The Road Warrior (1 Viewer)

[Anthony Thorne]

Just to reconfirm, there was apparently substantial additional violent footage cut from THE ROAD WARRIOR that has never been seen by anybody outside of the Village Roadshow preview theater in Sydney some 25 years ago. Miller finished his final polished cut of the movie, then Village Roadshow (who originally released the film down under as MAD MAX 2) went through it and demanded 3 pages of cuts to bring the Australian rating down from an 'R' (our version of the NC-17) to an 'M'. Many violent scenes were shortened, a couple of brief segments were completely cut out and the overall level of violence throughout the movie was toned down a notch. Australian director Mark Savage (who had a box set released in the US through Subversive some months back) was working at Village Roadshow at the time, saw the pre-censored preview cut, and was the very guy chosen to walk up the stairs to the editorial office with the three pages of cuts specified for removal to lower the film's rating. The unrated cut mentioned by Charlie O. above that includes Wez twisting the arrow and so on is not the longer, longer preview cut that included all the unseen footage, and it's anybody's guess whether Warner's new disc has restored all the missing bits and pieces. I suspect they probably haven't but would like to be surprised. From the description I heard, many of the violent moments we're all familiar with were longer again, but a couple of wild gags were lifted completely. If we don't get a new, extra-long cut of THE ROAD WARRIOR I'll still be quite happy with the new S.E, but I thought it was worth noting that a longer, more vicious cut is indeed out there somewhere. I guess when the folks in the preview theater 25 years ago reached the end of the film, and the camera tracked back from Max as the ominous music played, they didn't know how lucky they were...

 

[Dan M]

I'm fine with the theatrical cut as it's already proven itself....however I would love to at least see those scenes within a deleted scenes segment in the special features....

keep in mind though that Warner released an extended cut of Amadeus which actually served to only annoy some folks....

 

[scarabus]

I've searched a handfull of e-tailers and the only (SD) release I'm finding is a double feature of Road Warrior/Thunderdome, no listing of extras. Are we not getting an SE of Road Warrior?

 

[Ray_R]

I'm glad I asked about Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior last year. Too bad I was unable to make it to this years chat since I forgot. I was going to ask again if they were also going to be making a Special Edition for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Same for some other films.

 

[Kachi Khatri]

Apparently the re-release of this title was long overdue and I'm firkin' disappointed at Warner Home Video for not re-releasing on standard DVD.

The 'new' re-release with re-mastered video and upgraded audio is only available on HD_DVD/BLUE-RAY only. (May-25th). There is also a new director commentary, plus some new extras.

This sucks big time!!!

Anybody from Warners care to explain why they left out standard DVD?


http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/....jsp?OID=21091

 

[DeanR]

It's starting..... :frowning:

 

[Anthony Thorne]

I'm 100% certain that a standard-def release of the SE won't be too far long behind the Hi-Def release, simply as I can't see Warner turning down all that free money from the folks out there that haven't yet embraced HD.

 

[Rhett_Y]

God damnit... there better be a SD release.... One ticked off puppy.. I have been looking forward to this.

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm the opposite. I see this and think "screw them." Tons of DVDs coming out I can spend my money on if they want to cater to a niche market.

 

[AaronMan]

This sucks. Sort of a bizarre title to do this on. I've been wanting a new version of this DVD since the movie only edition came out in '97 or '98.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I posted about this situation here:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=255046

Apparently The Digital Bits reported on an upcoming SD DVD as well, but it's weird that it's not coming out the same day as its HD-DVD bretheren. Or that I haven't heard anything about a release outside of that.

 

[Rhett_Y]

I emailed WB about the road warrior coming to SD DVD and here is the response I got:


Don't know if they are keeping this under raps or if their really isn't any information about it coming out on SD DVD....

R~

 

[Charlie O.]

The Road Warrior DVD out in Japan is the uncut version so the footage is out there. If Warner wants to release an uncut DVD they can. They don't even have to look for the footage because Warner released this DVD in Japan themselves.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Is the Japanese release the completely uncut version, or only the slightly less cut version?

 

[Charlie O.]

From what I have read there are 3 DVDs in Japan. One is the same as the R-rated US cut, one is slightly less cut and the 3rd is fully uncut.

Here are some shots of the cut footage taken from the Japanese laserdisc. I'm not sure which cut is featured on the laserdisc.

http://www.christophkirsch.de/madmax/

 

[chas speed]

Does the recent Road Warrior/Thunderdome double feature dvd release look any better then the old Road Warrior dvd? Has it been remastered. I'm not talking about the HD release, just the regular dvd release.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Surely this will come out to SD DVD, too. I'm not ready not go HD to get a particular film, yet. I'd buy this on SD in a heartbeat, though.

 

[Fabien Renelli]

Still no news about a SD release of the new Road Warrior edition?
And what about the first movie? I found this on DVDPacific:
http://www.dvdpacific.com/item.asp?ID=875459
Any idea what this?...

 

[Travis Brashear]

It is a repressing of the current Special Edition under the new "Decades" banner, which means same disc, basically the same cover art, now framed with a gaudy border that says "'70s" in the upper corner.

 

[Shawn DuHast]

If we're talking about the first Mad Max then the only way to go (until HD) is the Australian R4 Village Roadshow version. No extra's and exactly the same print (except in PAL) even down to missing frames BUT it has a FULL bit rate DTS track which literally blows away the DD5.1 on the R1 MGM SE. Believe me I've got both and done a back-to-back comparison. In the beginning when Max finally drives away down the dirt track then turns right down the road you can feel that V8!