Reviews on movie Battletruck (2)

From the preface: After the oil wars...

In the 21st century, the status of oil as an absolute fell more and more before other raw materials. In the film it is clearly and clearly marked, demonstrated. Biofuels. The reason why a war involving nuclear weapons will break out less and less is becoming more and more important. Now, namely, in the coming and 13 years of the 21st century, the production of biofuels is becoming a problem that is increasingly gaining momentum.
The main “good hero” on his motorcycle clearly demonstrates how the fuel from farm waste is not inferior and even better than the usual and unfortunate black gold. Overtaking the old generation of autovillains.

This is the future, the future in alternative raw materials, the very appearance of the hero and his “horse” speaks about this – this is what the authors wanted to convey.
Oil is the way to a dead end, because of it people die and kill other people, destroy the work and culture of thousands of generations. For the sake of fleeting and imaginary power, insignificant material gain.
There are always traitors, heroes, oppressed, able to rebel, adapters, villains. Everyone wants to survive in a new world of anarchy, of decline. Not everyone is guided by humanism, spiritual values and even more so religious values – they simply do not exist. Religion ceased to exist. There is another – the power of a stronger weapon. But any evil can always overcome the just and true good. Good fighting for the good old values of times sunk into oblivion: the value of human life, freedom, democracy. Values, as many now think, are eternal and the only true ones. Winning.

Music, a very successful part of the picture. It turned out to be harmonious, perfectly fit into the general narrative, a single track of the idea.
The landscapes of New Zealand, mountain valleys, falling and soaring have given you, this is not a desert under a burning asphalt luminary. Hilly dusty roads with rare units of vehicles. A nice picture for an ardent green activist. The film does not strain the eye, moderately dynamic and “fighting”, with sufficiently detailed characters and circumstances.

At this time, the acquired materials will be much more appreciated. Which are obtained by much harder work, conditions, circumstances.
It's a different world, a different time. But there are resource wars and there will be more.

American director Harley Cockliss, who shot two children's films in the 70s, and also worked as an assistant on the set of "The Empire Strikes Back", for five years, hatched the idea of filming a realistic fantastic story about the "evil king", "princess" and "valian knight", whose images for a long time did not go out of his mind. In the early 80s, he managed to realize his dream. Having assembled a film crew, he went to New Zealand to shoot the film Battletruck. It was a story about a villain, a girl and a hero. Western. It was a motorized western transported to a post-nuclear future with a hero on a motorcycle, civilians in a fort, a girl and her villain father riding a “mobile fortress” – a huge armored tractor equipped with machine guns. There are no avoiding parallels with the released a year and a half before George Miller's super hit "Mad Max 2: Road Warrior" with Mel Gibson. In both films, the action takes place after a nuclear war broke out over oil, there are people in the fort and terrorizing them bandits and a truck chase in the final. Many people call Battletruck the rip-off BM-2. This is not entirely fair, since the story of the oil war and the huge trailer that served as the basis for the film Cockliss, was created in 1975 in Los Angeles. The subject of inspiration for the director was the oil crisis and the size of the then trucks carrying oil. However, the existence of quite similar points is surprising. Maybe Cockliss did borrow something from Miller. It’s hard to say for sure.

New Zealand bikers participated in the creation of the film, the main character was played by Michael Beck, known for the “Warriors” of Hill, the villain is the charismatic TV actor James Wainwright, and as one of his henchmen, the New Zealand musician and future starring performer in “The Quiet Land” Bruno Lawrence lit up. Roger Corman gave part of the money for the film and advised to make adjustments to the script to make the film a success in America. In addition, Corman's company was engaged in the distribution of a slightly remodeled version of the film in the United States, where the title was changed to "Warlords of the 21st Century", and the theatrical trailer half consisted of fragments from other films. But judging by the fact that in the States the picture has collected a good cash register, these marketing moves have benefited.
As for the film itself, Harley turned out to be a normal B action movie, which you can watch at least once. Gloomy, not particularly flourishing and diverse, thanks to which details are quickly forgotten, but serious, without particularly conspicuous nonsense, except for the chase, where realism had to be sacrificed for the sake of entertainment, and without strong blunders concerning the post-nuclear entourage. On the contrary, there are all realistic wooden houses and harsh rusty jeeps. According to the director, this was given special attention. Oscar-winning cameraman Chris Mengis is also to be praised, in particular for the final scene, shot as much as six cameras. Action's fine. But what's most memorable after watching is the combat truck itself. This twenty-meter tractor, accelerating to 65 km / h, is the largest car ever built for filming in New Zealand and is really impressive.