FILM

Alamo Drafthouse is recreating the Summer of 1982 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the greatest summer of movies… ever! From May through July, the theater will replicate 1982’s earth-shaking release schedule, screening eight of the biggest genre classics on the same weekends they were released exactly 30 years ago.

These gargantuas include CONAN THE BARBARIAN, THE ROAD WARRIOR, ROCKY III, POLTERGEIST, STARTREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, E.T., THE THING and TRON, all presented in 35mm (unfortunately, Alamo Drafthouse was not granted permission to screen the sci-fi opus BLADE RUNNER).

The unprecedented super-tornado of Hollywood magic in 1982 did not stop with those films, however, and the Alamo Drafthouse is expanding the lineup to include additional gems from that year, including CLASS OF 1984, THE DARK CRYSTAL, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, THE SECRET OF NIMH, VICE SQUAD, PINK FLOYD: THE WALL and more.

Friday, May 18: THE ROAD WARRIOR: co-hosted by Film School Rejects

THE BEST ACTION MOVIE OF ALL TIME!! Before Mel Gibson traded in his post-apocalyptic leatherwear for the flowing cotton robes of Jesus, he was The Toughest Hero in Movie History. Mad Max burned rubber across the scorched highways of the barren Earth, on the hunt for fuel and the blood of criminal marauders. Even in the Australian desert, some shotgun-wielding punk goon needs to be murdered every 30 seconds or so.

Easy work for Max, until he runs up against post-nuke hellmaster Lord Humungus and his crew of feral mohawked wasteoids. Suddenly, the lone wolf of the wasteland finds himself defending the last outpost of untarnished humanity. What follows is inarguably the single greatest chase/fight/stunt explosion ever captured on film, with more car-flipping and stuntman-smashing than any 1000 American action blockbusters could dream of. Come witness the absolute ultimate in fallen world annihilation with THE ROAD WARRIOR! (Zack Carlson)

“Being a child born in the Summer of 1982 I didn't get to experience much of the famed films of that historic summer of cinema until later on in life. I recalled that I watched THE ROAD WARRIOR a few weeks after I had begun my obsession with Akira Kurosawa and I just wanted to give myself a small break from unmistakable greatness and have some exploitative fun with a picture I'd been meaning to see for years, ever since my older brother had been telling me about it since we watched Lethal Weapon together in the later 1980s and told me I'd yet to see a *really* badass Mel Gibson. Suffice it to say I didn't get a break from greatness, nor did I really get that break from Kurosawa as I watched George Miller put together an opus of adrenaline and musty manliness with the effervescent flavor of sweat, grease, fire and gasoline where Mel Gibson is a one-man Seven Samurai who would sooner help a group in need than punch someone in the throat for saying the word effervescent to describe a movie about him.

The next summer I was old enough to legally buy a drink and go to a strip club...but the year before is when Miller and Mel made a man outta my face.” (Adam Charles, FILM SCHOOL REJECTS)