Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Anybody who still buys into the absurd belief that anyone besides Mel Gibson was EVER qualified to play the role of Mad Max Rockatansky need only look at this third entry in the series from 1985, easily the most disjointed, uneven film in the franchise and yet still Gibson is at the top of his game effortlessly carrying the whole enterprise and bringing unmatchable presence and charisma to even the film’s most poorly executed moments. The film’s uneven tone was no accident given some of the real life events that occurred at that time as series producer Byron Kennedy (who was best friends with franchise director George Miller) was killed in a helicopter crash prior to filming while in the process of scouting locations which led to Miller being so despondent that he lost interest enough in the whole project to ask that directing duties be delegated between himself and journeyman George Oglivie, with Miller solely handling the action scenes while Oglivie handled the actors and dialogue. This made for quite the strange mix, but the upside was that this was actually the first of the series to receive a legitimate Hollywood budget and also the first to have a big name actress included as a co star in rock music icon Tina Turner, playing a kinda, sorta villain who seems to alternate from having a love / hate relationship with Max. The film begins with Max (now sporting major rock star hair) being waylaid and robbed by his old thorn in the side from Road Warrior in The Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), now sporting a young son as his flying companion and apparently scavenging for all the supplies that he can. Once Max recovers, he tracks him to a place called Bartertown, a free flowing capitalistic society that not only becomes the setting for the first half of the film which admittedly is the far better half but is also one of the better parts of ANY post apocalyptic film ever (including anything from the first two entries), depicting a community that is entirely about scavengers bringing in their goods for which they can trade for something that they would consider more valuable (witness the vendor running around claiming to sell “clean” water, which Max disproves by a wave of his Geiger Counter). A number of known actors pop up here as well, including Frank Thring as the ominous Collector and legendary midget actor Angelo Rossito (whose acting pedigree spans all the way back to Tod Browning’s Freaks in 1932!) along with Turner herself as Aunty Entity, the ruler of Bartertown who is locked in a power struggle with Rossito’s Master, ostensibly an engineer of some kind who has designed and completely controls the city’s power system which is run almost completely on methane gas derived from pig shit. Max soon finds himself embroiled in a conflict with Master’s companion, a hulking brute named Blaster (Paul Larsson) which leads to them entering the film’s centerpiece scene (quite early in the movie) known as The Thunderdome, an anything goes, battle to the death structure where giant elastic bands can enable one to have astonishing agility and various weapons can be thrown in at any random time by any of the onlookers who are situated all over the outside (including on top). To say that this is one of the greatest one on one fight scenes of all time (with a surprising ending) is almost an understatement with the aftermath seeing Max banished from Bartertown and exiled in the desert which sets up the film’s second half that sees Max encounter a bunch of kids (who are the descendents of the survivors of a plane crash many years before) who live in a little oasis underneath a waterfall that has enabled them to survive for many years. It turns out that these kids have actually established their own form of religious dogma where they have come to believe in their own prophesies about a messiah figure named Captain Walker (an obvious nod to The Who’s Tommy) who was the original pilot of the plane that had crashed and had since wandered off years ago promising to return if he could have them rescued. Due to the fact that they have now literally stumbled upon Max (and that he DOES resemble a bit the figure in their crude etchings), they are wholeheartedly convinced that their beloved Captain Walker has finally returned to them and will lead them to the promised land and despite Max’s insistence that he knows nothing of what they are talking about, they still continue to call him “Captain” and even show him the wreckage of the original plane expecting him to magically make it fly as Max even grasps the irony that their current home is actually suitably safe and isolated enough to allow them to live there peacefully. The truth is, once the movie gives over to this side of the story, the whole thing takes on a bit of a goofy, off putting “Peter Pan / Lost Boys” vibe, with not one of these mostly kid actors making even the least bit of an impression in any way whatsoever (at least Hook had Rufio going for it). Eventually Max agrees to lead (at least some) of these people out, mostly because they’re determined to leave with or without him and he is all too truly aware of the scavengers out there who could easily slaughter them without batting an eye. Along the way, he makes it a point to grab Rossito’s Master (mostly for his ability to design a working power system for any new society that they might create) from Bartertown, which pisses off Turner’s Aunty to no end, leading to her bringing out all her troops to hunt them down, and they also finally run into Spence’s Gyro Captain to once again use the advantages of aerial combat against the marauding hordes. The final chase which uses all of these elements admittedly pales next to that of the one in Road Warrior (even with the obvious dolly dummy stand in at one point for the midget Master) while the whole film lacks the visceral excitement that had permeated the original Mad Max (although the fight scene in The Thunderdome itself comes close) but the literal stunt casting of such an indisputable rock n roll legend in Tina Turner (in her first feature film acting role since her unforgettable turn as The Acid Queen in The Who’s Tommy ten years before) sure helped to bring a lot of eyeballs to the table, but once again, it’s all about Mel Gibson doing the tortured hero like it’s nobody else’s business, in many ways still emphasizing Max’s ongoing quest to recapture his humanity that he had lost many years before which always echos and brings to light his famous line from the first movie about his fears of becoming just like the animalistic savages of the road whom he had once pursued as a recognized officer of the law. Faced here with a pack of dumb, naïve kids who consider him to be their prophesized savior simply because he was the first one whom they had stumbled across in the desert, Max now faces his ultimate test of proving his inherent goodness when contrasted with the barbarians who would just as soon kill (and eat) these little ones as ever actually think of HELPING them with anything. As much as it fails to evoke the epic conflict at the center of Road Warrior or the kill or be killed action packed brutality of the original, it does somewhat close out the character’s arc on an acceptable note, as Miller had stated openly that this would be THE last of the series, only to change his mind 30 years later and unfortunately decide that casting Gibson again would be too much of a public relations nightmare (although with Gibson’s own most recent directorial effort earning him an Oscar Nomination for Best Director along with some recent starring roles, it’s probably safe to say that his Hollywood rehabilitation is nearly complete), recasting the role and leaving fans of the original trilogy hanging out to dry. Yes, there are flaws (mostly story based) with this third film in the franchise, but there is also still a peculiarly satisfying feeling to it that raises it above even a lot of the modern day Hollywood dreck due to its fantastic title fighting arena and the bleak outpost that it’s located in, Tina Turner bringing majestic presence (and a great theme song) to the proceedings, and one last chance to see Mel Gibson playing the character that had made him a household name for us all…
8/10