The Road Warrior, a.k.a. Mad Max 2 (1981)

Still on a high from “Mad Max: Fury Road,” I caught George Miller’s “The Road Warrior” on TV, my first viewing in maybe two decades. Here, the world is spiraling toward the wasteland seen in “Beyond Thunderdome,” and the greatest commodity again is fuel. The only human need is to get the hell out to someplace else. Max –- still Mel Gibson, a remarkable actor of barely hidden rage –- reluctantly joins forces with a ragtag group of survivors who run a makeshift oil rig in the Outback desert, and are under attack from rampaging looters. Max drives the action here, figuratively and literally, as he takes the wheel of car and bus. The ending is too abrupt, as if money ran out, but the action is intense even if paling in comparison to the new film. That’s OK. Tech constraints. Imagine if Miller has today’s digital cameras 34 years ago. A-