Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Aunty states her case for Max

 Yeah, besides the kids from a Peter Pan of the Post Apocalyptic Australia that pop up an hour or so after an incredible opening chapter at Bartertown where Mad Max is tasked by the leader (Tina Turner) of a trade desert town energized by pig shit to secure her total control by thwarting the underground power of a tiny genius whose operations using methane keep the lights on (the "brains") led around by a towering giant mentally challenged with a child's mind (the "brawn"). Turner's "Aunty" thinks Mad Max is the perfect weapon/tool available to infiltrate MasterBlaster's underground and eventually challenge the brain's (Angelo Rossitto; who was actually in Tod Browning's "The Freaks"!) muscle in a dome cage fight called "Thunderdome". That name, Thunderdome: whoever came up with that while brainstorming on the film's content deserves honors. Turner's music, to me, is as iconic as Thunderdome. And she's so much fucking fun as the head villainess, throwing her weight around as the authority and commander of her domain. I liked that the braintrust decided not to kill Turner, too. I like that she just accepts Max outsmarted her, allows him to live, and heads back home to Bartertown, even after Rossitto's Master was whisked away on a plane, piloted by Jedediah (Bruce Spence) and his son, with a few from the Peter Pan village who wanted to find "the lost city" left behind in artifact for this community to discover. Max trapped in that dome cage with Blaster (Paul Larsson), strapped by elastic bands that allow them to bounce up high and grab weapons, while an audience scales the structure and looks through square holes, was to me the film's pièce de résistance, although the big expected chase at the end (this time our heroes are getting away from Turner and her marauders in a train on tracks that eventually come to a halt when the track ends) can be quite exhilarating if not quite as grandiose and exhaustively ultraviolent and gratuitous (and awe-inspiring). When a central member of Turner's entourage, Ironbar (Angry Anderson), is in a cyberpunk vehicle that explodes on impact with the nose of Max's train, he isn't torn asunder...instead he's all soot covered like some Loony Tunes cartoon, hanging on the train for dear life. The main gripe besides the Peter Pan kids will always be the decision by those involved to tame the film down to PG-13. That edge the previous films had (and "Fury Road" would definitely symbolize) isn't as in your face. Instead, only one kid dies and that is when the sand sucks the little boy to his doom.There are all kinds of sand pits that will envelope you fast if you aren't careful. That danger, of the sun, lack of resources, and of robbers and thieves always looking to take what is available to survive, is very much still established well by Miller's team. Location shooting and the apocalyptic set design are still very much a significant strength of the film. And Miller and his team still capture some eye-popping "Lawrence of Arabia" style shots of Australia, covering the immense scope, especially when Max is walking to Bartertown after Jedediah took his wagon and camels and Max tied up, left on a horse, with a giant plaster head (it does seem to be from a fast food restaurant), and sent off into the "gulag" to die. That treacherous territory is emphasized quite effectively. How Robert Grubb's chained prisoner (Pig Killer, because he killed a pig to feed his family) sends off a monkey with a canteen of water couldn't have been of more dire assistance to Max in his time of need. That poor horse being sucked into a sand pit is horrifying. 

Those songs, "One of the Living" and "We Don't Need Another Hero", opening and bookending the film, by Turner are such ear candy. God, I love me some Tina Turner. Icon, that woman. And she rocks that chain mail and makes that style all her own. I appreciated, too, that her name is in the opening credits before the title of the film. Oh, and the funniest scene to me is when Max must give up all his weapons, and he just keeps pulling guns and blades from her person. Much like Ironbar's survival of the exploding vehicle, just covered in soot and enduring quite a lot when the likelihood of anyone doing so would have been impossible, this weapons scene perfectly embodies the wonderful absurdities of the action genre. That capitalism was still a vital societal norm accepted even after some apocalyptic, cataclysmic event in a desert town surrounded by scorching heat, sand, and lack of water amused me because it just proves that nothing changes. Greed still rules the day. 3.5/5

***Max brought back to life by youth who consider him the leader to carry them to a better home, complete with a theatrical show through their own cave wall drawings (and 80s toys making an appearance), given a hair cut and tended to until he awakens from near starvation just feels so different from the bleak, dreary,  soul-crushing existence at Bartertown.***

***Underground with those poor folks shoveling shit and taking care of the pigs, as MasterBlaster hands down orders and even demands Turner tell those at Bartertown who the real leader was is set up as quite a hellhole. That's what a Mad Max is known for...settings that you never hope to live.