MOVIES

My post-apocalyptic binge continues with Warlords of the 21st Century, a.k.a. BATTLETRUCK (1982) which was made in New Zealand so it is scenic as hell and it is the story of BATTLETRUCK and its battle against the Renewable Energy Hippies and their champion, Methane Powered Motorcycle Man.  It is set "after the oil wars" when gasoline is nearly unobtainable so the thing to do is drive around in a gigantic armored truck looking for more fuel and enslaving people.  Here's how cool BATTLETRUCK is:

Note that it is being viewed through a Monocular Vision Enhancement Device which inexplicably always indicates N S E and W no matter which direction it is pointing. For technical purposes. Except for the purely irrational conceptual basis this is a creditable effort to create a believable post-industrial scenario, and not a cheap exploitation spectacle, which takes some of the fun out of it.  The geodesically domed hippie commune is convincingly created, like it burst full grown out of a 1968 issue of Mother Earth News or a Dealer McDope comic except unfortunately it  is winter so no naked hippie chicks.  Another strike against it.  Things really pep up though when the hippies pitch in and help their champion and his pal the bespectacled mechanogeek (people who owned television sets in the 1990s will recognize John Ratzenburger from that show about Cheers The Bar) to cobble together out of scrap metal a Super Deadly Machine Gun Volkswagen, seen here amid its Holocaust of Doom:

It's obvious that BATTLETRUCK must necessarily lose because it embodies the Old Paradigm, but at least it dies magnificently.  Even though there are only three vehicles, BATTLETRUCK, Battletruck Junior (for chasing things - it would have been cooler if Battletruck Junior had been carried inside BATTLETRUCK), and Machine Gun Volkswagen, there are also some entertaining Romanian style horse-drawn carriages, and the show opens with a two-horsepower VW Kombi pickup that is quite appealing.  Though this is not as stupid as most of the genre it has its moments, when stuff explodes and cars drive through things, and of course BATTLETRUCK's glorious demise.