The Road Warrior Blu-ray

The Road Warrior

 (1981)

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi



The first sequel to Mad Max takes place after nuclear war has destroyed Australia. In this installment, Max lends his aid and protection to a small band of survivors who are losing their struggle to protect an oil refinery under siege by a band of savage, mohawked marauders. Playing very much like a post-apocalyptic western (right down to Max's dog, Hondo) The Road Warrior boats one of the most thrilling car chase scenes ever filmed.

For more details about The Road Warrior on Blu-ray, see The Road Warrior Blu-ray Review

Starring: Mel Gibson, Virginia Hey, Syd Heylen
Director: George Miller

The Road Warrior Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Warners has given us Mad Max 2 in a clear 2.39 transfer from an element that looks clean and looks sometimes almost brand new. The movie didn't look this clean on the original presentation I saw. With a VC-1 bit-rate in the high 20's the image seems solid for the most part, except for shots done on location in available light, specially a night. The worst shot, occurring on a night excursion by Max to transport gasoline on foot hiding from the desert gang, looks just like how an underexposed photograph does when its pushed to the limit, and on top of that the shot has this lighter area coming from the left that seems to be the result of either a location light source, lens flare, or maybe actual fading of the film element. Noticeable because the transfer tries to bring out the maximum detail possible of that scene onto the BD. On the DVD, this scene is almost totally black, and you can barely see anything.

So having no real worries about wrong grain, DNR, and sharpness, which on those respects, the transfer is satisfactorily fine, the main issue to note about this transfer is that, it has color timing different from previous video incarnations and seemingly from the original prints. Pointed out by Blu-ray.com Forum member and disc producer dvdvision, the transfer hasn't been color timed like the original, compared to the DVD and Laserdisc. While I remember the theatrical presentation being visually exciting and earthy (a warmer tone), this Blu-ray color seems to strive for a totally neutral, cooler, straight transfer from the source element. It may be that the original color balance should be slightly warmer, darker, pungent and arid. In comparison to the Blu-ray's deeper blue skies, pale beige sand and earth, and fully green bushes, the DVD colors suggest the notion that sunlight from an apocalyptic sunset was striking the locations, the earth was dry, and skin tones all looked more vibrant. You could try setting your display's color temperature to it's warmest setting, or boost the color slightly but it wouldn't be the same. Even the Helicopter Man's pants looked more of a bright yellow orange, while on the Blu-ray his pants are almost a pale pastel yellow. You can see comparisons here, here, and here. That's the only dissatisfaction I have with the transfer, which based on image structure alone, specially compared to the DVD, trounces any previous version, having superior enlarge-ability on a big screen that a DVD can't even touch. And this is truly a movie where the larger you watch it the better it gets, which the BD provides for your viewing pleasure.



Gimme the pump the gasoline the full monty!

An interesting detail about the BD transfer is that it's slightly window-boxed, and doesn't reach the full 1920 pixel width. But the image's dimensions, being 796 x 1907 = 2.395 are correct, as the film is from 1981 and the standard Anamorphic 35mm projection ratio changed to 2.39:1 a decade before. Compared to the DVD, the BD actually shows a little bit of more image on all sides. Excellent.

The beginning prologue starts in Academy 1.37 (actually 796 x 1075, 1.35 ) which works to great effect when the image transitions to the full CinemaScope width of Max's Interceptor's engine, one of the biggest thrills on film for widescreen aficionados. (note: the DVD's prologue image, being cropped into a wider 1.46, created a more diluted introduction of this).

The Road Warrior Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Mad Max 2 The Road Warrior comes on this Blu-ray Disc incarnation with a DolbyDigital 5.1 640 mb/s soundtrack. The 5.1 stereophonic remix favors the music more than the mono mix I heard on my theatrical viewing (the theater I went to didn't have any fancy "Dolby Stereo" back then) so it was a pleasant, albeit different, experience this time. On the theatrical, the dialogue and engine sound effects were predominant but this wider stereo presentation lends the Brian May music a better showcase among all the explosions , squealing tires, engine rumble (that beginning Interceptor roar is great!), and crashing metal and debris.

Complete with 30 seconds of Exit music. (Although I didn't like having a title card telling me all the time the music played that it was the exit music)

The Road Warrior Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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