MovieChat Forums > Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Discussion > 45 minutes of brilliance then....

45 minutes of brilliance then....

posted 15 years ago by fubar73
55 replies | jump to latest

It really is like nothing I've ever seen in a movie before. I remember seeing this movie in the theater when it came out. I was 13 years old at the time and I think still feel the same way. Never have I seen a movie that could draw me in so much and then let me down just as much. Thunderdome, Bartertown, Master Blaster, Tina Turner and lots more odd and interesting characters make the first 45 minutes of this film among the best I have ever seen only to be let down by the plot of Captain Walker, Tomorrow morrow land and just a bunch of kids and stories that just seemed an excuse to explain things more. I guess my point is I think the movie would have worked so much better without hearing these stories and gone off in a much more interesting direction. Does it ruin the movie? It kind of does for me. While this is only my opinion I love discussing the movie with people. It means something different to everyone but most I have talked to agree that it loses its focus. I am by all means no screenwriter but I think the majority of Mad Max fans could have watched fights in thunderdome and a lot of great creative violent matches while possibly piecing together a much better resolution for the rest of the movie and called this a masterpiece. I don't even think it would have taken too much effort. It just hurts to see what I feel could have been one of the all time greatest movie achievements. Only my opinion. I do not try to force people into not liking the movie just feel that it was so great and then went bad.

[–] shadowrunner1985 12 years ago

In my opinion, the whole movie is pretty bad. Basically, whereas Mad Max 1 (my personal favourite) portrays a realistic impression of a society that is edgy, broken, and nihilistic and The Road Warrior is an equally realistic study of a society coping badly with the sudden shock of collapse. You feel you are watching ordinary people struggling to survive in a world changing and disintegrating around them, which is what George Miller wanted to depict. Beyond Thunderdome, on the other hand, is camp, over-theatrical nonsense. Take the silly, kitsch character Master Blaster, for example. A midget riding around on a child-like hulk? Come on...

There is none of the realism or grittiness of the first two films (not necessarily violence, but the simple desperation of very small people dealing with problems they can't hope to solve. The paradox in TRW of gangs - 'tribes' - wasting precious resources fighting to control other resources, for example.). The whole film looks like a parody, a sort of sanitised, 'made for the yanks' (no offence meant to those across the pond) version of the other two; I was surprised that Crocodile Dundee didn't walk across screen at any point.

[–] huldu 11 years ago

I couldn't agree more. The beginning of the movie has it all, great setting, Mad Max and great colorful villains. It's not a bad movie because of the kid stuff but I wouldn't say it belong in a Mad Max movie. A bit too late to even comment on it, one can only hope that Mad Max 2014 will take it to the next level.

[–] daveg-13 11 years ago

After watching Road Warrior I looked at which movies George Miller had directed and noticed he did Babe. Wait, what? How can someone go from two rather adult and dark movies with some brutal scenes to such an innocent children's movie?

Then I saw Thunderdome and it all made sense. It's not a bad movie at all, but after watching the first Mad Max movies in a row last night, you really get smacked in the face with this. It's really different. Like someone else said, I should've walked away after Road Warrior.

"Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."

[–] Gwasgray 11 years ago

I watched the whole trilogy last night and I found the same, once he leaves Bartertown after the excellent Thunderdome fight, it goes sharply downhill and turns into Peter Pan, or perhaps Hook. There's some pretty disjointed scenes (like the one where the kid sinks into the quicksand) and primitive dialect they speak in is crap as well. The final chase feels pedestrian compared to the one in Mad Max 2.

[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

...once he leaves Bartertown after the excellent Thunderdome fight, it goes sharply downhill and turns into Peter Pan...

Couldn't agree more. Miller says he has real affection for it, but I don't think he had his mind on the job.

[–] Kuato_and_George 11 years ago

I didn't mind the Captain Walker stuff at all. I thought the villains got too cartoony towards the end of the movie. That was the biggest problem.

For my latest movie reviews and news:http://www.hesaidshesaidreviewsite.com/

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] rph33 10 years ago

Just watched all three MM movies for the first time -

Loved the first two, and then WHAT the hell happened for the third one?!

The Peter Pan storyline - its gotta' be the single most derivative storyline I've seen in any movie. Seriously - how did they not run into legal issues with this? Or how did somebody on production not once say "Hey guys, we are really ripping off Peter Pan here and turning a great sci-fi franchise into a Disney family flick?" Tomorrow-Morrowland? Never-Neverland? You've got to be KIDDING me!

Other awful, glaring issues:

Why did they decide to go back to Bartertown at all? They literally just busted in, picked up a dwarf and a mongoloid, and then left, for no reason at all.
Why is Max asking THE PIG KILLER "what the plan is"? So Pig-Killer is the leader now? Lets change the name to "Pig Killer: Beyond Thunderdome" because apparently thats what Max thinks the movie is.
Why does Aunty chase Max for 30 minutes only to let him go at the end?
Why is Aunty's main henchman basically a live-action Wiley Coyote?
Why is the gyrocopter pilot not with the group of people from MM2, as their "leader"?
Why is the gyrocopter pilot in Bartertown?
Why does the gyrocopter pilot not reach out to Max at Bartertown, or try to help him?
Why is the gyrocopter pilot in this movie at all?

The second half of the film absolutely ruined it for me - as far as I'm concerned, the Mad Max series is composed of only TWO FILMS thus far.

[–] Koosh_King01 8 years ago

Seriously - how did they not run into legal issues with this?

Peter Pan has its origins predating the Disney film, for starters. And secondly, as long as they don't actually use character names and such, the broad strokes of the plot is pretty fair game. Thirdly, Australia may have different copyright laws (or did at the time).

Why did they decide to go back to Bartertown at all? They literally just busted in, picked up a dwarf and a mongoloid, and then left, for no reason at all.

The kids want to go to "Tomorrow-Morrow Land," i.e. the big city, but it lacks electricity. It's possible Max figures that if Master could get Bartertown up and running with electricity he can do something similar for the kids in exchange for being rescued. Easy.

Why is Max asking THE PIG KILLER "what the plan is"?

Situational. The Pig Killer is the one who fired up the train-truck and drove it out of Bartertown, not Max, so for a brief span of time, it's effectively his show. Only when the Pig Killer reveals he didn't have any plan beyond the initial breakout does leadership fall back to Max, if it ever even left him.

Lets change the name to "Pig Killer: Beyond Thunderdome" because apparently thats what Max thinks the movie is.

To be fair, the second movie wasn't about Max anyway. All he wanted was gas; the actual story was about the besieged homesteaders. I haven't seen the first film, but I can safely say the basic gist of The Road Warrior was "Max leads a boring nomad's life and wanders into someone else's story."

Why does Aunty chase Max for 30 minutes only to let him go at the end?

She wanted Master, not Max. Master escaped in the plane. So she goes back to Bartertown, and lets Max go because it's clear she admires his toughness and cleverness ("Ain't we a pair?").

Why is Aunty's main henchman basically a live-action Wiley Coyote?

That'd be Ironbar, and he's clearly intended as a thinly-veiled parody of the tough, indestructible minions like Wez. Wez had a few scenes where he seemed to get killed only to return, a little ridiculously, particularly at the end where he's on the front of the truck; Ironbar seems to be an attempt to take this memorable aspect of the preceding film up to eleven for some humor.

Why is the gyrocopter pilot not with the group of people from MM2, as their "leader"?

The Gyro Captain is still the leader of the survivors from the second film. Jedediah, although a pilot played by the same actor, is a different character.

Why is the gyrocopter pilot in Bartertown?

To sell Max's stuff he stole at the beginning. And because he's a different character.

Why does the gyrocopter pilot not reach out to Max at Bartertown, or try to help him?

Because he stole Max's stuff and Max would like to take it back, and possibly beat him up or even kill him. And because Jedediah and the Gyro Captain are two different characters.

Why is the gyrocopter pilot in this movie at all?

He is not.

I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?

[–] EndeAbgrunds 10 years ago

You guys should take a look at the trivia section here on IMDB.. They explain that the script was meant to be entirely about kids surviving without adults.. And then somebody mentioned Mad Max and poof... We have this.

[–] Druff 10 years ago

IMO the Mad Max trilogy is kinda similar to the Star Wars trilogy:

1st movie = very very good introduction to a new world
2nd movie knocks it out of the park by being so utterly bad ass
3rd movie has a really cool act 1, then totally blows it with too much cuddly kiddie b.s.

[–] MrRazorz 10 years ago

The kids were a little heavy-handed, but given that the core theme of the film was the seeding of a new civilization in the ruins of the old, they kind of worked. I also liked the whole "cargo cult", "return to tribalism" theme they represented, and the Tell of Captain Walker added to the mythic quality that The Road Warrior hinted at.