Movie Review: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) produced, co-written, and co-directed by George Miller

Max (Mel Gibson) is traveling through the desert when he is waylaid by airborne nemesis Jedediah (Bruce Spence). Jedediah takes Max's car and camels (saves on gas!), basically all of his earthly possessions. Max follows on foot and winds up in Bartertown. It's an attempt to recreate civilization in the post-nuclear-holocaust wasteland. The town is organized by Auntie Entity (Tina Turner) but the electricity is provided underground by Master Blaster (Angelo Rossitto and Paul Larsson), a duo consisting of a scientifically-minded small person and a mute, brutal large person. Master likes to flex his influence which causes trouble for Auntie. Auntie makes a deal with Max to eliminate Blaster, which will take the mickey out of Master and let her be the sole ruler of Bartertown. After an epic and creative fight between Max and Blaster in Thunderdome (the place where all disputes are settled), Max is banished, leading the story in a new, surprising, and creative direction.

One of the appeals of the Mad Max series (at least to me) is the bizarre and creative world Miller presents. The people are rough-shod and hard-nosed but still have a lot of individuality. The main characters also have more depth than the typical action picture. Auntie is the villain but very understandable and sympathetic, even if her actions are not often condone-able. Turner gives a good performance, balancing her character's somewhat bloodthirsty side with a bit of pride and ego at trying to reestablish civilization. She's made a hash of it but at least she's trying. Max's journey could have been just an episodic string of action set pieces. Miller crafts a more interesting and connected journey for Max, one that emphasizes his humanity and weaknesses as he brute-forces his way through very difficult situations. He has heroism and tragic self-sacrifice, attributes that raise him above the standard 1980s action heroes. The fight in Thunderdome is very creative and exciting as is the train/car chase at the end of the film.

Recommended, highly for Mad Max fans. This isn't as crazy as The Road Warrior but it does have more plot and interesting characters.