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Following my Mad Max and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and to prepare for Furiosa, as promised here is my retro review of Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road, the third and fourth instalments in the Mad Max saga.
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
This is a movie I haven’t seen in many years, all I could remember was the Thunderdome, a Downs kid, and Lord of the Flies. As I recall, I didn’t like it too much, so I went in ready to be disappointed. However, this time around I kinda liked it.
Max is making his way across the wasteland, the rural Australian Outback, as someone called it. He’s attacked by Jebediah (Bruce Spence) and his son. This was weird, as at the end of The Road Warrior, the voiceover from the feral kid says that the Gyro Captain ended up as the leader of the saved band of people.
Anyway, Max gets knocked off his cart and it gets stolen and taken to Bartertown. The town is run by Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) on the surface and Master Blaster (Angelo Rossitto and Paul Larsson) below. Master is the brains, carried around by Blaster, his bodyguard. It’s the Master that really runs things, as he has control of the electricity on the surface.
Aunty plans to have Max kill Blaster, so she can control Master. Max goes to the Underworld to size up Blaster. Down there they keep pigs and everything is run on methane. Max finds a weakness in Blaster and they end up having to fight to the death in the Thunderdome.
The fight is better than I remembered. There are weapons around the dome and Max and Blaster are attached to bungee cords. Max gets the upper hand and you find that Blaster has Downs. Because of this, Max can’t bring himself to kill him and is banished across the desert.
Lord of the Flies
The movie then changes tone and direction and is more like Lord of the Flies. There is a group of kids, all waiting for the second coming of Captain Walker. That sounds like a demotion for Jesus, from Son of God to Airline Pilot.
There are good moments, where the kids remember the war and hope to get back to cities and videos at some point. If they had TikTok I’m sure they would have realised how good they had it stuck in the desert.
Some want to head back over the desert, and try and find this Bartertown, but Max warns them to stay. Some go and Max has to rescue them. They end up back in Bartertown and manage to escape with Master for a dramatic chase across the desert.
Better Than I Remember
Weirdly, Beyond Thunderdome is way better than I remembered. Watching it again last night, I was invested in the characters, the story was pretty good, and it wasn’t as disjointed as my memories said it was. The last chase sequence is really good.
It has its issues. Tina Turner, for example, is mixed with her acting. There are moments when she’s very good and there are moments when she is not very good. I did like her in the role though. It was written specifically for her.
I’m still confused about Bruce Spence. As I said, at the end of Road Warrior, he led the band of people and became a good guy? But now he was robbing Max and they didn’t seem to know each other here, even though they spent loads of time together in the second movie. If I’m wrong about this, please let me know.
I found Miller’s direction really good, although I did find the “sweep in up close” shot overused. That is a minor nitpick on a solid entry in the Mad Max saga.
Mad Max: Fury Road
There’s no point in breaking this down, you know this movie. If you don’t, I still can’t recommend it enough. It’s old school, simple, and full of amazing stunt work and explosions.
What I did notice was how the opening monologue has “Max” saying:
Once, I was a cop. A road warrior searching for a righteous cause.
He is billed as Max Rockatansky, which is Mel’s name from the original. Now, this again was confusing. Fury Road is set 70 years after the original, so it can’t be THE Max, can it? This got me thinking, is Max a passed-on name like Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride, or simply in a world where time plays no part like James Bond?
I wonder if Hardy’s Max really believes in the legend of the name and now convinces himself of the lie? I don’t know, again, if anyone does have any thoughts, let me know.
I know that Mel is Max and he’s not in this one, but if you think of Tom as another Max, it works. Max is just a legend, a man traveling from one place to another, helping people out. Like the Hulk or Sam from Quantum Leap.
Overall
If you are willing to let go of Mel and embrace Tom, you are left with a great movie. I love that Immortal Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the original Toe Cutter) controls Water Town, has religious beliefs to control the people. And the Lost Boys are good too. The whole movie is just awesome.
Furiosa
I’m looking forward to seeing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but going in with a bit of trepidation. I want it to be good, but I’m holding out pre-judgment. Wrenage has seen it and his review is up. Drunken Yoda could be at the movie theater right now.
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