all their glory…movies you hadn’t heard a thing about until literally they were days if not a couple of weeks from being released.
One such film that surprised me was 1981’s Escape From New York. Never heard so much as a word about it before being floored by the movie’s poster I saw in a theater no more than a couple of weeks before its release. While I’m sure there were articles about the movie in sci-fi magazines, back then you had to actually find the magazines in bookstores -remember them?- to read about those upcoming releases.
As I said, what really got me was the poster, presented below.
Pretty neat, no?
Another such film that really surprised me and had me instantly salivating to see it came out that same year, The Road Warrior.
I don’t know if I read the Time Magazine review first (It’s the second one quoted in the above poster) or saw a TV commercial or whathaveyou, but for me 1981 proved to be all about The Road Warrior. The movie literally blew me away and kept me coming back trying to sneak into theaters to see it (It was R rated and I was still too young to go into the movie without adult accompanyment…though with one exception that didn’t stop me from seeing the film three or four times upon its original release!).
As it turned out, 1981 proved a pretty spectacular year for movie releases. You have the two mentioned above along with Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Evil Dead, An American Werewolf in London, Stripes, For Your Eyes Only (perhaps my favorite Roger Moore James Bond film), Time Bandits, Outland, The Howling, Superman II, and Scanners, among others (you can find the full list here).
What I didn’t know back then, again, thanks to the stone age pre-internet days, was that Escape From New York and The Road Warrior had a common thread: They were both intricately tied to a low budget, practically unknown 1979 film by the name of Mad Max.
Of course, The Road Warrior was a sequel to Mad Max and was known as Mad Max 2 in foreign markets. I suppose the name was changed to The Road Warrior in the U.S.A. so that American audiences didn’t stay away from the theaters thinking they’d need to see the original to “get” the sequel. Escape From New York, on the other hand, was inspired at the very least visually for director/writer John Carpenter because he had seen Mad Max and loved the “look” of the film. Word is that Kurt Russel, the star of that film, was also a big fan of Mad Max.
Getting back to The Road Warrior, I absolutely loved Mel Gibson’s stoic, almost silent presence (he utters some 17 or so lines in the entire film). I loved the cast of characters around him, from the desperate surrounded town-folks to the larger than life villains. I loved the Gyro Captain (he was never given a formal name) and I really loved -and was heartbroken- by Max’s pet dog.
And that ending…so much going on, tragedy, triumph, what looked to be complete disaster only to be revealed as…Ah, but that would be spoiling.
The years that followed gave us one more Mel Gibson starring Mad Max film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. As excited as I was to see it, it proved to be a crushing disappointment. While I can understand the desire by director/writer George Miller to go a different route and give us something “new” with regard to Mad Max and his apocalyptic world, other than the magnetic presence of Tina Turner as the villainness this film was just too removed from what made the original two films such fascinating thrill rides and, to this day, I haven’t gone back to see it from start to finish.
I may have to revisit it, to see if perhaps I’m being too harsh.
Regardless, that brings us to today, with the release of the new Mad Max film Mad Max Fury Road. Sadly, Mel Gibson isn’t involved in this new feature and that is perhaps my biggest disappointment. Granted, Mr. Gibson’s strange behaviors a few years back made him a poison pill to many potential audience goers and (I imagine) financial backers and I can’t help but wonder if that, and his age (he ain’t no spring chicken anymore), might have played a role in his not returning for this film.
Still, that’s speculation and it isn’t the first time a popular star was replaced in a popular role.
So Tom Hardy takes over the role of Mad Max (I can’t complain, I like him) and the reviews for this film have been nothing short of stellar.
While it is difficult for me to get to the theaters to see first run films (hence so many belated reviews) I fully intend to see Mad Max Fury Road on IMAX as soon as I can, preferably in the next couple of days.
Will I be transported back to the magical year of 1981, a year when The Road Warrior quite literally blew me away?
By the Gods I sure hope so.