Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

“Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” released in 1985, is the third installment in the Mad Max series. Since the first movie was made on a low-budget with Australian money and starred a cast of newbies, “Beyond Thunderdome” was produced by American Studio Warner Bros. and starred not only returning and now famous star Mel Gibson, but also American singer Tina Turner, who co-starred and sang the opening and closing songs. This combination of money and production by a major studio gives the film a little more of a polished look, but is weaker than the previous two films in practically everything else.

Scott Nash stated in his review, “Although the timeline is again never made clear, general opinion, based on the novelization and interviews with the writers, have made it clear that the story begins some 13 years after The Road Warrior, which was set roughly 5 years after the original.” Max is still traveling through the desert on his own. After his stuff gets stolen, he ends up in Bartertown, a city powered by pig droppings where a fight for control is going on between Master Blaster (a technologically knowledge midget named Master (Angelo Rossitto) piggy-backed by a strong, but voiceless giant named Blaster (Paul Larsson)) and Aunt Entity (Tina Turner in a chain mail dress cut as far up as a PG-13 rating will allow). Nash mentioned, “Max gets caught up in their power struggle before finding himself in the desert where he meets up with the cast of Lord of the Flies in the more silly last half of the story.”

Nash goes on to say, “In order, I assume, to appeal to a broader audience and to suck in the teen audience, the filmmaker's opted to make this installment rated PG-13 instead of the R rating of the first two movies.” Because of this, the violence is brought down a lot and some cheap, cartoonish humor is installed. This is really noticeable in the final, and only, car chase. When Aunt Entity’s right-hand man, played by Angry Anderson, drives in front of the train/truck hybrid that Max is driving, Max crashes into the back of his man’s car, causing an explosion. However, instead of dying, he just lands on the front of the train covered in ashes. Nash is right when he says, “It's almost as if he's doing a Coyote impression from an old Road Runner cartoon.” Later, when the same man dies, the camera zooms in on his clenched fist. His arm tightens and flops before getting up long enough to give the middle finger, before finally dying.

Nash questions, “I wonder how much of the weakening of the film was caused by the death of producer Byron Kennedy, who died while location scouting for the film. He co-created the franchise with George Miller and reportedly Miller lost interest in making Thunderdome after the death of his friend, which is why George Ogilvie was brought on as director, where Miller had directed the first two. Miller gets a co-director credit because he staged the action sequences.”

Although this is the worst in the series, it still does have some funny scenes. It starts strong and up to the battle in the Thunderdome arena it’s properly funny. However, once Max is tied to a horse and is sent out into the desert, it starts to lose our interest. The kids are really annoying and from the story of their experiences seem to have been living out there for longer than the timeline allows them to. The city of Bartertown also looks like it has been around longer than the thirteen years would give them.

Gibson does another good job as Max, although the character looks a little flat this time, but that must have a lot of blame on the writing than his performance. Nash credits, “Turner wasn't actually as bad as I remember, but her mere presence does add a certain camp value to the proceedings.” An odd casting choice is bringing back Bruce Spence, who also was in “The Road Warrior. The reason why it’s odd is because he’s casted as a completely different character and no way did they try to make a disguise for his appearance.

The backstory for this sequel includes stories of nuclear holocaust, which contradicts the last two movies and interviews that George Miller had done before the release. Before this movie, the end of the world was always picturized as a general dying of society because of the shortage of fuel. The introduction to “Mad Max 2” describes it happening exactly that way and does not have any reference to a nuclear war. This doesn’t really hurt the story, but is revealing of the general mess in the way the movie was put together.

Since “The Road Warrior” felt like a nice addition of the first movie and actually was superior in its quality, “Beyond Thunderdome” is worse in every way. It looks like a huge studio trying to cash in on the success of this franchise. Nash ended his review by saying, “If the promised fourth film ever does get made (with Tom Hardy signed on to take over the part of Max), I only hope it's a return to its R-rated roots rather than a reprise of the quality of this one.”

Well, I got good news for you, Scott Nash. If you saw the film, which I’m sure you did, it’s actually the best of the series. If you want to know what I mean, stay tuned next Friday for the finale of “Mad Max Month.”