 Tagline: A lone warrior searching for his destiny...a tribe of lost children waiting for a hero...in a world battling to survive, they face a woman determined to rule. Two men enter. One man leaves. That's the law in Bartertown's Thunderdome arena. But lawmaker Aunty Entity will soon add another: Don't get Max mad! Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome stars Mel Gibson in his third go-roud as the title hero who takes on the barbarians of the post-nuclear future - and this time becomes the savior of a tribe of lost children. Music superstar Tina Turner steals what's left of the screen as Aunty Entity, a power-mad dominatrix determined to use Max to tighten her stranglehold on Bartertown. Directors George Miller and George Ogilvie deliver another rousing apocalypse-on-wheels and one of the best movie fight scenes ever as Max and the gladiatorial Blaster face-off with maces, chainsaws and anything not nailed down inside Thunderdome. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: watch and you'll agree with the soundtrack song that "We Don't Need Another Hero." Storyline: Bartertown is a city on the edge of a desert that has managed to retain some technology if no civilization. Max has his supplies stolen and must seek shelter there in a post apocalyptic world where all machines have begun to break down and barbarians hold what is left. He becomes involved in a power struggle in this third Mad Max film where he must first survive the town, survive the desert and then rescue the innocent children he has discovered. Written by John Vogel Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben on June 2, 2013 -- The third entry in the Max Max series departed from the essential chase format established by its two predecessors. Although the film was a success, and the titular arena where "two men enter, one man leaves!" has become a catchphrase, opinion remains divided over whether Thunderdome is up to the level of the first two installments. Even its most ardent fans (and that includes me) have to admit that Thunderdome doesn't provide the adrenaline rush of The Road Warrior. It goes quiet for a long stretch during the middle when Max discovers a society of lost children living in the wilderness, and only picks up steam (literally) near the end, with a wild chase involving a train. Some viewers blamed the change on studio involvement, since Thunderdome was the first of the series to be co-financed by Warner Bros. But it seems more likely that writer-director George Miller and co-writer Terry Hayes (Vertical Limit) realized that they couldn't do the same thing a third time. Miller has repeatedly said that he considered Road Warrior a chance to redo Mad Max properly, with a better budget, more time and the benefit of experience. In the process, he added an overlay of mythology that elevated the story into legend. After losing his family and defeating the Humungus, Max couldn't just race down the road a third time as if nothing had happened. He had to be a changed man with a different adventure. The first step was to be more specific about the state of the world. In the first two films, society had collapsed, but the details were vague. In Thunderdome, there are explicit accounts of a nuclear war. The old world is gone forever. What role can Max play in the new one? As if to let us know at the outset that this Max is different, Miller opens Thunderdome with the former Road Warrior (Mel Gibson) driving a vehicle hauled by camels. No longer fueled by "the precious juice" of gasoline, the former speed demon is now a desert wanderer—and in the very first scene of the film, he's knocked to the ground by an airplane pilot named Jedediah, who, in an ironic bit of casting is played by the same actor (Bruce Spence) as the Gyro Captain in Road Warrior. He's a better-equipped version with a faster vehicle and works with his son, Jedediah, Jr. (Adam Cockburn). Though the relationship is played for comic relief, the theme of cooperation between generations is central to the film. If the first two Mad Max films were about predators picking over the carcass of a dying society, Thunderdome is about those trying to rebuild it after annihilation. In the course of his wanderings, Max encounters two very different examples. The first is Bartertown, which Max calls a "sleaze-pit". It's a parody of capitalism ruled by "Aunty" (Tina Turner, in an imposing chain-metal costume that weighed so much she could barely move). More of an extortion racket than a true economy, Bartertown succeeds because it offers itself as the only alternative to chaos. Aunty's simplistic "law" provides a basic peacekeeping mechanism by requiring disputes to be settled through gladiatorial combat in the arena known as Thunderdome. Her private army, headed by Ironbar (Angry Anderson), enforces her will. And she has one commodity that no one else can offer: electricity generated by methane gas from a vast underground pig farm overseen by a technologically adept little person named Master (Angelo Rossitto). But Aunty's control of Bartertown is threatened by Master, who has his own one-man private army in the person of Blaster (Paul Larsson), a helmeted giant of enormous strength who obeys Master's every command. In a secret deal, Aunty hires Max—jokingly referred to by the master of ceremonies, Dr. Dealgood (Edwin Hodgeman) as "The Man with No Name"—to kill Blaster in a Thunderdome confrontation. The result is one of the film's most original and best-known sequences, in large part because it's unlike anything from the first two installments. Thunderdome shifts gears radically in its middle portion, when Max chances upon a second and entirely different example of reconstituted society in a hidden oasis in the barren wasteland. This one consists entirely of children, survivors of a crashed airliner that was fleeing what the kids refer to as the "Pocky-clypse". The plane's captain, Walker, and the surviving adults eventually set off in search of other survivors but never returned. Left to their own devices, the children, led by the eldest, Savannah Nix (Helen Buday) and Slake (Tom Jennings), have created their own social order, language and history out of fragments of memory and random objects that survived the crash. They await the return of Captain Walker, who they believe will save them, like a messiah, by leading them to "Tomorrow-morrow Land"—and they mistake Max for Captain Walker. The inspiration that children are able to give Max should be familiar to anyone who remembers the Feral Kid from Road Warrior. But the exhausted wanderer of Thunderdome does everything he can to resist the savior's role that these children are so eager for him to assume. When he refused Pappagallo's invitation to join in the fight against the Humungus, Max still believed he could live on his own forever, cruising the wasteland behind the wheel. Now, he's just weary. He's seen what's out there and believes the children are already in the best place for them. Only when a rebellious group led by Savannah slips away in secret to search for Tomorrow-morrow Land does Max find himself forced into action. His rescue mission inevitably leads him back to Bartertown and his old enemy, Aunty. Miller has been criticized for ending Thunderdome with a chase sequence, as if the conclusion were tacked on solely to satisfy the expectations of Mad Max fans. In fact, the elaborate escape in the train engine that powers Bartertown's Underworld is an essential part of the story. Aunty and her operatives have gone to great lengths to present their new city as a paragon of civilization, but when their power source is threatened, they reveal their true nature. As they climb into vehicles and roar across the desert, they become indistinguishable from the forces of the Humungus, and although the train sequence isn't as long as the tanker chase in Road Warrior, it contains many visual reminders of that operatic demolition derby, with chief henchman Ironbar performing actions that mimic the Humungus' top warrior, Wez. With a few differences, Max ends up in much the same place as he did in Road Warrior: bidding adieu to the founders of a new society who will always remember him. He glimpses the promised land, but never reaches it. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome may not offer the non-stop rush of Mad Max or The Road Warrior, but it's a thought-provoking film with a rich visual texture that has grown with age and reveals additional layers on subsequent viewings. Writer-director Miller could have taken the safe path by staging another chase film, but instead he tried to ask serious questions about what a man like Max might do next, and the results branch out in interesting directions while remaining true to the franchise. The film is dedicated to Miller's long-time partner, Byron Kennedy, who died in a tragic helicopter crash while scouting locations for the film. (Miller's grief over the loss is reportedly why he turned over some of the directing duties to colleague George Ogilvie.) It's an honorable legacy. Highly recommended. Cast Notes: Mel Gibson (Mad Max Rockatansky), Bruce Spence (Jedediah the Pilot), Adam Cockburn (Jedediah Jr.), Tina Turner (Aunty Entity), Frank Thring (The Collector), Angelo Rossitto (The Master), Paul Larsson (The Blaster), Angry Anderson (Ironbar), Robert Grubb (Pig Killer), George Spartels (Blackfinger), Edwin Hodgeman (Dr. Dealgood), Bob Hornery (Waterseller), Andrew Oh (Ton Ton Tattoo), Ollie Hall (Aunty's Guard), Lee Rice (Aunty's Guard). IMDb Rating (08/03/13): 6.1/10 from 58,622 users
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