Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
The third in the original Mad Max trilogy, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome represents the most expensive film in the post-apocalyptic series, as well as (arguably) the least satisfying. It’s the first to be funded, at least in part, by a major Hollywood studio (Warner Bros.), and that also means there will be a lot of corporate suits trying to provide input on where they think the series should go to be profitable. While there’s a certain admiration one can have for co-writer/co-director George Miller for trying to defy expectations by taking the series in a direction no one would have expected, he also manages to take it to places few really wanted the franchise to go. In terms of my Blu-ray collection, to satirize one of the famous lines of the script, two Mad Max films still enter my player, and one film I leave on the shelf.
In this film, set a few years after the events of The Road Warrior, Max’s nomadic travels lead him to Bartertown, which, as the name implies, is the methane-fueled hub where anyone can go to exchange something they have for something they need. The town is overseen by Aunty (Tina Turner), though it is really run by a dwarf named Master (Angelo Rossito), who gets into a scuffle with Max, where the only resolution anyone will abide by is to battle to the death in a caged arena called ‘Thunderdome’. Following his ordeal, Max manages to make his way to a desert oasis full of children awaiting the return of adults, and who see Max as a messianic figure named Captain Walker, foretold to come back to them and take them to the fabled Tomorrow-morrow Land with his magic.
Beyond Thunderdome is a decidedly less violent film than its predecessors, going for a PG-13 rating, rather than the original’s hard R. No grisly dismemberments, no rapes, and not much true sense of dread for a world gone mad. Instead, the movie plays like a children’s fable, mixing elements of Barrie’s “Peter Pan” with Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, then shoehorning in a Road Warrior-regurgitating climax with marauding vehicles against a truck running tire-less on a train track, just to keep the Mad Max purists from claiming a shark had been jumped several times during the writing process. In fact, the film wasn’t intended to be a Mad Max film at all, about a group of children waiting for a savior; Miller and co-screenwriter Hayes decided that Max could be that guy, and retooled it to fit.
Tina Turner proves to be a nice addition, though it is a disappointment that the role is relatively skimpy for someone with such a striking on-screen personality. Bruce Spence, the gyro captain from The Road Warrior, reappears, along with a child that looks a great deal like the Feral Kid from the same movie, but, apparently, they’re supposed to be different characters here, despite Spence’s character also being a pilot, here named Jedediah. (We’ve only seen two people who can operate flying machines and they both look exactly the same!) Reportedly, Miller wasn’t up to directing anything more than the action sequences after losing his friend Byron Kennedy, a producer for the series, in a helicopter accident while he was scouting locations (the film ends with, “For Byron”, before the credits). First-time feature director George Ogilvie, who collaborated with George Miller before on a television miniseries in 1983 called “The Dismissal”, came in to shoot the stuff in between, which may have resulted in the movie’s lack of cohesive vibe.
Maurice Jarre takes over the scoring duties from Brian May, who composed the music for the first two entries, further giving the third film an entirely different vibe. While May had come into his own with his suspenseful score for The Road Warrior, it’s hard to touch Jarre, the three-time Oscar winner who scored such classic compositions for epic films like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.
Beyond Thunderdome would prove to be a big success around the world, though, in some places, it made less money than The Road Warrior, including its native country of Australia. In the United States, it earned a respectable $36 million, propelled by the hit songs from the extra benefit of Tina Turner’s popularity in the mid-1980s, as well as her two hit songs on the soundtrack, including the Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, which would be Turner’s second highest-charting single of all-time (ranking #2 on the Billboard charts, and a #1 smash in places like Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and its native Australia), after her #1 smash the previous year, “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” Its follow-up, “One of the Living”, which is used as the opening credits song, made its way to #15 on the charts and did score Tina a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Set design, cinematography, and stellar stunt work are the only aspects of this loopy and semi-comedic film I’d consider to be above average. Unfortunately, the overstuffed and sometimes non-intelligible story, scant characterizations, and plenty of spotty acting mar the movie. Alas, despite the huge budget, the action sequences still don’t quite match the thrills of the previous two entries, leaving Beyond Thunderdome somewhat dissatisfying to most who might be looking for a continuation of the excitement levels with Miller’s previous balls-out, visceral approach. By dressing all of these actors up and giving them nowhere to go that many cared to follow, all but the most die-hard of fans sang a variation of the hit Tina Turner end credits song: “We Don’t Need Another Sequel”.
Nevertheless, over three decades later, a sequel of sorts did emerge, without Mel Gibson in the role, to great success, with Mad Max: Fury Road.
Qwipster’s rating: B-
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for violence and language
Running Time: 107 min.
Cast: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Helen Buday, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn, Angelo Rossito, Rod Zuanic, Angry Anderson, Frank Thring, George Spartels, Paul Larsson
Director: George Miller, George Ogilvie
Screenplay: Terry Hayes, George Miller