|
Movie Review: 'The Road Warrior'
by William Anderson
15 September 2005
But most of all, I remember The
Road Warrior. The man we called Max.
Mel Gibson has made his share of semitically correct
garbage in his long career (the "Lethal Weapon" series,
"We Were Soldiers"), but he's also made a few movies
that might be regarded as truly great. One of those
films would be "Braveheart," and another is "The Road
Warrior."
"The Road Warrior" roared onto the American scene in
1981, and quickly became, at the time, the most
popular Australian movie ever released in the United
States. Although it takes place in barren New South
Wales after the collapse of civilization, the film
conforms pretty closely to the American Western genre
format. And with its violent adrenaline-charged
action, incredible stuntwork (no digital effects) and
chase scenes involving hordes of futuristic vehicles
it quickly won a place in the hearts and video
collections of White men everywhere. Couple this with
the title character, a lone wolf White warrior
unafraid to use violence to rid the world of predatory
subhuman scum, and you have a full-blown White
nationalist classic on your hands.
Men began to feed on men
The film begins with an aged narrator telling of the
fall of civilization cause by an oil shortage and
world war. A montage of chaos and violence plays
across the screen, and we are introducted to the Road
Warrior, Max (Gibson). Max's family was brutally
murdered by a motorcycle gang just before the
collapse, and he fled the chaos after avenging their
deaths.
A few years later, a grayer Max wanders the
wastelands in the last of the V-8 Interceptors, a
"burnt-out shell of a man." Life has been reduced to
kill-or-be-killed simplicity. The world has reverted
to barbarism and "guzzolene" is the most precious
commodity in an age where mobility equals survival.
Once an elite member of the Main Force Patrol, Max is
now just a nomad battling the marauders who have
arisen to pick at the carcass of the dead world.
Max's driving concern is to scavenge enough gas to
sustain his rootless existence, and his quest for fuel
leads him to an ultralight helicopter, seemingly
abandoned. But he's soon ambushed by the ultralight's
pilot, the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), a good-natured
fellow who raises poisonous snakes. Max is more than a
match for the Captain though, and quickly turns the
tables.
Desperate to avoid a quick death, the Captain tells
Max of an unlimited supply of gas close by. A group of
survivors, perhaps the last civilized community left,
is defending a working refinery and fuel reserve, but
their compound is under siege by an army of
neo-barbarians who want the prize all to themselves.
Under the leadership of the visionary Pappagallo
(Michael Preston), the community has managed to hold
out against the marauder horde for some time, but they
are becoming fewer and fewer. Pappagallo's dream is to
escape the "vermin on machines" and travel 2,000 miles
to the coast, where they can begin a new life. The
problem is they don't have a vehicle with enough
horsepower to haul their fuel tanker all the way to
paradise. That morning, Pappagallo had dispatched a
group of scouts to locate a prime mover, but they were
quickly chased down and butchered. The community is
starting to lose faith in Pappagallo.
Max rescues a survivor of the doomed mission and
brings him back to the compound in exhange for gas.
But the man soon dies, and the suspicious community,
particularly Warrior Woman (Virginia Hey), treats him as
a criminal and chains him up. They soon forget about
Max though, because the barbarian horde, led by the
musclebound psycho Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson), is
returning. And Lord Humungus has a proposal.
The vermin have inherited the earth
Director George Miller relied heavily on archetypes
from the American West to tell his story.
Characterization is bare-bones, and many of the
characters lack names. But it's easy to understand the
drama being played out here, especially from the
vantage point of a White racist.
Pappagallo's settlers dress all in white and use
violence only to defend themselves. They harbor a
spirit of caring and Aryan community and dream of
creating something better for the generations to come.
Even after all they've been through they still have a
sense of naivete about them, though this will nearly
bring about their doom. They have encircled the
refinery with walls of old tires and rusted
automobiles in what an American would quickly
recognize as a circling of the wagons to stave off
redskin savages.
On the other side of the barricade are Lord
Humungus' marauders. These thugs are also all White,
making The Road Warrior one of those rare film
classics that will not subject its viewers to the
sight of a simian visage, but in dress and behavior
they are pure mud garbage. Most sport hairstyles that
would look right at home on a Borneo head hunter and
the way they mindlessly circle the compound on their
motorcycles, looking for a way in, recalls the actions
of Indians on horseback.
The degeneracy doesn't stop there. Their leather
bondage fetish clothing does more than hint at
homosexuality, and Max's nemesis Wez (Vernon Wells),
one of the more savage marauders, goes nigger-crazy
after his "bitch" the Golden Youth takes a razor 'rang
to the forehead and must be restrained by Humungus.
Wez couldn't put a sentece together with a blueprint,
but Humungus speaks with that pompous, exaggerated
style and stilted rhetoric so beloved of tribal
leaders like Louis Farracoon and Jesse "Babydaddy"
Jackson. It's in this style that he delivers his
ultimatum to the community: Just walk away. Humungus
tells Pappagallo's people that if they give him the
pump, the gas and the entire compound, he will spare
their lives. "Just walk away, and there will be an end
to the horror."
Words, just words
Incredibly, Humungus' proposal is taken seriously by
many in the compound, especially the women (with the
exception of Warrior Woman) and a deranged old man.
This codger wears a helmet and medals and lugs around
a Japanese katana, which leads one to believe he's
spent some time in New Guinea back in the 40s. But
it's this old fool, whom we'd think would know
something about expecting mercy from merciless
enemies, who volunteers to negotiate with Humungus,
calling him a "reasonable man." A reasonable man!? The
masked thug who's been trying to exterminate you for
God knows how long is a reasonable man? This guy is
representative of the World War II generation, and
it's easy to see why White people are in the hole
we're in.
In fact, this whole controversy is illustrative of
one of our biggest problems as a people: So many of us
want to sell out everything for the promise of mercy
from an inhuman enemy. A stubborn refusal to face
uncomfortable truths has led to the adoption in many
Whites of insane and suicidal coping mechanisms. We
project our own good nature and ideals onto those who
not only do not share them, but consider them signs of
weakness. Is this how it played out in southern
Africa? The Afrikaners and Rhodesians trusted
"reasonable" men and now live out a waking nightmare
in lands that once were theirs.
Pappagallo tries to put an end to this assfoolery,
pointing out that even if Humungus doesn't kill them
their whole reason for living, the fuel, will be gone,
and they'll be stranded thousands of miles from the
coast. He tells them the most important thing is to
defend the fuel. Pappagallo plays devil's advocate
here to make his point, but he understands the utter
stupidity of begging the loathesome Humungus for
"permission" to survive. To do that would mean the
community was already spiritually dead, with the
marauders needing only to cut them down in the open
like dogs to finish the job. Pappagallo knows there
are no such things as "rights," only power. In this
war of tribes there is room for chivalry. One is
either an aggressor or a victim.
His logic is lost on Big Rebecca, who mocks
Pappagallo's reasoning as "words, just words," proving
most women should be kept far away from leadership
positions. It's unfortunate that so many White women
turn against their men when the heat is on, and it was
this irony-free harridan who was arguing only a moment
before that Humungus should be trusted because "he
gave his word"!
The community is on the verge of rejecting
Pappagallo's vision when Max steps forward. "Two days
ago I saw a vehicle that would haul that tanker. You
want to get out of here? You talk to me."
Nothing to do but breed!
Max quickly strikes a deal with Pappagallo's people.
Early in the film he discovered an abandoned rig, and
he will bring that rig back to the compound in
exchange for all the gas he carry. When night falls he
sneaks through the marauder encampment and makes his
way to the truck with enough fuel to drive it back to
the community. Along the way he meets up again with
the Gyro Captain, and the Captain decides to fly his
helicopter into the compound.
In a daring daylight bid Max crashes right through
the barbarians' siege lines (with the Gyro Captain
dropping poisonous snakes on the thugs from his
ultralight) and drives into the compound. The
survivors are thrilled, especially a wild child called
Feral Kid (Emil Ginty), who bonds with Max. Max is
offered a place in the community and the chance to
drive the big rig during the breakout. But Max
refuses.
Max procured the prime mover only as a form of trade.
He never intended to join the community. Too
traumatized by his past to reconnect with humanity,
Max prefers his detached existence as an Outback nomad
and wishes only to return to it. Not wanting to lose a
valuable fighter, Pappagallo makes a personal appeal
to Max and offers him the one thing he hasn't got: a
future. Max again rebuffs it.
Out there with the garbage
Pappagallo loses his temper with Max. "Do you think
you're special," he demands. "We've all lost someone
in here. But we're still human beings." In rejecting
civilization Pappagallo accuses Max of being "out
there with the garbage." It's no coincidence that Max
also wears black leather, the uniform of the savages,
and here we realize the true hero of The Road Warrior
is not Max at all. It's Pappagallo.
Pappagallo is the man with the plan. While Max thinks
only of his own needs, Pappagallo is completely
devoted to the survival of his people, uncompromising
to the enemy and willing to lay down his life for the
good of the others. He is a true leader. Max may be
the "cooler" Road Warrior and Gibson's face is more
telegenic, but Pappagallo is the better man and the
kind of leader we hope to have among us when the mud
mobs are outside our walls baying for blood.
Max should be admired for his driving and fighting
skills, but at this stage of the film he cares for no
one's survival but his own. Were he not forced by
later circumstance to aid the community during the
escape attempt he would have left them in his
rear-view mirror without a second thought, content to
roam the Outback, wrestling with his personal demons.
But Max is not a hopeless case, and it is through his
involvement in the breakout that a spark of his
humanity will be rekindled. But that is yet to occur.
Disappointed, Pappagallo gives up on Max, and he's
later pressured to prevent Max's leaving or at least
keep the Interceptor. But Pappagallo doesn't. The
standards of Aryan civility win out. Pappagallo
respects Max as an "honorable man" who held up his
part of the bargain and refuses to steal Max's car
simply because he can. Pappagallo then states that he
will be driving the rig during the breakout, a task we
later learn to be practically a suicide mission.
The next day, Max races out of the compound and
attempts to get clear of the savages. He doesn't make
it very far before Wez and his thugs smash the
Interceptor and run Max off the road. When the
marauders attempt to pillage the Interceptor the
unknowingly activate a booby trap and blow themselves
and the car to bits. Wez assumes Max is dead and
leaves the wreckage, but Max is not dead. Badly
injured, he managed to crawl away before the
Interceptor blew, but he's not good for much else.
Luckily, the Gyro Captain notice the smoke and flies a
battered Max back to the compound.
I want to drive that truck
After some rack time Max staggers into the sunlight
and finds Pappagallo's people preparing to clear out.
With no options left, Max volunteers to drive the
truck. Pappagallo finally agrees and returns Max's
weapon, a pistol-sized, double-barreled shotgun. The
community take to their vehicles, grab their weapons
and form up into a convoy. And with Max behind the
wheel of the rig he starts to regain some of his lost
humanity. Now he is the protector of the defenseless
again. Max always possessed the skills to compete with
the barbarians on their level, and it will be up to
him to save the community from violent extinction at
the hands of the savages.
With Max's rig in the lead, the community's vehicles
race north, pursued by a motorized horde of
barbarians. Another group of scum drives into the
vacant compound to take possession. They whoop and
celebrate at their good fortune, just as a booby trap
trips off and vaporizes the entire compound, marauders
and all. Par-tay!
Pappagallo's scorched earth policy doesn't remove the
marauders in hot pursuit of the convoy though, and
soon they are swarming over Max's rig like roaches.
But they don't call Max "the Road Warrior" for
nothing, and the thugs find that out the hard way as
Max ruthlessly fights off their attempts to bring him
down.
Men like Pappagallo are essential to get a plan in
motion, but we need Mad Maxes, too. Hard men who,
regardless of motivation, are prepared to shoot,
bludgeon, stab or drive over any predatory scum that
stands in the way of our survival. The problem
Pappagallo and his people always faced is that they
were in over their heads, outclassed by the
barbarians. With Max on their side they stand a real
chance.
As Max blazes the way for the convoy he returns once
again to what he was as a policeman: a protector of
the innocent. In a strange way he even becomes
something of a surrogate father to the Feral Kid, whom
we learn is none other than the narrator himself,
grown to manhood, and now the chief of the "Great
Northern Tribe." In this way we learn that
Pappagallo's dream became real, and Max attains a
sliver of redemption by helping to ensure the survival
of civilization.
But Max chooses not to join the community. He
understands that too much of him has died in the war
for survival, and there can be no place for him in a
civilized setting. Max is left alone on the highway,
watching the convoy vanish into the distance, the lone
gunslinger who found a little peace in a lifetime of
pain.
In its final haunting images The Road Warrior hurtles
over movie convention to become a kind of modern myth,
and Max himself attains the status of a legenday hero.
In these semitically correct times it just doesn't get
much better than this. Check out this timeless Aryan
epic if you get a chance, and let Max do the driving.
WILLIAM ANDERSON
|