In the four-year gap between Mad Max 2 and Beyond Thunderdome, not one, but two post-apocalyptic actioners clearly indebted to Australia’s most famous road warrior were released. They were both made by Italian exploitation maestro Joe D’Amato, who was never one to miss out on an opportunity to rip off a successful hit. Indeed, just six months after transforming the Big Apple into a nuclear wasteland in Endgame, the man of many pseudonyms envisioned a future where the Lone Star State was overrun by maniacal thugs dressed like they’d just wandered out from a BDSM club. That movie would go by the title 2020 Texas Gladiators.
2020 Texas Gladiators was part of a wave of similar cash-ins that swamped VHS bargain buckets in the early ‘80s. D’Amato, who only came on board Texas Gladiators when screenwriter/co-director George Eastman quickly discovered that action sequences weren’t his forte, admitted that the movie was made with a cynical reason in mind. "I only wrote these awful movies for financial reasons... no attempt at originality was made at all,” Eastman later said.
