Mad Max 2 and subtitling it "the thrilling predecessor to "The Road Warrior"." Despite the title change, grosses from the US release were on par with other countries. Warner Bros. felt comfortable to keep the title of the third "Mad Max" film, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", intact for that film's American release. "Mad Max 2" received positive reviews and is regarded by many critics as one of the best films of 1981. The film holds a 98% rating based on 42 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes with and average rating of 8.4/10 and with the consensus, ""The Road Warrior" is everything a bigger-budgeted Mad
Mad Max (soundtrack) they wanted was the sort that Bernard Herrmann and Co. did in Hitchcock films," recalled May, "because they had a big action movie and they needed a score to propel it along and give it a lot of bite and energy. So it just happened that they were rather friendly with Richard Franklin, and they were at his house for dinner one evening when he played them the music for "Patrick"." Combining classical orchestration with mechanical sounds, May's work on "Mad Max" is notable for its distinctive soundscape that interacts with the film's diegetic sounds. ""Mad Max" was a strongly