Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 4K 1981

A catastrophe worse than a nuclear war has befallen our civilization. A terrible energy crisis paralyzed the cities, the communication routes - in a word, everything. Now they fight for fuel by any means. Because where there is gasoline, there is life ... The lone driver Max just plows the wastelands of distant Australia in search of fuel. Abandoned dwellings, cars, various belongings are everywhere. Finally, Max finds a settlement, turned into a fortified camp with fuel depots. Emaciated, exhausted people as they can protect what belongs to them. And so, on top of all the troubles, the camp is attacked by enemies, ferocious punks and bikers led by a certain Humungus, a sadist and murderer. And then Max enters the fray ...

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Not so much time has passed since the time of "Mad Max", but the first and second parts are separated by a huge abyss. The world as we know it has ceased to exist. A catastrophe worse than a nuclear one wiped out almost all life on our planet. Only a handful of survivors remained, degraded to the level of primitive society, dressed in BDSM suits and holding their sex slaves in chains. Max from a respectable police officer who believed in his business and the rule of law turned into a lonely wanderer who only cares about himself and his well-being: he does not care about the others exactly until they can offer him something valuable and useful.

Not only has the world and the hero changed, but the genre of the film has also undergone an evolution: from a police action and a revenge movie, the Max saga has turned into a spaghetti western and samurai movie. There are not so many dialogues, the main character practically does not speak, preferring action to words. In addition, the director brought in an element of myth, legend, where Max undergoes an obligatory rebirth from an egoist to practically Jesus Christ, giving hope and faith to a new generation of the inhabitants of the Earth.

George Miller took the utopian and pessimistic ideas of the first film even further. If in the first part there was a threat of human degradation due to the oil crisis, then in the second film this idea received a very original and unexpected continuation. Think about it - what is most appreciated by absolutely all the characters in the film? The answer is obvious - gasoline. A product that in their world is an item of extraordinary luxury. Gasoline is equal to gold. If you have it, then you have tremendous power. But at the same time, you are in great danger, tk. there are hundreds of envious people who are ready to kill without delay for such a value. But why do we need gasoline? Max needs him because he loves to drive his Interceptor. All sorts of gopniks and freaks need him, because they also like to drive around in their cars and shoot civilians pensive author]. A group in white robes, a kind of hippie of its time, it is necessary for the revival of civilization. But this is exactly where the great irony and at the same time the author's mockery lies - in a ruined world, even hippies are part of the oil industry!

One of the factors that made the film history will be, without a doubt, the final fifteen-minute chase, where Max in a huge truck will get away from three dozen different vehicles. It is for this scene that all novice action directors should wake up and go to bed, because for ridiculous by modern standards, George Miller created, if not a standard, then something very close to the concept of an ideal car chase. No CGI. Real cars. Real stunts at top speed. And most importantly, no camera shake. The director very competently combines panoramic shots with close-ups and mediums. We always know where a particular car is. We see the entire scale of the scene. We never have questions like "what the hell is going on there?" or "what is this, and where did it come from?" Pure adrenaline. The purest action game.

Mad Max has had a huge impact on Australian cinema, proving that films from the homeland of the kangaroo can be competitive in the global market and bring their creators a lot of profit. But the second part made a disproportionate contribution to the development of the whole genre of science fiction, laying the foundations for what post-apocalyptic action should be, and setting a still unattainable bar for the quality of films on this topic.

See next part: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 4K 1985

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (59.6 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Czech: Dolby Digital 1.0
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 1.0
Polish: Dolby Digital 1.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 1.0

Subtitles
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Japanese.