Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Amazon.com

Although Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third part of George Miller's post-apocalyptic Mad Max trilogy, is certainly the least of the bunch (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is the undisputed masterpiece, and maybe the best action movie ever made), it has still got a good share of imaginative industrial-wasteland-pastiche imagery. And casting Tina Turner as Aunty Entity, the queen of Bartertown, was a masterstroke. Mel Gibson's character Max is pitted in a battle to the death against the bizarre Master Blaster in the Thunderdome, flying around on rubbery straps inside a sort of gigantic overturned colander with bloodthirsty spectators clinging to the outside. Miller's producing partner, Byron Kennedy, was killed in a helicopter crash while scouting locations for this film. Miller was devastated, only agreeing to direct the action sequences--and, somehow, you feel his heart wasn't entirely in it. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

No future in feudalism and slavery.......2007-08-13

The motor vehicles are going to be there, even a plane. The desert is going to be there too. But the whole world has regressed for a reason we don't know - but do we care? - losing all its technology and its energy. But Mel Gibson takes the orientation that humanity will not regress in inventiveness nor even in intelligence, which means it will reinvent some kind of civilization by developing new sources of energy, this time the energy that can be produced by pig slime, the gas that comes out of it that can be used in plenty of machines and for might. Thus they reinvent a civilization based on pig slime (and that is a Pauline element that must not be neglected: it is neither Jewish, nor Moslem) as the source of energy of their society. That's the positive point. But there is another side that is less positive. The necessity to establish some protective body and some protection against the outside world and outsiders that may try to intrude, some captured power and established their absolute authority over the others in a society that cannot afford the luxury of democracy, just some kind of rules that are not really written but chanted at any crucial moment like a performative prayer. Hence they reinvent feudalism for most people and slavery for some. They reinvent circus games to entertain the masses and control human emotions and passions. Gladiators reappear as such public performances: two men go in and one leaves, provided he kills the other one before. If he does not then he breaks the deal and has to face the wheel that can give him any kind of violent end, death by what ever torture you may imagine, the best choice (at least you survive some time without any direct physical torture and maiming) being the Gulag: to be sent in the heart of the desert and die there, at best of thirst. But Mel Gibson is already taken by the divine devil of some religious vision more or less inspired by the Bible. So the whole story is told by the survivors a certain hero-messiah-savior has helped escape this hell in order to move back to the derelict and ruinous cities of the old days. And this salvation is in fact a union of him, Mad Max, with these outcasts in order to re-enter Bartertown, the city of the dominant society that lives on pig energy. There they are able to recapture some vehicles to escape this world, at first a "train" that runs on rails, and, at the end of the tracks, a plane that was waiting for some opportunity to serve, with its pilot and a kid enjoying their permanent idleness. A rainbow alliance of all against this tyrannical society of Bartertown. And they manage to escape except Mad Max who has to sacrifice his own life to enable the others to fly away. And he will be left there in the middle of the desert to die of thirst probably. But what can we say about this vision of the future after the final catastrophe that will bring humanity back to antiquity? First the tyrannical society is led by a woman, mind you black, and she is a more violent and exacting leader than any fascist leader you can have met in history textbooks. Women, and black women at that, are not representing a soft and comfortable future. But maybe only black women will be able to govern the people to survive these dire straits? That's an idea. Especially since the one who is telling the story of Mad Max the Savior is a woman too, though white. Maybe after all women have to become central because of their role in procreation, and surviving in difficult circumstances is not a question of sex, or sex does not make the slightest difference, and yet the gladiators are men (listen to the chant) and the savior is a man. Is there some sexism and a touch of racism in Mel Gibson's vision? What's important after all is to be able to impose the discipline necessary to survive as a group with some indispensable hierarchy. Humanity will not regress to any inferior level of intelligence, as H.G. Wells had thought for example in The Time Machine. What will regress is the social order, the mode of production. No more supermarkets for humanity but only bartering. No more democracy but feudalism. No more free labor market but slavery and serfdom for most. No more virtual games and entertainments but real gladiators games and fights to the death. And no escape from this hell on earth but thanks to a savior that will lead the outcasts of this society to a migration back to the old cities and skyscrapers of the past where they will have to reinvent what is indispensable for humanity to become better, a religion based on a human savior who is also divine since he was the savior and died in his self-imposed mission. We can smile at the naivety of the idea, but it is inescapable and true that there cannot be any real humane civilization without a spiritual ideology or attitude, and that is called a religion or a philosophy, and these civilizing factors are based on the personality of one person, a savior in the Christian tradition, a prophet in the Jewish or Moslem tradition, or a founder in the Buddhist tradition. And it does not matter whether it is a myth or whether the action of the man has been distorted to stick to some kind of rite. What is important is that such a figure is the inspirer of humanism and human life. Humanity cannot be human without a religion of some spiritual belief.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Everthing and everone he knew is gone.......2007-06-06

He had a wife and son, both gone. I like that is set in parts of Austraila.
Tina Tuner, Mel Gibson

The End of Max?.......2006-09-24

The original concept for MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME didn't even include Mad Max. The original idea was about a group of orphaned children living out in the wild alone and a man who finds them. Then someone came up with the idea of Max being their "savior" and the film soon became a "Mad Max" project.

In MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME, Max is left alone to "die" in the desert. He makes his way through and comes to Bartertown, a city of last resort that has been able to maintain some of the technological capabilities of our former civilization. Bartertown might have been influenced by old Western bordertowns, but it reminded me of a poor-persons version of Mos Eisly from STAR WARS. Anyway, Max finds himself in the middle of a power struggle in the town and ends up fighting in a Coliseum like place called the Thunderdome, but people in Bartertown don't fight fair and after the fight Max is banished from the city into the desert. There he is found by a group of orphaned children who believe he is the pilot of their plane that crashed many years ago. Some of the children believe it is time to leave and return to their true home and they follow Max, but before they can return to their place of origin, they have to go through Bartertown.

MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME had the biggest budget of any Mad Max film. It re-united star Mel Gibson with director George Miller and a second director was hired so Miller could focus on the vehicle chases and action sequences. The film also has Tina Turner playing the villain, Aunty Entity. With all that going for it the film should have been something extraordinary.

Instead MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME ended up being the least thrilling of the Mad Max films. There's more action in the film than in the previous films in the series and Aunty Entity is a nemesis with more character than ones we've seen Max face before. And of course there's an awesome chase sequence at the end of the film.

The major problem with MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME is that there is too much going on in the film. ROAD WARRIOR had a very strict plot and even MAD MAX with all the back-story and character build-up had a fairly simple plot, but BEYOND THUNDERDOME is filled with all sorts of convolutions. The movie opens promising enough with a little bit of humor (the opening scene reminds me of an INDIANA JONES humorous moment), but when the action moves to Bartertown things get complicated. First there's the whole idea of how Bartertown is operated. Then there's the power struggle that we have to be acquainted with. There's also the concept of the Thunderdome and the purpose it serves and why it exists. Along the way we also discover that there's a entire class system to Bartertown: the lower classes and untouchables are forced to work in the sties of pig poop that power the city and they are on the verge of revolting. Had the action been confined to Bartertown, things wouldn't have been too bad. But just as one thinks the movie is ending and entire new element is added: the orphaned children living in the wild who think Max is Captain Walker come back from the land beyond to save them. Of course, after the kids are introduced you just know that they are going to end up fighting the evil overlords of Bartertown and they do. The lost kids really screwed with the movie big time. In MAD MAX the bad guys ran over children for pleasure. In BEYOND THUNDERDOME we sense that these baddies are bad, but not bad enough to actually kill the kids. They just want to enslave them or raise them up as heirs. So, instead of enriching the movie, the second act ends up twisting it; think of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and how all those stolen children screwed up that film. Of course, there's also the problem of Tina Turner. She's about as convincing as an evil powerful warlord as Paris Hilton is as a spokesperson for being celibate.

Still, MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME does have its moments. George Miller knows how to film chase scenes and the final chase that makes up the last act of the movie is an extraordinary bit of filmmaking involving a flying machine, a train, and lots and lots and lots of other cars and motorized vehicles. Of course, there's also Mel Gibson as Max. ROAD WARRIOR was a superior movie, but the Max in BEYOND THUNDERDOME is the most likeable; he has all the wisdom and experience from the first two films, but regains the compassion and joy he had during most of the first movie. Maybe Max isn't so mad anymore.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.......2006-08-10

so far so good . Have not watched it yet. Ocean7739

Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It........2006-08-05

`Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome', directed by Kennedy - Miller, and starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner, is an obvious and explicit sequel to the iconic sleeper, `The Road Warrior'. In many ways, `...Beyond Thunderdome' is a better movie, but when all is said and done, `...Beyond Thunderdome' does just a bit too much copying of its precursor to stand on it's own two feet, like `Aliens', as an independent movie.

Some of the many things which are better are the acting, the believability of the heavies and their back story, the sound track, including two terrific performances by Tina Turner, and the subplot involving the gang of `lost boys' in the second half of the movie.

And yet, the story seems just a little contrived. Both the master-blaster character pair and the `lost boys' story seem just a bit too contrived. On the other side of the coin, the development of what may be called `The Lord of the Flies' premise, where children are left to their own devices, is masterfully done, enhanced so well by morphing the language from modern Australian slang to something bordering on a new dialect makes one want to check that the script wasn't written by Anthony Burgess (see his `Clockwork Orange', as realized by Stanley Kubrick).

My primary objective in writing this review is to celebrate my adoration for this movie, which affected me almost as much as `2001' and `Lord of the Rings', even though these are far superior movies overall. A fairer comparison is to `Silent Running', the ecodisaster story featuring Bruce Dern and a soundtrack of Joan Baez songs. Both movies simply struck a chord with their very effective warnings about how mankind may shoot itself in the food.

Unfortunately, both movies are also not strong enough to sustain an effective suspension of disbelief to last beyond the walk to the theatre doors after seeing them for the third or fourth time. Where `Alien' and `Blade Runner' work, these work just a bit less well.

But they are still important films.

Average customer rating:

Frank and Ollie
Frank and Ollie
animation gold
Frank and Ollie (Special Edition)
A wonderful look into the lives of Frank and Ollie

Frank and Ollie (Special Edition)
Starring: Frank Thomas , Ollie Johnston , Sylvia Roemer , John Canemaker , and John Culhane
Director: Theodore Thomas
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Animation | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0000TAYSO
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Amazon.com

Frank and Ollie is a highly controlled glimpse at a unique friendship. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of Walt Disney's famous Nine Old Men original animators, are such naturals on camera, they'll put a smile on any audience member. The two met at the Stanford Art School in 1931. Sixty years later the next-door neighbors are so close they meet when taking out the garbage. They have seldom been farther apart. Director, writer, and coproducer Theodore Thomas (Frank's son) is at his best when his film is at its simplest. When Frank and Ollie are at a desk talking to the unseen narrator, it's magical. The two are so in tune they unselfishly finish each other's sentences.

Frank and Ollie is basically a handsomely produced home movie. Nary a negative remark is heard, a procedure challenged, a spark of unpredictability captured. The early scene of Ollie and Frank "accidentally" meeting at the garbage cans is embarrassingly contrived. Yet these aged animators win the audience over. Who cares if the documentary is rehearsed? Anyone who grew up with Disney animation (who hasn't?) will revel in the tidbits Frank and Ollie reveal, including Thumper's origin in Bambi and the ending of The Jungle Book (the film's funniest and most spontaneous bit). --Doug Thomas

Description

Before computer graphics, special effects wizardry, and out-of-this world technology, the magic of animation flowed from the pencils of two of the greatest animators The Walt Disney Company ever produced -- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Frank and Ollie, the talent behind BAMBI, PINOCCHIO, LADY AND THE TRAMP, THE JUNGLE BOOK, and others, set the standard for such modern-day hits as THE LION KING. It was their creative genius that helped make Disney synonymous with brilliant animation, magnificent music, and emotional storytelling. Take a journey with these extraordinary artists as they share secrets, insights, and the inspiration behind some of the greatest animated movies the world has ever known!

Customer Reviews:

Frank and Ollie.......2007-07-12

Warm, uplifting film gives insight into animation techniques and advances, as it follows this match made in heaven. Frank and Ollie are the types who could complete each other's sentences, if they chose to. What comes through as they reach senior citizen status is the love and reverence they have for their chosen field, and for each other. A thoroughly winning film, great for adults and older kids.

Frank and Ollie.......2007-01-04

Fascinating, insightful, and uplifting review by Frank and Ollie about their personal stories, their relationship with each other and Disney, and the impact their talents had on Disney legacy.

animation gold.......2006-02-16

I had only seen the vhs version before and I really enjoyed it. Watching the DVD extras...Wow! There are some amazing pencil tests of classic Disney scenes, interviews with animators Glen Keane and Andreas Dejas on Frank and Ollie and some great old home movies of them during the Golden Age of Animation. Fantastic DVD!

Frank and Ollie (Special Edition).......2005-08-12

I found this to be superb. If you love Disney movies and animation, seeing this is a must!

A wonderful look into the lives of Frank and Ollie.......2001-07-20

This is a wonderful tale of 2 of Walt Disney's "nine old men". I had no idea that the two of them were as close as they were. Shot in a documentary-style, so the viewer has a sense of being their houseguest. Lifelong friends, who shared the same career, and very similar, and disimilar life experiences. This film is for anyone who truly appreciates classic animation. By the end of the film, I understood their artistic motivations, as well as their struggles and triumphs. I also got some insight into their relationship with Walt(Disney), and how his death affected them. A truly wonderful film. I own a copy, and highly recommend it.

Average customer rating:

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Region 2]
Starring: Mel Gibson , Tina Turner , Bruce Spence , Adam Cockburn , and Frank Thring
Director: George Miller (II) , and George Ogilvie
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00004VYLC

Average customer rating:

No future in feudalism and slavery
Everthing and everone he knew is gone
The End of Max?
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It.

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00004RYJD

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

No future in feudalism and slavery.......2007-08-13

Everthing and everone he knew is gone.......2007-06-06

He had a wife and son, both gone. I like that is set in parts of Austraila.
Tina Tuner, Mel Gibson

The End of Max?.......2006-09-24

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.......2006-08-10

so far so good . Have not watched it yet. Ocean7739

Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It........2006-08-05

Average customer rating:

No future in feudalism and slavery
Everthing and everone he knew is gone
The End of Max?
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It.

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00004CXXA

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

No future in feudalism and slavery.......2007-08-13

Everthing and everone he knew is gone.......2007-06-06

He had a wife and son, both gone. I like that is set in parts of Austraila.
Tina Tuner, Mel Gibson

The End of Max?.......2006-09-24

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.......2006-08-10

so far so good . Have not watched it yet. Ocean7739

Lush continuation of 'The Road Warrior'. Buy It........2006-08-05

Average customer rating:

Great action movie!

Lethal Ninja
Starring: Ross Kettle , Norman Coombes , Kimberleigh Stark , Frank Notaro , and Ken Gampu
Director: Yossi Wein
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000085RQ4

Customer Reviews:

Great action movie!.......2002-01-13

One of the best martial arts movies I have ever seen. The action seems more realistic.

DVD:

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