The problem with modern action movies is not a lack of character development, emotion, or seriousness; it's a lack of imagination. This becomes abundantly clear in The Road Warrior when you notice that the bad guys drive around with helpless dead and near dead victims strapped to the hoods of their cars. I'm not sure why, but does it matter? The sheer "motiveless malignance" brings a smile to my face, as does the determination of this film to stay as basic as possible. The fact that the boy is named "boy" and the dog is named "dog" gives a good idea of the content of the film, but, at just over 90 minutes, that threadbare content is seized with such zeal and imagination I can't help but add my voice to the masses in proclaiming it a masterpiece. The director George Miller obviously has some sort of fascination for the image of the open road speeding by, and luckily so do I. The relentless kineticism of the movie puts the bloated explosion-fests that it undoubtedly inspired to shame, and, most importantly, it contains perhaps the largest real on-screen explosion I have ever seen!
I could expound upon the little details of the film all day, but in particular I was pleasantly surprised to remember that here is the origin of that wonderful phrase "The Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rolla."
No comments:
Post a Comment