"The Road Warrior": still searching for gasoline 30 years later

Today is the 30th Anniversary of one of the most seminal movies of the past century. "The Road Warrior" would go in to influence many movies that followed and became the vehicle which lifted young newcomer Mel Gibson into super stardom.

Even though the movie is technically a sequel to 1979's "Mad Max", the film is laid out in a manner that you didn't have to see the first one for it to make sense.

A perfect ramp up montage explains how humanity turned on itself as well as how ex-cop Max lost his wife and child in an instant to a highway gang. Gibson only had sixteen lines of dialogue in the entire film, and yet it was the character's outlander physicality, action coolness and subtle humor that ultimately spoke the language his character needed to speak.

Along the way, Vernon Wells became the face of unbridled violence as Lord Humongous right-hand killer while Bruce Spence provided the laugh factor as the oft kilter Gyro Pilot.

Even though this is the actual date of the release of "The Road Warrior" thirty years ago, I'm not going to screen the movie in the 10th Box....not just yet anyway. Planning to have a marathon film festival of this along with the other five movies that made '82 so memorable. Details to follow.

But in the meantime, here is the original trailer for the film. Notice the different voice used for Lord Humongous, mainly to convey the story a bit more precisely to audiences.