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Post by Mitchell on Apr 21, 2012 22:00:01 GMT -5
i love you, mitchell, but your clip is dumb. it seems to be redubbed in american accents for some reason? apparently you can't get it in the original australian language version, so you should watch it in german. When Mad Max was first brought over to the US it was all overdubbed in American accents. The studio (thanks American International) thought us imbeciles couldn't handle Aussie accents. It wasn't until a few years ago I actually ran across "restored" editions that have the original voices. My VHS and my original DVD all have the American overdubs. Dumb? Yes And I disagree that The Road Warrior was a superior film. For my money, Mad Max is better. . .it's isn't as fantastical as its sequels, and Max isn't such a caricature. Your mileage may vary Plisskin, thanks for the reco re: Bana and his Falcon. I'm going to check that out.
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Post by BJ on Apr 22, 2012 15:01:17 GMT -5
I guess a title would be helpful. It's called Love the Beast.
Also, a warning before you check it out: Bana consults with both Jay Leno and Dr. Phil McGraw for short segments during the film, presumably to give it some Hollywood flavor. While I think McGraw is an idiot, he didn't really do anything to bother me here. And fortunately, Jay Leno the gear head is very different from Jay Leno the late night host.
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Post by TheNewMads on Apr 22, 2012 16:03:03 GMT -5
i love you, mitchell, but your clip is dumb. it seems to be redubbed in american accents for some reason? apparently you can't get it in the original australian language version, so you should watch it in german. When Mad Max was first brought over to the US it was all overdubbed in American accents. The studio (thanks American International) thought us imbeciles couldn't handle Aussie accents. It wasn't until a few years ago I actually ran across "restored" editions that have the original voices. My VHS and my original DVD all have the American overdubs. Dumb? Yes And I disagree that The Road Warrior was a superior film. For my money, Mad Max is better. . .it's isn't as fantastical as its sequels, and Max isn't such a caricature. Your mileage may vary Plisskin, thanks for the reco re: Bana and his Falcon. I'm going to check that out. huh, i wonder if i might have watched it at some point with american accents and not even noticed. i agree that mad max is better. not only did it make a greater virtue out of a lesser budget, but the whole mood of it, world half in, half out of collapse, is subtly handled. and the car chases! part of the point of a really good car chase is there are civilians all over the place at risk of getting killed. road warrior set itself in postapocalyptic desert at least in part, i think, to give the stunt drivers and choreographers more space to work in, but in the tradeoff its action scenes lose a lot of dramatic power.
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Post by TheNewMads on Apr 23, 2012 8:06:18 GMT -5
in other words, unless toddlers are run down in the street like frightened does, i can't be bothered.
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Post by BJ on Apr 23, 2012 13:34:18 GMT -5
^But you just said you like Vanishing Point, which has none of that. Other than the scene where he's avoiding road construction, it's basically just Kowalski and the cops on the highway. On those open western highways, you could easily do 120 and only put yourself in danger.
I never thought I'd hear car chase fans complaining about the tanker chase in Road Warrior. It's like I've entered bizarro world.
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Post by TheNewMads on Apr 23, 2012 14:08:33 GMT -5
that's true, vanishing point is awesome for other reasons, the whole political subtext, the way Kowalski is developed as a character, it's more like a battle of wills between kowalski and the cops, and with the radio announcer guy it becomes this whole stand-in for Rebel v. Establishment, etc. So i still think the car chases still have dramatic impact, it's just done differently.
in your defense, i've seen so many crap knockoffs of Road Warrior (e.g., "Warrior of the Lost World") that i can't take the hockey masks and mohawks seriously. then again i'm not sure i ever did. Mad Max had a gritty verite thing going that I thought Road warrior chucked right out the window.
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Post by BJ on Apr 23, 2012 15:02:33 GMT -5
I can see that. Miller was really going for the gay biker bar vibe in Road Warrior, with a lot of cancer thrown in the mix as well. It's definitely not a normal film. I just find that it's more interesting than Mad Max, especially the other characters. The feral kid, the gyro captain, the warrior woman, and Humungus all grab my attention, but I can barely remember Mad Max. It's so slow to develop, it almost feels like an intro to Road Warrior.
I've only seen it once though, and it wasn't recently. I'll have to give it another shot and see what I think.
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Post by Mitchell on Apr 23, 2012 18:16:53 GMT -5
I just find that it's more interesting than Mad Max, especially the other characters. The feral kid, the gyro captain, the warrior woman, and Humungus all grab my attention, but I can barely remember Mad Max. It's so slow to develop, it almost feels like an intro to Road Warrior. Part of the reason I'm not as crazy about the Road Warrior is the supporting characters. The Feral Kid is interesting, but the others are too disconnected (i.e., how does the warrior woman keep her clothes so white?), and Humungous seems like a cartoon to me. I do think, though, that the family-oriented scenes in Mad Max tend to slow the movie down a bit. I know they're meant to show how Max ends up the way he does. but they're ham-handed. The bottom line to me is that Mad Max is based in enough reality to connect to me where the Road Warrior is just across the line; I'm not one for sword-and-sandal or other fantasy type films. I will say, though, for the Road Warrior, the tanker chase is really cool, though, and the twist at the end was well done.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Apr 23, 2012 19:39:25 GMT -5
I like 'em both, but prefer Road Warrior, I like that it's a sadomasochistic cartoon, it's operatic in a way and I find that appealing. I don't find the family, humanizing stuff ham-handed in the least. They don't over do it, there's just enough to keep it grounded and add some emotional weight to the piece.
As a whole it's a tighter production. The edits, the composition and staging/choreography of the action is a thing of beauty.
The baddie in Max was broad as well, but you definitely see a progression in the theatrics of it, from the 1st to the 2nd and ultimately the 3rd, which does tip the scales into the over-absurd, even for me.
So I liked the first two - and the original has improved now that we can watch it without the bad dubbing.
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Post by Frameous on Apr 23, 2012 19:45:34 GMT -5
(i.e., how does the warrior woman keep her clothes so white?) While I can't take credit for noticing this, the costumes speak volumes about the characters. All the civilized people dress in gauzy whites, the animalistic baddies wear menacing leathers (hides) with mohawks and feathers. The villains also tend to cover their faces, further masking their human characteristics. Another detail I've read about that went over my head is that the tanker has graffiti on it stating "The scum have inherited the earth", with the word "earth" on the tanker's door. This door is later ripped off by Wez in the final battle. This beautifully illustrates the conflict of the entire film, as well as Max's inner struggle to rejoin society, or become one of the scavengers. There are a myriad of details such as these peppered throughout Road Warrior, coupled with more elaborate stunts and camerawork. These are the reason I find it stands head and shoulders above Mad Max or Thunderdome.
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Post by TheNewMads on Apr 24, 2012 7:03:42 GMT -5
also, and it's strange for me to say this since they're the same franchise, but "mad max" and "road warrior" are so different it's almost pointless to compare them. they're really different genres, i think.
frameous's observations are interesting though. i'ma watch road warrior again, i haven't seen it in years and years.
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Post by mauto on Apr 24, 2012 10:41:34 GMT -5
A little late to the party but I couldn't resist joining in. I recognized the car right away as I've seen both Mad Max and The Road Warrior multiple times.
I enjoy each of these films for different reasons, but mostly for the chase scenes.
I'm going to have to dust off my copies and give them another whirl (including Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry).
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Post by BJ on Apr 24, 2012 12:26:00 GMT -5
This beautifully illustrates the conflict of the entire film, as well as Max's inner struggle to rejoin society, or become one of the scavengers. This is something I love about Road Warrior as well. By the end, Max has been shown the door by civilization, but he's not a savage either. The civilized world needs guys like him in order to survive, but once the stranger has served his gun slinging purpose, he has to leave. It's the classic Shane scenario, but with car chases and guys dressed like Raiders fans.
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Post by TheNewMads on Apr 28, 2012 8:11:07 GMT -5
so i watched it last night. it's a good movie (the mad max movies didn't start sucking until Beyond Thunderdome), but I still liked Mad Max better. One really bad thing: they undercranked the camera in a couple parts! (As in, shot fewer frames per second so the action goes by faster.) It looks very fake and is a big no-no in retro action movies.
I'd waited long enough that i'd totally forgotten the surprise ending, so that was fun. I felt the movie owed too much to Star Wars (Max's conflict is very Han Solo-y, and the ragtag band of nomads he fell in with reminded me a lot of the rebels), and Raiders of the Lost Ark: The whole last chase with the tanker truck was pretty derivative of the long truck fight in Raiders, with all the climbing through windows, falling out onto the hood, etc.
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Post by BJ on Apr 29, 2012 23:43:37 GMT -5
The whole last chase with the tanker truck was pretty derivative of the long truck fight in Raiders, with all the climbing through windows, falling out onto the hood, etc. That scene was filmed in July of '81, a month before Raiders was released in Australia.
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