So here we are at the third, and easily the best, Mad Max film. It's cheesy and odd, and a triumph of modern cinema compared to its two predecessors. It has an extensive story line with well thought out themes, a fun cast, big stunts (although none of them quite come up to the tanker chase of Mad Max 2), reasonable music score and a satisfying end.
It also has, to its detriment, more ridiculous costumes and a saxophonist.
The film doesn't start with a car chase. Petrol is gone. There has actually been an apocalypse of a nuclear nature over the fuel shortage, so alternative means of propulsion have to be sought. For Max that now means camels. A chase involving a plane, some camels and a man on foot doesn't have quite the same possibilities as cars and motor bikes, even in the middle of nowhere.
And this film is shot in the real middle of nowhere. The mid north area of South Australia, around Cooper Pedy. It is arid, without even the scrubby vegetation of Broken Hill (the Tribe;s gorge is in the Blue Mountains, but needs must). It's hot and dry and far from anywhere. People really do die out there. Max needs his camels.
Which, along with his pet monkey, have been stolen by the Gyrocaptain, Bruce Spence reviving his role, albeit much reduced. He now has a plane (for later story purposes), an actual name (Jedediah) and a child, although his girlfriend/wife seems to have disappeared - no doubt the result of a terrible accident involving her hair and a naked flame (she came from the big haired oil refiners).
In pursuing his camels Max comes across Barter Town, an armpit of a place where trading is the name of the game. Frank Thring presides over registration in the way that only Frank Thring can. He was an insitution in Australian acting circles and for good reason. Granted he only ever played the one part (there is little difference between The Collector and Pontius Pilate) but he did it so well. He understood how to make menace work and how to properly play understatement, and when to go over the top. Him sitting in the dirt, quietly despairing, when it all goes wrong, is perfect.
Barter Town is the climax of Miller's vision of apocalypse futures. It is dirty and gritty and decrepit. There is nothing shiny or clean. Everything is make-do and cobbled together. There is nothing new, nothing untarnished. No one wears white, at least nothing that has remained white. Greys and browns are the order of the day, along with lots and lots of black leather. And studs. If Barter Town has a uniform it definitely has leather and studs involved. Dust covers everything.
As has been pointed out in an article in the Guardian, this is in marked contrast to other post-Apocalypse visions. I was thinking about Logan's Run (both the film and TV series), where the "civilised" lived in a shiny dome and wore white clothes and everything was ordered and those who lived beyond in the wastes were supposed to be decayed but there was never a spec of dust on their garments and their vehicles gleamed. Makeup and hair always immaculate. Even if the idea was grunge the execution was not. Real dirt and obvious decay have always been part of the Mad Max world, right from the beginning (unless you were an oil refiner. Given most standard cleaning products are made from petrochemicals maybe that's justified).
There are two layers to Barter Town, the top part ruled by Aunty and her thugs, the bottom part, Underworld, dominated by Master and Blaster, a dwarf and his own behemoth thug. Underworld is a giant piggery (probably where the actors in the previous two films trained), kept for methane production to power the entire complex, above and below. Not a bad idea. They even refine the methane for motor fuel. Naturally enough, there is a power struggle between Aunty and Master, and naturally enough Max is dragged into it. Max is not as disaffected as he was in Road Warrior, but he's still not fully engaged. I'm not a Mel Gibson fan, but I really liked his performance in Beyond Thunderdome. Balanced, nuanced. Not stellar but solid. I could believe the way he was manipulated and his reactions to the various fates that befell him. Nice.
As to the various thugs, the standout for me was George Spartels as Blackfinger. He drew the short straw in the costume stakes, with a studded leather posing pouch and shiny colander helmet, but it didn't phase him. Play School was always going to be the natural progression from there.
The part of Aunty was played by Tina Turner. I hope she had fun She looks like she had fun. Great casting choice. And her outfit (chain mail with HUGE shoulder pads and high heels) was stunning. Not shiny, but somehow right. Oh, and of course big hair. I remember going to see this film when it first came out (the only one of the three I saw at the cinema. No sex and look-away violence meant a friendlier rating and more general release) and being sceptical of Turner's inclusion (her music is not my thing). And I remember being pleasantly surprised. There are plenty of musicians who have a go at acting, with mixed results. Some you think "please, do not give up the day job. Don't do this again". Tina Turner did a good job. She played it for what it was worth and turned in a believable performance.
And her character has a level of interest, altering her behaviour to suit her needs, and ruling Barter Town with a combination of muscled standover tactics and three-word slogans, getting everyone to chant along with her. Which sounds like the political tactics of the Liberal Party. I suppose Tony Abbott had to get his strategy from somewhere. Pity he has neither Aunty's intellect nor her appeal.
There is another group in this story, the Tribe. This is a group of kids living in a verdant gorge in the middle of the desert (well, in the middle of the Blue Mountains, but anyway...). They annoyed the crap out of me when I saw this as a teenager. I just wanted to ditch the lot of them. Coming to it now, three decades later, I think they are a great inclusion, a really interesting idea that for once is explored. Costume wise, they are clearly friends with the Feral Kid of Road Warrior, or at least shop at the same kangaroo skin outlet.
Grammar aside, the writing for the Tribe is quite something, with the representation of an oral culture that is turning record keeping into mythology. And there is a good but not laboured contrast between the hope and health of the children compared to the adult misery of Barter Town.
Max ends up being stumbled upon by these children. His presence as an adult brings on a crisis that splits the formerly cohesive unit into two, with half staying in the little paradise continuing to wait and the other half striking out across the desert in search of "Tomorrowmorrowland". While initially appearing to be a foolish move, this proves an important turning point in the story and gives Max a chance to become a person again rather than an aimless wanderer. Through their action he will find his way out of his own private wasteland.
The film's big stunt sequence is the train chase. It's impressive, but not as good as the tanker chase of Road Warrior, probably because a lot of it feels the same. It also has more comic elements, such as Scrooloose driving the truck while upside down, and Angry Andersen avoiding obstacles while hanging from a pipe on the train. There are no brutal deaths so we are spared the bulging-eyed corpses. And Max gets his moment, when he chooses to sacrifice himself in order to let the others fly to safety. He becomes the hero by choice, not by default or out of a sense of anger or revenge, as he did in The Road Warrior.
The last part of the film is strangely moving, at least for me. Entering a giant dust cloud (wave goodbye to more topsoil, Australia), they fly to the ruins of Sydney, the remains of the Harbour Bridge reaching over a dried seabed. It was gratifying to see the Opera House still standing (go, Jorn Utzon), and weird to recognise other buildings - Australia Square, the AMP Building, Chifley Square and so on. We are so used to seeing other parts of the world on the screen that it is always a little odd to be presented with places we know, even if they are crumbling ruins.
This grim reality of a world destroyed is lifted by the reactions of the children, with another fine bit of writing (grammar aside. Why the bad grammar?). And once more Max wanders off, although this time there feels like there is a purpose to it.
Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome is a cheesey film, it does have quite a bit of silliness, and if I am going to watch something in this type of setting I'll go for Salute of the Jugger first, thanks (don't tell me this too is cheesey. I know. But it has Rutger Hauer, and dog skulls). But I do acknowledge that Salute of the Jugger probably would not have been possible without the Max films. They have been quite the influence on many film-makers. And Thunderdome has some depths, and interesting explorations of the notions of home and heroes and family.
In pursuing his camels Max comes across Barter Town, an armpit of a place where trading is the name of the game. Frank Thring presides over registration in the way that only Frank Thring can. He was an insitution in Australian acting circles and for good reason. Granted he only ever played the one part (there is little difference between The Collector and Pontius Pilate) but he did it so well. He understood how to make menace work and how to properly play understatement, and when to go over the top. Him sitting in the dirt, quietly despairing, when it all goes wrong, is perfect.
Barter Town is the climax of Miller's vision of apocalypse futures. It is dirty and gritty and decrepit. There is nothing shiny or clean. Everything is make-do and cobbled together. There is nothing new, nothing untarnished. No one wears white, at least nothing that has remained white. Greys and browns are the order of the day, along with lots and lots of black leather. And studs. If Barter Town has a uniform it definitely has leather and studs involved. Dust covers everything.
As has been pointed out in an article in the Guardian, this is in marked contrast to other post-Apocalypse visions. I was thinking about Logan's Run (both the film and TV series), where the "civilised" lived in a shiny dome and wore white clothes and everything was ordered and those who lived beyond in the wastes were supposed to be decayed but there was never a spec of dust on their garments and their vehicles gleamed. Makeup and hair always immaculate. Even if the idea was grunge the execution was not. Real dirt and obvious decay have always been part of the Mad Max world, right from the beginning (unless you were an oil refiner. Given most standard cleaning products are made from petrochemicals maybe that's justified).
There are two layers to Barter Town, the top part ruled by Aunty and her thugs, the bottom part, Underworld, dominated by Master and Blaster, a dwarf and his own behemoth thug. Underworld is a giant piggery (probably where the actors in the previous two films trained), kept for methane production to power the entire complex, above and below. Not a bad idea. They even refine the methane for motor fuel. Naturally enough, there is a power struggle between Aunty and Master, and naturally enough Max is dragged into it. Max is not as disaffected as he was in Road Warrior, but he's still not fully engaged. I'm not a Mel Gibson fan, but I really liked his performance in Beyond Thunderdome. Balanced, nuanced. Not stellar but solid. I could believe the way he was manipulated and his reactions to the various fates that befell him. Nice.
As to the various thugs, the standout for me was George Spartels as Blackfinger. He drew the short straw in the costume stakes, with a studded leather posing pouch and shiny colander helmet, but it didn't phase him. Play School was always going to be the natural progression from there.
The part of Aunty was played by Tina Turner. I hope she had fun She looks like she had fun. Great casting choice. And her outfit (chain mail with HUGE shoulder pads and high heels) was stunning. Not shiny, but somehow right. Oh, and of course big hair. I remember going to see this film when it first came out (the only one of the three I saw at the cinema. No sex and look-away violence meant a friendlier rating and more general release) and being sceptical of Turner's inclusion (her music is not my thing). And I remember being pleasantly surprised. There are plenty of musicians who have a go at acting, with mixed results. Some you think "please, do not give up the day job. Don't do this again". Tina Turner did a good job. She played it for what it was worth and turned in a believable performance.
And her character has a level of interest, altering her behaviour to suit her needs, and ruling Barter Town with a combination of muscled standover tactics and three-word slogans, getting everyone to chant along with her. Which sounds like the political tactics of the Liberal Party. I suppose Tony Abbott had to get his strategy from somewhere. Pity he has neither Aunty's intellect nor her appeal.
There is another group in this story, the Tribe. This is a group of kids living in a verdant gorge in the middle of the desert (well, in the middle of the Blue Mountains, but anyway...). They annoyed the crap out of me when I saw this as a teenager. I just wanted to ditch the lot of them. Coming to it now, three decades later, I think they are a great inclusion, a really interesting idea that for once is explored. Costume wise, they are clearly friends with the Feral Kid of Road Warrior, or at least shop at the same kangaroo skin outlet.
Grammar aside, the writing for the Tribe is quite something, with the representation of an oral culture that is turning record keeping into mythology. And there is a good but not laboured contrast between the hope and health of the children compared to the adult misery of Barter Town.
Max ends up being stumbled upon by these children. His presence as an adult brings on a crisis that splits the formerly cohesive unit into two, with half staying in the little paradise continuing to wait and the other half striking out across the desert in search of "Tomorrowmorrowland". While initially appearing to be a foolish move, this proves an important turning point in the story and gives Max a chance to become a person again rather than an aimless wanderer. Through their action he will find his way out of his own private wasteland.
The film's big stunt sequence is the train chase. It's impressive, but not as good as the tanker chase of Road Warrior, probably because a lot of it feels the same. It also has more comic elements, such as Scrooloose driving the truck while upside down, and Angry Andersen avoiding obstacles while hanging from a pipe on the train. There are no brutal deaths so we are spared the bulging-eyed corpses. And Max gets his moment, when he chooses to sacrifice himself in order to let the others fly to safety. He becomes the hero by choice, not by default or out of a sense of anger or revenge, as he did in The Road Warrior.
The last part of the film is strangely moving, at least for me. Entering a giant dust cloud (wave goodbye to more topsoil, Australia), they fly to the ruins of Sydney, the remains of the Harbour Bridge reaching over a dried seabed. It was gratifying to see the Opera House still standing (go, Jorn Utzon), and weird to recognise other buildings - Australia Square, the AMP Building, Chifley Square and so on. We are so used to seeing other parts of the world on the screen that it is always a little odd to be presented with places we know, even if they are crumbling ruins.
This grim reality of a world destroyed is lifted by the reactions of the children, with another fine bit of writing (grammar aside. Why the bad grammar?). And once more Max wanders off, although this time there feels like there is a purpose to it.
Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome is a cheesey film, it does have quite a bit of silliness, and if I am going to watch something in this type of setting I'll go for Salute of the Jugger first, thanks (don't tell me this too is cheesey. I know. But it has Rutger Hauer, and dog skulls). But I do acknowledge that Salute of the Jugger probably would not have been possible without the Max films. They have been quite the influence on many film-makers. And Thunderdome has some depths, and interesting explorations of the notions of home and heroes and family.
I really did enjoy Beyond Thunderdome, although that could be because I had sat through the other two and this came as something of a relief. Would I like it as much if I caught it on its own? I don't know, but I am actually looking forward to watching this one with the Steamgoth and her father. I'll see what they think.
And sorry, no, I couldn't resist putting this clip here. Suck it up.
And sorry, no, I couldn't resist putting this clip here. Suck it up.
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