THE ROAD WARRIOR Free Rolling Roadshow

Rated R; 94min; Director:George Miller (1981)  

Location: Rolling Roadshow

This show is a part of the Fantastic Fest Signature Series, Click to See More

This free outdoor screening at the Alamo South Lamar is brought to you by Fantastic Fest - week-long festival featuring the best in new science-fiction, fantasy, horror, animation, crime, Asian, and all around badass cinema. Fantastic Fest 2008 takes place at the Alamo South Lamar from September 18-25. Check out the amazing schedule and buy badges for Fantastic Fest at www.fantasticfest.com.

This year Fantastic Fest takes a look at Australia's cinema of blood and gasoline with our NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD Retrospective series. In addition to THE ROAD WARRIOR on September 19 we will screen the first chapter, MAD MAX on Friday September 12, also at the Alamo South Lamar. Both of these screenings will feature authentic Australian food, including delectable Shrimp on the Barbys. We will also have a Vegemite-eating contest for those who think they can handle it.

Click here for the full slate of "Ozsploitation" titles, including the awesome and unmissable new documentary about the golden age of Aussie mayhem NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD.

While it's sometimes depressing to realize that civilization is crumbling all around us, and that the combination of global warming and energy-based geopolitical strife will likely cause the destruction of the social order as we know it in a dozen or so years, it's also comforting to watch THE ROAD WARRIOR and realize how cool it's going to look.

Seriously, Mel Gibson as Mad Max runs into a spot of trouble here and there but his car kicks a thousand tons of ass. The movie is directed with so much skill and a serious movie buff's aptitude for the exact, perfect photographic angle or cutaway shot that it transcends the flat ugliness of the outback terrain and makes it a primal battleground for what's left of Good vs. rampaging, triumphant Evil.

THE ROAD WARRIOR has a bit more Hollywood in in than MAD MAX but the conflict is fantastic. Lord Humungous and his triple-ugly crew of leather-punk shit starters are hall of fame bad guys and they enforce their own brand of social Darwinism with a gnarly mailed fist. It's up to Mad Max to be the de facto justice system in the midst of a war between the gasoline crazed thugs and the perpetually oppressed good guys, who just want to raise their awesome feral children and fly their super-incredible autogyros. It's a film that has contributed whole volumes to the visual and aural language of film-making. Directed by George Miller at his Spielbergian peak. The photography, editing, stunt-work, art-direction and costume design are all divinely inspired, as if a force from beyond wanted to warn us about becoming too reliant on petroleum-based fuels. We're ready to listen now. (Lars Nilsen)

Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.

Screenings (click on a show time to buy tickets): No Shows Found