Quote Originally Posted by ericl
HA, I saw this a few months ago after not having seen it since it came out when I was a kid. I laughed my ass off!! Hilarious movie.

I've never seen Road Warrior, and I don't remember the original.. Maybe I should check them out. Do I need to see the original first? I haven't watched it since i was about 10 years old.
I think The Road Warrior stands up very well on its own. You don't really need to know the back story, because the sequel is largely disconnected from the events of the first movie. And IMO, that's why it's such a great sequel, because it doesn't try to simply be a bigger, louder, and longer retread of the original.

For one thing, aside from Max, none of the other characters from the original appear in either of the sequels. In the original movie, Max was a cop trying to hold together the last pockets of civilization together in a post-apocalyptic future. In The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, all the action takes place after urban society had already collapsed, and all that's left are nomadic groups roaming the backcountry fending for themselves.

While Mad Max at its core was a classic revenge tale similar to many westerns and martial arts pics, The Road Warrior was more thematic in its vision of the future, where instead of entire nations going to war over oil or other valuable resources, you're left with these gangs killing each other so they can rob one another of a few gallons of gasoline. Add some of the best action scenes ever filmed, and you got one helluva movie.