The Road Warrior (1981) introduction analysis

The Road Warrior’s opening is rather unique for it’s time but nonetheless is an effective opening.  It slowly fades in to show Max, the main character stood facing the camera, however there is an explosion faintly overlaid on him, making the audience question who the character is, his motives, and the symbolism behind the explosion, the camera moves towards his face into a close-up, showing the characters face as focused, however the use of the overlay creates an idea of inner conflict or that the character is watched the destruction of his life before him and he is powerless.

It then switches to being presented as a flashback, however it is in black and white, this highlights the destruction that let to the world the film is set in and presents the morality as black or white.  Notable however is that the destruction is shown in darker tones while the consequences are much whiter tone, reinforcing the black and white, good and bad morality in the films environment.

Interesting is the use of stock footage in the flashback and the images overlaid on them, often those of destruction. Stock footage of machinery is used, showing the workings of the old world, but overlaid, is footage of war and destruction, the causes of it to stop. Footage from the film “Mad Max” is also used, showing the character before the events of the film and what happened to him and his family, presenting the character shown at the beginning as the main character due to the focus put on him and his background, the film also switches back to using colour at this point, showing Max with the graves of his family.

Important to the introduction of “The Road Warrior” is narration, the narration is both cryptic yet gets across the theme of the movie, the style and the contents of the dialogue uses alternative words, such as tribe instead of country, and the phrase  ‘touch off’ rather than ‘start a war’, this gives us a sense of the progression of time in the universe, so much so that the language has changed. The narration also sets up the character, saying a few lines of their backstory and events from the first “Mad Max” giving a sympathetic impression of him while also making him appear broken and confused, before fading out to the film proper, focusing on the road he’s travelling down.