The Road Warrior: A Prophetic Glimpse Into Our Future?
My favorite movie of all time is The Road Warrior, the 1981 apocalyptic film directed by George Miller and starring Mel Gibson (before his alleged anti-semitism, homophobia and alcoholism tainted his career).
I actually saw The Road Warrior a few years before I saw the first of the series, Mad Max, so I was not familiar with the original story other than the opening scenes that showed the tragic event that set him on his path of isolation.
In 1981, I was 16 years old. I had been heavily impacted by Nevil Shute's "On the Beach", the tale of the last few months of life in Australia after a global nuclear war. The Road Warrior was the graphically violent story depicting the baser elements of humanity when faced with a similar event.
For me, this movie has always represented a realistic future for mankind under certain circumstances. If society is in the midst of anarchy, if basic needs are no longer being met, if communities dissolve and families are fractured; what would the outcome be? Is it possible that society is more fragile than it appears?
This type of existence is reality today for people across the globe; Darfur, the Congo, Afghanistan. Brought on by different circumstances, but the results are the same: subhuman, barbaric practices and the decimation of humanity.
Visible evidence of what humans are capable of.
Today.
2009.
Not in a movie.
Are these humans really any different than the rest of us on the planet, if we were stripped of everything?
Since I first saw The Road Warrior, I have always had a tendency to gravitate towards the apocalyptic when I would think of the future. I would quiet my fears by saying, "It's just a movie, it's Hollywood, it's imagination, you have a depressed/dark way of looking at things." And I would go on my merry, little way.
A year ago, I would never have predicted that the global economy would have collapsed; that the planet would be facing a confluence of economic, political and environmental threats. I get a strange sense that we are not realizing the severity of this. That they are not telling us how bad it is. That they do not know how bad it is. That a ripple has started and the interconnectedness of 6.5 billion people and the convergence of multiple issues is creating a reaction that will take off exponentially.
I joke to my friends that if things don't turn around, we will be fighting for food in the streets. I joke about how I don't want to sell my 4 wheel drive SUV, just in case I need to outrun the marauders. I joke about how maybe we should get together and buy some land in the mountains. I joke that I should buy a gun. I think to myself, "this is just the movie talking, it's my imagination.."
It is, isn't it?
To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time
when the world was powered by the black fuel
and the deserts sprouted great cities of pipe and steel.
Gone now swept away.
For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war
and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all.
Without fuel they were nothing. They'd built a house of straw.
The thundering machines sputtered and stopped.
Their leaders talked and talked and talked
but nothing could stem the avalanche.
Their world crumbled the cities exploded.
A whirlwind of looting
a firestorm of fear.
Men began to feed on men.
On the roads it was a white-line nightmare.
Only those mobile enough to scavenge
brutal enough to pillage would survive.
The gangs took over the highways
ready to wage war for a tank of juice.
And in this maelstrom of decay
ordinary men were battered and smashed.
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Comments
Nada: I might bring 13 year old to come stay with you and 7 year old:-)
junk1: It is hard to know what to do about it. I try to stay in the moment. Thanks for commenting.
Harry: I think there is a lot of denial going on. Frank Rich has a column about our collective avoidance of reality as part of our culture. People need to wake up.
Very similar movies, but I personally preferred the Postman, mostly because I like Kevin Costner better than Mel Gibson (sorry all you Aussies, just actor personal preference, no finger-pointing at you wonderful folks down-under :-)
I hope we never see a world like that!
Bob: The dog was cast well.
Joan: I hope we don't either, but writing this last night kind of scared me even more at the similarities.
CB: Thanks- maybe we need to be speaking them more so people will start to take more intensive action? Or would that just freak everyone out and become some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy?
Deborah: You have the dog, so you are one step ahead:-)
MiddleAged: I read The Road last year and had the same reaction. My 13 year old wanted to read it, but I said no, too. The scene, when he gave his kid the gun w/ one bullet, was so disturbing.
Odette: I only saw that one one time- need to see it again.
Ron67: :-)
By the way, damn, I love that dog! That is one of my dream dogs, right there.
I live in the mountains but don't feel very secure here. Despite the bleakness of it all, I still carry hopes that things will get better or at least all life won't be wiped out, just us foolish hairless primates.
Hope and courage, things I try to remind myself of every day. :)
Just substitute rocks and clubs for guns and I think Road Warrior would be very close to how we'll end up.
Seriously, you have done a nice job here, and the pics you added are perfect. Save me a seat in that SUV.
Helicopter Mom much? lol However, I did watch MadMax with my son and he loved it!
Anthony: I just read about that last night- I hadn't heard. I did love The Dark Knight too.
Maria: What a weird parallel! Deborah has the dog, you have the mtns, I have the SUV- we should make a plan:-)
Mishima: Point well taken.
If you are a bookish person, a sort of sequel to the post-apocalyptic Mad Max era is called "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller (1960).
MiddleAged: I have tried to get my 21 year old to watch Mad Max 1 and 2 for years. This post has inspired him to watch (or at least has guilted him enough to watch:-)
Emma: He was HOT. Thanks for commenting.
New Blog: I don't know if it on youtube. Oh wait, everything is on youtube. I recommend a big tv with surround sound- lights off.
Eric: I like that quote. I tend to agree. Lord of the Flies is another study on this.
CB: Just finished reading and commenting on yours. Maybe we can get a discount if we buy our prozac together in bulk?
Boanerges1: I really appreciate the recommended book- I have never heard of it and will check it out. As a teen, I loved The Stand.
Tom: I agree. Frank Rich wrote along these lines in the NYTimes this weekend. The denial factor. Thanks for commenting!
"There is more of them and fewer of us everyday!"