Review: Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Rating

Director

George Miller, George Ogilvie

Screenplay

Terry Hayes, George Miller

Length

1h 47m

Starring

Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn, Tina Turner, Frank Thring, Angelo Rossitto, Paul Larsson, Angry Anderson, Robert Grubb, George Spartels, Edwin Hodgeman

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Review

Four years after the success of the second film in the Mad Max series, another take on the dystopian wastelands of Australia finds Max finding help from a new ally amidst the rot and decay of civilization where children are given to hoping that they can go Beyond Thunderdome.

It might have been a mistake to cast such a legendary icon in the film, but Tina Turner is surprisingly effective as Aunty Entity, the dangerous leader of Bartertown, a hive of illicit trade and strict laws. Max, a returning Mel Gibson, makes a deal with her to get all of his stolen belongings back, but sets off a chain of events that threatens to topple the delicate regime’s balance of power and bring hope to a bevy of isolated youths brought up looking towards the past as an example of where to take the future.

Turner is the lynchpin for the film and carries off her role perfectly while Gibson’s ego had slowly begun to invade his performances and with a $1 million pay day for this film, it’s no surprise that this was the least effective of his turns in the titular role. Fewer of the cast stand out this time with Gibson and Turner being marquee attractions and dominating much of the film. Bruce Spence returns in a similar role to his one in The Road Warrior, but is not a carry-over character. This time out, he doesn’t leave as much of an impression.

Miller was involved in two productions at the time this film was made, which may explain why the relinquishing of his full control to his co-director led to a film that was more verbose than either of his prior outings. The Mad Max universe may have been at its grimy dystopian peak in terms of visual expressions, but much of the bleakness was replaced by a lingering sense of hope and, for the first time in the franchise’s history, a genuinely positive conclusion.

Bonus points assigned for Turner’s terrific original song for the film, “We Don’t Need Another Hero.” Cutting deeply into the themes of Beyond Thunderdome, it’s a brilliant peace of songwriting that still works decades later.

There are a lot of missteps in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, but as it finally dips into its car chases and action theatrics by the film’s end, we’re back in a place where we can enjoy the pulp excesses again. It’s a film that has a lot of uneven tone, shifting from one locale to another clunkily, but ultimately it succeeds in drawing the audience into the universe and making them want to be a part of the less dangerous aspects of the world in which it takes place. The violence quotient is also a bit more limited this go-round, but the end result is satisfying enough.