Some films set the template for subsequent movies to follow.
Consider “Alien,” the 1979 sci-fi masterpiece. For years, nearly every movie monster looked something like the beastie in that feature film.
Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” convinced hack directors to emulate the film’s stylized approach to action movies.
“The Road Warrior” had a similar impact on how people make post-apocalyptic films.
Or, rather, how they dress people in those movies.
The key characters in “Warrior” looked like post-punk rockers with a dollop of hockey gear thrown in for good measure. That singular style keeps getting reflected in films set in worlds rebounding after nuclear destruction – or something similarly awful.
You can see the “Road Warrior” impact in “The Book of Eli,” opening Jan. 15.
The Denzel Washington film features survivors wearing a grab bag of outfits, and while WWTW didn’t spot any hockey accoutrement he did see the same stylish mish-mosh we’ve been watching on screen ever since Max got his Mad on.
(Photo: Top right: The post-apocalyptic fashions in “The Road Warrior” continue to impact the way we look at films set in a world gone mad. Bottom left: Evan Jones as Martz and Denzel Washington as Eli in Alcon Entertainment’s action adventure film “The Book of Eli,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.)
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The costume design for The Road Warrior owes a lot to A Boy and His Dog (sorry it’s in German, but it’s the best non-Red Band trailer I could find). It looks to me like The Book of Eli skipped straight over The Road Warrior and went straight to the source for their wardrobe inspiration. This also explains all the comparisons on the net between The Book of Eli and Fallout 3, since the fallout games were obviously heavilly influenced by A Boy and His Dog.
I think the first Alien is known more for people copying the style of it’s spaceship than alien design. Up until that point everything looked like it was right out of Star Wars.
Bladerunner was a film whose design style still echos through sci fi films to this day.
Miller DID set the tone – for the post-Apocalyptic look, even if his one not the first to do so. It was the first to be popularized widely, and this is what is remembered.
What would be interesting is to survey whether any post-Apocalyptic film has adopted a different vista with success. Much like Boyle’s variation on Romero’s similarly standard-setting zombie template, it usually is a rare to break the mold.
D.
I never said that The Road Warrior wasn’t hugely influential on what came after, only that
1) its look owes a lot to A Boy and His Dog,
and
2) The images I’ve seen of The Book of Eli makes me think more of A Boy and His Dog.
What I’ve seen of The Road looks different, and that’s supposed to be pretty good.
Well to be honest The Book of Eli wardrobe is very very very similar to another post-apocalyptic world movie and not The Road Warrior. Consequently a movie not many people saw, that is Kevin Costners “The Postman”. The book of Eli is just a rip-off of the said above films. I will watch it on HBO in a few months.