Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

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What better way to while away an afternoon than with a little trip into the post-apocalyptic? This afternoon’s movie of choice was Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Mel Gibson’s third foray into the dusty wilderlands as that silent badass, Max.

After his car and all his possessions are stolen, Max tracks the thief down to Bartertown, a trading town run by a sassy lawmaker named Aunt Entity (Tina Turner). When a power struggle ensues between Entity and a methane producer named Master, who powers the city, Max becomes entangled in the middle as a pawn of Entity’s, played against a mighty gladiator in the deadly arena of Thunderdome; where two men enter and one man leaves.

Honestly, by the time we get to Thunderdome, one has to wonder what the point of these movies is. While the idea of a lone, leather clad rider, trekking it through the desert, getting into fights, and begrudgingly helping out the weaker folk, cannot be denied, watching sequels like Road Warrior and Thunderdome just work as further proof that a single character does not necessarily make a good film. The central story of this film, rather like Road Warrior is that Max wants to be reunited with his car and fuel and be left to drive around in peace, but somehow ends up having to be a badass hero to a bunch of people; in this case, a tribe of abandoned children.

Where the film makes itself interesting is in the great, dirty set pieces of Bartertown and, of course the central fight in Thunderdome as well as the car chases. A dusty, greasy, and bloody frenzy of implied violence and gore is what one is in for with this film, but its perks are purely visual with no narrative delights to be found anywhere.

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I’ll concede that the film’s fascinating explorations into the many types of civilisation survival made me wonder. While Bartertown has the recognisable shape of pre-apocalyptic civilisation while being completely populated with adults, it’s the clan of children with their retreat into nature and (for want of a better word) religion that ends up having longevity and providing the film with its hopeful(?) tone at the end. A very interesting contrasting binary.

At the end of the day, Beyond Thunderdome is a stupid and fun action romp that reminds us that there was a time when Australia was making ridiculous, but kick-ass movies because we fucking could! The Ozploitation era was a boon for Aussie cinema and despite many of these types of film not having any real narrative value, there is still an entertaining cinematic experience to be had from them.

Director: George Miller & George Ogilvie (1985)

Cast: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Angry Andersen, Bruce Spence, Frank Thring, Angelo Rossitto, Robert Grubb, and Justine Clark