Mad Max - Oltre la sfera del tuono

When I first saw Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, I felt disappointed. It was a letdown from its amazing predecessor. I knew its reputation as an unworthy sequel, but I still realized there was something good about it, something I had never heard from other people's points of view.

It wasn't until some time later when I watched the series a second time that I noticed what it was.

Those who think MMBT is not as exciting as The Road Warrior would be right. But those that think MMBT sucks because it is not as exciting as The Road Warrior would be missing the point. What makes MMBT a worthy sequel is its way of establishing a greater scope of the setting the series takes place in. The dredges of civilization were what set the stage for the series in the original Mad Max. The barren world of desert wastelands and sparse outposts take the idea of a post-apocalyptic world one step further in The Road Warrior. A squalid setting such as Bartertown and an oasis where the tribe of children lived in MMBT once again builds on the elaborate fantasy that makes the series as popular as it is. The final, chilling realization of just what became of civilization in the closing moments of the movie are more than enough explanation as to why the the world the viewer sees in the trilogy is the way it is.

I was too young when I first saw MMBT to understand this. It wouldn't be until I saw it again some time later, with more movie-viewing experience under my belt that I realized that what makes Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome tick is not action set pieces, but a far more subtle approach of atmospheric setting.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) was a travesty. Even though it takes place in an even bleaker future, the filmmakers decided to line their pockets even further by making this one "family friendly (i.e. P.G.-13). What made the other films gritty and nihilistic is missing from this film. Only a few spots but other than that it's just other one of those sequels that morphed into a more mainstream movie (i.e Robocop 3). Needless to say I was very disappointed because when I was much younger I was a huge Mad Max mark.

The story takes place years after the events that transpired in part two. Max is content with his life out in the wastelands. But one day, the fates would appear. Someone has robbed him of his caravan and his old souped up vehicle (sadly no longer in running condition). When he recovers he finds that all roads lead to one of the last vestiges of civilization, an arm pit called "Bartertown". Whilst in "Bartertown" Max finds the person who cold cocked him but his unable to do anything about it. So, after a brief scuffle with the local authorities Max is taken to meet the "mayor" of "Bartertown" Aunt Enity (Tina Turner). After a brief display of his talents, Enity and Max strike a deal....

Like the other films, the world of Pro Wrestling has taken several themes and characters from this movie (i.e. The Thunderdome and The Master Blasters, etc..). Many knock-offs and wannabes have spawn off of this one as well. It even started up a sub-genre, children living in a post-apocalyptic society films. Not a bad film but die-hards of the first two will be disappointed.

C+

This will be silly and disjointed for those who found the second mean and rampaging. Spielberg had intervened in popular imagination, so there's a kid friendly dash of Indiana Jones along with some Lone Ranger. But from Mad Max I come away with two things, the narrative edges of world we discover and the cinematic action of the chase.

I don't take to the Bartertown portion of the film, it may be closer to Road Warrior in spirit but all I see here is rushed spectacle intended for a boorish audience, contraptions. We do see a bit more of the Max world around this place but not in any way I care for. It feels like this part was bolted on when they decided to turn a separate script into a Mad Max movie.

No, I find myself oddly captivated by the Lord of the Flies portion. There are glimmers of magic for me in the way the narrative of something that crashed from the skies one day has been preserved in the minds of kids. The way it's revealed through a screen that frames remnants of half- remembered story, the chorus of awestruck kids for whom all of this has profound meaning.

It does open up a window to a whole swathe of Max world but this time with deep feeling, as myth the kids have vowed to keep in memory and bide their time for. Sure, we are in Goonies territory and again in the end with the city, but there's hushed yearning here, an almost Biblical kind.

The rest is in the big chase, a train this time, briefer than usual and over before it really exhilarates, as if more by obligation than real affinity for it. They would eventually build a whole other film around it, extending it to an entire circus around the rig, but that would have to wait for 30 years.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was a bigger production than its predecessor: Road Warrior. I still think I like Road Warrior better. The nemesis was more nemesisee and Mad Max himself was in more peril.

Beyond Thunderdome was lighter as far as mood (which the presence of children may have caused). This time the nemesis was the incomparable Tina Turner as Aunty Enmity, but I couldn't bring myself to hate her. The character wasn't a real hatemonger and... it's Tina Turner. She was the Beyonce before Beyonce.

One thing I'll give Beyond Thunderdome over Road Warrior is the theme song. It's top ten in my book. In 2002, for Spider-Man, Nickelback sang: "they say that a hero can save us, I'm not going to stand here and wait." Well, Tina Turner laid the groundwork for that in '85 when she said: "We don't need another hero." And she knocked that song out of the park.

When he is attacked and robbed of his animals, Max Rockatansky follows his attackers to Bartertown – a den of deceit and violence that is made possible thanks to the methane power source from pigs kept underground. Bartertown may be ruled above ground by Aunty Entity but the real owner is Master Blaster – a team of two men who control the power supply. In exchange for his goods, Aunty offers Max a deal where he will challenge Blaster to a fight in the town's duelling arena and kill him –thus removing the muscle and putting Master under Aunty's control. Max accepts, although he rightly suspects that he will be the next to be betrayed.

At least one reviewer on this site has said that the reason people dislike this film is because it is about the start of a new world whereas the other two Mad Max films were about the end of the world as we know it. Sadly I believe he is mistaken because I think the reason people dislike this film is because it is messy, excessive, unconvincing (even within the apocalyptic situation it makes no sense) and just isn't really any good. The plot swings between an excessive violent society at the start, to a child colony in the middle to a big noisy chase scene right at the end. In terms of the narrative that connects this all, don't worry about that because it doesn't really work and just feels very episodic throughout – making it messy and uninteresting. It is unconvincing and, although I accept that the entire film is fantasy, you gotta wonder where all the excesses and such came from and how we were supposed to buy into it; hell, a fuel blockade by lorry drivers brought the UK to its knees a few years ago but yet we're suppose to believe this? The apocalyptic here lacks imagination and just feels like the sort of thing that exists in an art director's mind rather than something that convinces.

The episodic feel isn't helped by the rambling, pointless dialogue associated with the children – it tries to have a mysticism that nothing else in the film has worked to deserve; however it could be helped by developing Max better. If he was a strong lynch pin holding all these bits and pieces together then it would matter less but he isn't – he is just a grunting rock that doesn't really have a character to speak of and I had little or no interest in him at all – even when he becomes "caring and sharing" I didn't care because I had had nothing to work with up till that point. Turner is not terrible but she doesn't really act and just sort of swans around in an unconvincing manner. In that regard she is like the majority of the cast, who don't really give the performances – whether it e the clunky child actors or the grunting brutes that are just stunt fodder. The stunts are OK and the final chase provides some distraction but without really caring about the plot or the characters, I found it hard to get into any action.

Overall a disappointing film whose core failing is the lack of a convincing new world. The film feels episodic and lacks anything to hold it together. Throwing a lot of cars around at the end does provide some distraction but by then it was too late for me and the whole thing was clunky, pointless and surprisingly uninteresting.