Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) is a noble Englishwoman who travels to Australia to find her husband, and get him to sell the cattle ranch that is losing money. She believes her husband is cheating on her, and that is why he won’t come home. An Australian Cattle Baron owns all the other cattle land, this is King Carney (Bryan Brown) and he wants to corner the market and get the military contract to supply cattle for the British in World War II. Lady Ashley arrives with all her bags, and gets a ride to the cattle ranch Faraway Downs with a man called the Drover (Hugh Jackman) and his friend Magarri (David Ngoombujarra). The drover is friend with Aborigines, so isn’t liked by many. Lady Ashley arrives to find that her husband is dead, and the guy who runs the ranch Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) blames the death on the Aborigine King George (David Gulpilil. Sarah learns what is actually going on from a mixed boy named Nullah (Brandon Walters) who is the grandson of King George, and whose father is in fact Fletcher, though he won’t accept him, and he has to hide from the police who will take him along with other halfcasts to be trained as servants. Sarah learns that in fact Fletcher works for King Carney, and is going to marry his daughter, and he is stealing the best cattle and giving them to King Carney, so Sarah fires him, but he takes all the cowboys, so she must get the Drover, the Aboriginal women, Nullah and the drunken accountant Kipling Flynn (Jack Thompson) to drove the cattle to docks and get the cattle contract.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The trip is troubled, because Fletcher and his men go out and try to destroy them, causing major stampedes in which Flynn is killed, and poisoning water, so they have to follow King George across the hard desert, and then run the Cattle to get in front of King Carney’s cattle.

The Drover and Sarah fall in love, and start to run Faraway Downs, though he always leaves to go Drove, and keep his independence. When King George wants to take Nullah on a walkabout, and she wants to protect him, and the Drover want stop him, so she leaves on a long contract, and she tells him not to come back. Nullah tries to run off so he can go on walkabout, but is taken by the cops to be trained as a servant, so Sarah moves to the dock town to try and save him, and see what she can do to get the boy she considers her son back. She takes a job with the military, and is going to make a deal with Fletcher, who has killed Carney and married his daughter so he could become the big cattle man,

Nullah is taken to an island off the coast, where he is trained by priests, and King George is arrested for the death of Sarah’s husband, though they believe that Fletcher did it.

THe Japanese come in and attack, first attacking the island where Nullah is, then the military buildings in town, and when the Drover arrives, he thinks that Sarah has been killed, but was Fletchers wife.

The Drover and Magarri get a boat and go and save the kids, though Magarri is killed. The Drover brings the kids back and is re-united with Sarah. Fletcher who has lost everything is going to shoot Nullah, but is killed by King George.

The Drover and Nullah and Sarah head back towards Faraway Downs, and Sarah lets Nullah go on his walkabout with King George.

Words then talk about the Aboriginal Children called the Stolen Generations and were taken away until 1973 when the law was changed.

••••

Just an awful and stupid movie all the way around.

This gorgeous cinemascope films starts out with a 3:4 film frame, showing scenes from the first film (not necessary to have seen), where we basically see that this is basically a post apocalyptic future where men fight for the last of the gasoline, roving in gangs across the landscape and destroying everything that moves. Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) was a former cop, who lost his whole family and his knee destroyed, and is now roaming the wastelands in his customized V-8 Interceptor (A Ford Falcon, the coolest car Ford ever made) with a giant supercharger coming through the hood, and booby trapped gas tanks on the back. It is just Max and his dingo, and immediately he is set upon by a group of road vermin, led by the motorcycle riding Wez (Vernon Wells). Max outdrives the scavengers and gets out to get their gasoline next to a rig, and manages to scare off Wez and his gay lover with his shotgun. Max then finds a gyrocopter, and is ambushed by the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence, damn is this guy strange looking), but with his dog manages to capture him, and he makes a deal. He won’t kill him if the Gyro Captain will show him where he can get all the fuel he needs. They head to a rocky outcrop outlooking a fortified base, where they are pumping oil, but they are surrounded by the scavenging followers of the Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) including Wez.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(I couldn’t resist posting all the posters I could find)

Max locks up the Gyro Captain, and watches as the people at the base send out various vehicles trying to find an escape route away from Humungus and his followers, and he sees one car stopped near him, where the woman is killed, and the guy is shot with crossbow bolts, so he heads there, and saves the dyeing guy and heads for the base. The base, led by Pappagallo (Michael Preston) and the Warrior Woman (Virginia Hey) let him in with the guy, but take his car, and lock him up as a scavenger trading in human flesh, while he had made a deal for fuel, but the guy died before he could tell them. And then Humungus returns with prisoners and tells them if they trade the tanker of fuel he will give them free passage, and many in the base agree, though not Pappagallo. Max picks his locks and tells them that if they want to get out they need to talk to him.

Max will take some diesel and high octane fuel and will bring back the rig to haul the tanker in exchange for his car and all the fuel they can carry, and they agree. Max sneaks out in the night, and is aided by the metal boomerang wielding Feral Boy (Emil Minty). Max finds the Gyro Captain and heads for his helicopter, where poison snakes have killed a guy and Max finally gets a shotgun shell for his gun, and the Captain flies Max to the rig, where he gets it going. The Gyro Captain declares them partners and flies after Max as Max heads through Humungus’s legions and gets back to the base.

The people in the base want Max to drive the rig, but he is determined to leave and Pappagallo lets him, but Wez follows and crashes him with Humungus’s car using Nitrous Oxide to catch up, but the booby trap kills all but Wez, and Max escapes but in bad shape, and the Gyro captain comes and gets him.

Though in awful shape Max agrees to drive the rig now, and they armor it up, and the Warrior Woman and Mechanic (Steve J. Spears) get, as does the Feral Boy, and they head out with some vehicles running interference, but then the buss and the rest of the people head out in the other direction, and they blow up the base.

A huge battle ensues over the rig, and everyone but Max and the Ferral boy die, and finally Max turns around and heads right for Humungus and crashes into him, crashing the rig, but they have won. Max stumbles out and finds out that the rig was full of sand, it seems the fuel was hidden in the other vehicles. We learn the Gyro captain became the new leader, and eventually the Feral boy, but they left Max there in the desert with a vehicle and some fuel, never to see the Road Warrior again.

••••

What an amazing film. Just the best. You just need to ignore that their was ever a sequel. The disc also includes a new commentary.

This was one of my college teachers favorite films as well. He loved the editing, especially how they break the line when the rig crashes into Humungus in order to make the impact bigger.

And Mel Gibson barely speaks, but has never been better. This is the ultimate anti-hero film. You can’t beat it!