#Mad max beyond thunderdome series#

Ok, so BEYOND THUNDERDOME catches a lot of shit of hiring Turner as Aunty, you know the one who chills in her above ground tent and listens to her blind Asian sax player. ROAD WARRIOR gave us The Humungus and Wez. MAD MAX gave us the Toe Cutter and Johnny the Boy. The character development and the tone never quite find footing, but considering Miller ending up making a lot of family films after BEYOND THUNDERDOME, it all kinda makes sense.īeyond delivering the best action ever put to film, another thing Miller kills is giving us great villains and henchmen. The action remains just as intense - especially the Thunderdome showdown and the final car chase - and we learn more about the world (with little bits like Max testing water for radiation). So Miller only wanted to direct the action this time out).

(If you’re confused at the dual directing credit, in 1983 Miller’s film partner and friend Byron Kennedy was killed while scouting the movie. No one can deny the unevenness of the story (which has been widely bitched about) that comes from Miller sharing directing duties with another George named Ogilvie. Even with that terrible hair to start the film (what, he grows out his hair but shaves every other day?), Gibson proves his talent here combining action and comedy while still looking good in a leather jacket. This was two years before he exploded as Martin Riggs in LETHAL WEAPON, but all that charisma is on show. Gibson isn’t playing an Australian Clint Eastwood anymore. We all love the badass Max who drives around eating dog food, but clearly Miller and co-writer Terry Hayes believe in the old Storytelling 101 idea that a character must learn or change. Still, we can see Max growing, changing, reconciling with who he has become. Even the music gets too cheeky, sounding more like HOOK than a MAD MAX feature. Ok, so there’s some cheese thrown in like Max unloading countless weapons before he can proceed deeper into Bartertown (it’s very Bugs Bunny-ish) or when the kids listen to that “How to Learn French” record (which is still funny). Everything before and after remains fully entertaining. Too bad it gets too goofy for its own good. Now I’ve always enjoyed the hell out of this movie, but honestly, I must mentally block out the 30 minutes or so of Max playing Mr. Let’s start with the obvious, that whole Lord of the Flies subplot, which is obviously supposed to humanize Max as he takes responsibility for a bunch of weird, oddball orphans. I understand why some people have issues with BEYOND THUNDERDOME. And BEYOND THUNDERDOME is about…something completely different. Why? Because the man isn’t afraid to try something new, to alter the formula. The only thing I know is that no matter how FURY ROAD turns out, it’ll be different, which is hard not to appreciate from director/co-writer George Miller. I have yet to see MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, but by all accounts (Jimmy O had great things to say here ) it doesn’t disappoint. 'It attempted to do its own thing and not duplicate exactly what worked before.'įinally…30 freakin’ years after his last adventure, MAD MAX has returned to the big screen. Dig in!ĭirected by George Miller and George Ogilvie We’re hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Unfortunately, EMI offshoot Fuel 2000's reissue of this previously unreleased gem features nothing in the way of liner notes or additional material, marking it as a bit of a disappointment for film music buffs.THE BLACK SHEEP is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATH. The soundtrack provided Turner with one of her biggest hits, the sprawling and majestic 'We Don't Need Another Hero,' which despite containing the silly lyric 'All we want is what's beyond the Thunderdome' spent a good deal of the year at the top of the Billboard charts. His segue into the raunchy 'Bartertown' saxophone section showed a keen ear for the era, and complemented Turner's 'One of the Living' opener with a sly wink. Jarre, who previously helmed the baton for films like Witness and A Passage to India, conjured up an elegant storm of a score that remained reverent to May's brutish dissonance, while establishing a memorable melody - 'The Children' - and introducing a lushness that was absent from the first two films. What sounded odd in theory came across a great deal better onscreen.

#Mad max beyond thunderdome series#

Gone was composer Brian May (not the Queen guitarist) and in came Maurice Jarre and Tina Turner - the latter had a starring role - to give the Australian series some mid-'80s shine. Upon its 1985 release, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome divided critics and fans alike with its big-budget rendering of Mel Gibson's iconic vigilante.