Examining Film Openings | Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (1981)

In my opinion, it'd be silly to explore the genre of post-apocalyptic movies without first examining Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (A film I both love and hate after being forced to watch it with the male members of my family).

SOUND/NARRATION

The film starts with a gruff, Australian speaker. This immediately set the scene, and hints at where the film is being set and the tone it sets. The speaker describes a broken land in a poetic fashion and talks about a great war over gasoline that's left the land just as dry and worn as his own vocal record of it. He's also doing a common film opening style that sets the scene and informs the viewer of the events prior to the film. This ensures that they don't get confused during the movie or ask questions about facts and events that aren't being shown. This can be seen in films such as Star Wars, Hellboy and I am Legend and Judge Dredd (Generally, big budget films targeted at a male audience - and don't have time to explain or develop the plot in between action).

The score used for the film is more an ambience to enhance the narrative. It is a mixture of string influences and makes the viewer tense or melancholy.

CROSSCUTTING

Whilst the narrator is settign the scene, flashbacks are used to entertain the viewer's eye and further educate the viewer on the plot. For example, the narrator at one point speaks of "warring tribes" but is infact referring to a great war between countries over "A tank of juice" (Gasoline). The flashbacks also include information from the previous film, and build a first impression of Mad Max - telling us about the trgedy he's seen, but never giving away anything specific. This is also a subtle way of advertising the previous film.

ESTABLISHING

Again, the establishing shot is used for setting the scene. We can already infer from the shot that - in a corny way - "One man stands alone". The sky is incandescant which gives the film an other-worldly feel, but the sight of a human being grounds us with the knowledge that we are still on earth, and something is still the same.

COSTUMES/CHARACTERS

In order to balance out the spacey wastelands of Australia, alot of work has been put in costume design and what it reflects about the story and the character.

Alot of rival gangs are seen in the film, at war with one another. To stop the groups all looking identical, each little quadrant has their own theme - but they are always faceless and forboding if they are minor characters. Alot of leather, studs and metal is used which i commonly seen even in this day and age with motorbike gangs. Everything has been altercated to serve a function, even the cars and weaponry.

Mad max is the protagonist of the film. Instead of wearing light colours or something more practical for the scorching desert, he too dons himself in leather (His former police uniform, which also tells us he's still grounded with his morals, even though his clothes are torn and tattered). This tells the vewer that he too is a bit of a black knight and a gunslinger with his shotgun. Though he does bad things that we could never do, he himself is not evil like the antagonists. To show his weaknesses, he has a leg brace and is always seen with his closest companion at the star of the film: Dog, the dog.

This is Max's love interest, and generally, one of the good guys. This is also expressed in the clothes she wears which are generally white but just as heavily armored as the rest of the character's. This pretty much sums up the film as being more reliant on action than  romance.

The main villian's attire (This can be seen in the other gangs, too) are 'quirkier' and much more akin to tribal wear. Everything is worn, studded and re-used but the gang style is still identifiable in the array of piercings, the leather, and most of their hair is dyed vivid colours. The main villain in the foreground's face is completely covered, giving him the look of an executioner.

A character used as comic relief but also the brainy character - still sticks to the dishevelled rule of worn-out clothing, but with goggles and bright ill-fitting clothing, his clothing compliments his more vulnerable personality as a loner until he's taken captive by Max.