November 23, 2009
— Russ from Winterset Over in the Katie Couric thread, Ace was doing a free-form jam on the pros & cons of the three Mad Max movies, which have been on heavy rotation the last week or so on American Movie Classics. I just wanted to add a few thoughts and observations to the mix:
Update [ace]: Let me just repost this before Russ continues. There, okay. Back to Russ.
1. In Mad Max (1979), there is no attempt to explain the breakdown of society. No armageddon, no "war for The Juice" or anything like that. Just all-out war between "The Bronze" and the Glory Roaders. "Goose" the motorcycle cop is probably the most sympathetic character in all the movies, and he gets turned into a crispy critter right before Max's wife & child get run down by "The Toe Cutter" and his biker trash.
The bikes in this movie definitely prove that it was filmed in 1970s Australia. Kawasaki KZ900s, Suzuki GT750s and other Jap bikes were everywhere, and I don't remember seeing a single American V-twin in the whole production. Definitely cool for an afficionado of early 70's rice rockets and "do it yourself" cafe racers like myself.
The ending of this movie was Pure "Death Wish". Max chains "Johnny the Boy" to a wrecked car & sets up an explosion. He then casually tosses him a hacksaw & says "The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. It'd take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now, if you're lucky, you could hack through your ankle in five minutes. Go." If Dick Cheney drank Fosters & dipped his chips in Vegemite, this would be his life story.
2. In the sequel, The Road Warrior (1981) is undisputedly the Gold Standard for car chases. I'm a big fan of the Ford Mustang/Dodge Charger battle in "Bullitt", but no way does it hold a candle to the last 45 minutes or so of this movie. I remember seeing this movie the first time on HBO. We were out "scooping the loop" in high school, maybe 1984 or early '85, and a bunch of us decided to go to Jim Oliver's house for a sandwich. His dad was still up watching this movie on TV, and we sat down and watched it with him.
The initial narration (which we find out later was done by Emil Minty's "Feral Kid" character) tells us this backstory:
My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams. This wasted land. But most of all, I remember The Road Warrior. The man we called "Max". To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time. When the world was powered by the black fuel. And the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing. They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled. The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men. On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed. Men like Max. The warrior Max. In the roar of an engine, he lost everything. And became a shell of a man, a burnt out, desolate man, a man haunted by the demons of his past, a man who wandered out into the wasteland. And it was here, in this blighted place, that he learned to live again...
So it appears that they've added a Global War, a Nuclear Exchange & a petroleum shortage to the backstory. Did all this happen prior to the events of "Mad Max"? I've always thought that "Mad Max" was set in the time just before everything went completely sideways. Not that it couldn't have been a post-nuclear movie, but I never really got an "On The Beach" vibe from the first movie of the trilogy.
What I want to know is where are all the economy cars in this movie? If "The Juice" is precious enough to tie up 50 to 100 crazy bikers outside a small refinery at the ass-end of nowhere, why aren't those guys trying to stretch out their gasoline a little further? I mean, Jumpin Jesus at the Drive-In, these guys are driving around in 6 mpg gas hogs like its a remake of "American Grafitti", and they're willing to kill people for another tank of gas? A tank of gas that would only get them another 200 miles down the road, maximum? Of course, the final chase scene would have lost a little bit of its shine if the vehicles were all Karman Ghias and Datsun B210s, but still, lets get a LITTLE realism in the movies, mmmmKay?
The "Warrior Woman" from this movie, Virginia Hey? Sci-Fi fanboys might also know her as Zhann, the half-human, half-plant hot blue chick from Farscape. Two roles that inspired an epidemic of carpal tunnel disability in male viewers, IYKWIMAITTYD.
3. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) has held up fairly well over time, but back when it came out, it was widely viewed as the last gasp of a successful franchise. The Apocalyptic Background Story is right out there in the open now. Fallout in the water, cities blasted by radiation so badly that nobody could live in them. Funny, but you would have thought that these things would have been a BIG plot point in the original Mad Max.
The bad guys are still refugees from a softcore bondage movie, but now they're full-on cartoon characters. Tina Turner's "Auntie Entity" gets a pass, because Tina herself gets a pass on going "over the top" just because of who she is. But her #1 henchman "Ironbar" is a sissy who wears a freakin' kabuki mask on an IRON BAR (heh, I see what you did there, Mr. Miller) strapped to his back. Does this function as some sort of defense mechanism, like a frog that appears to have a face on its back? Did this guy wake up one day and ask himself "Hey, wouldn't I have a better chance of winning a fight if I could convince my opponent to direct his fury at a FALSE FACE, located above and behind my real face?" This defensive adaptation seems about as useful as a bulletproof vest made out of mercury fulminate & homemade C4. All this guy is missing is a bad Stepin Fetchit accent & bunny ears, and he's a post-apocalyptic Jar Freakin' Jar. "Meesa not like pigpooh smell."
And to top it all off, you've got a big underground pig farm run by the Midget Genius "Master" who rides on the back of Giant Window-Licker "Blaster"? Now, since I AM from Iowa, I can see the attraction of a "renewable resource" like methane produced from decaying pigcrap. What I don't understand, and please correct me if I've missed something here, is how you FEED this giant herd of pigs.......when they're located smack dab in the middle of a radioactive desert? After all, pig crap doesn't just fall from the sky like rain. It comes from pigs. Well fed pigs. And....well....it just seems that if you can produce enough grain to feed pigs & then use their crap as the basis of your entire power generation technology.........wouldn't it be easier to "cut out the middleman" and take a portion of the grain you're feeding to the pigs & make ethanol out of it? It would sure as hell smell a WHOLE LOT better if they had a giant ethanol plant under Bartertown, versus giant simmering vats of pig pooh. Its not as if the pig farm was a dual purpose operation: when Max goes underground to infiltrate the pig farm & kill Blaster for Auntie Entity, we meet "Pigkiller", who has been sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor for........yeah, I know......killing a pig.
You know what? I just realized why I never really took a shine to this movie. A world where people who kill pigs for food are condemned to death is a world where Bacon is a Capital Crime. And that's just wrong, man. WRONG!
Anyway, "Thunderdome" is cool, as is the oasis where all the abandoned kids are living. The fight scene is a pale imitation of the car chase in the second movie, but Dr. Dealgood's speech before the Thunderdome fight is a keeper. And the locomotive/car chase? A pale imitation of a pale imitation of an Osmond Brothers home movie re-enactment of the car chase from "The Road Warrior". And the whole plot twist with the oasis full of children left to die in the desert by Captain Walker & their parents? The cynic in me says that the only reason to add this to the movie is so that Tina could sing "We Don't Need Another Hero" with the chorus of children in the background. I appreciate the backstory of the children & their parents carving their names into the rock before setting out on a walk to their doom, but it didn't seem to "mesh" with the rest of the movie.
While I was over at IMDB researching this post, I saw that Charlize Theron is rumored to be involved in a fourth installment in this series.
Yeah............that'll end well. Will there be a Crystal Skull involved too? Or maybe Mad Max will borrow George Clooney's be-nippled bat-armour from "Batman & Robin". And maybe we'll finally find out why Max is still "Mad" after all these years....(HINT: it's probably got something to do with the JOOOOOOOS).
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at
09:09 PM
| Comments (198)
Post contains 1670 words, total size 9 kb.
Posted by: Iskandar at November 23, 2009 09:22 PM (u1pln)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 09:24 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:29 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:30 PM (jlvw3)
Road Warrior seems to be on everyone's "sequels better than the originals" list. Free your minds, boys, and your glutes will follow.
Posted by: oblig. at November 23, 2009 09:32 PM (aK/MY)
I always thought Mad Max took place after the war but before things had disintegrated to Road Warrior levels and the police force Max was on was the last vestige of law and order. Then of course Road Warrior is when everything is chaos. I always hated Beyond Thunderdome and haven't watched it in forever, i'll have to give it a gander to see if it'll change my mind.
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 09:32 PM (XllG0)
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 09:34 PM (XllG0)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:35 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 09:36 PM (Ybskg)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 09:37 PM (muUqs)
I know that I'm being "That Guy" when I try to piece together continuity in a Movie Trilogy, but I can't help thinking that the nuclear exchange happened between "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior". I don't remember a single reference to fallout or radiation in MM.
Maybe it was a progressive apocalypse? MM occured during the initial stage of the breakdown, TRW was during the initial exchange & MMBT happened years later after the Major Powers had gone all "Doomsday Device" and irradiated the planet beyond all imagination?
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 09:37 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:39 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 09:41 PM (Ybskg)
Look at this Verti-Gate. Brings a smile to my face.
BTW, I know the car was a modified Ford Falcon.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 09:44 PM (Ybskg)
Not only were the cars friggin' huge in Road Warrior, they loaded 'em up with armor and all kinds of shit. Definitely would cut down on mpg.
But who gives a crap? We got cable for the first time back in 1982 and this movie was on heavy rotation on the movie channels. Seeing as how I was 11 or 12 then, watching this movie was an epiphany. Awesome flick that still holds up really well.
Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at November 23, 2009 09:44 PM (P33XN)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:44 PM (jlvw3)
If you've seen "On the Beach" they address the fallout question. A big nuclear exchange between America & the USSR would have left Australia largely untouched by The Mushrooms, but the fallout would have drifted in over time.
As far as the cities in MMBT being radioactive wastelands, maybe there were Secondary Nukes used during the post-war period? Maybe what was left of the Chinese military tried to muscle in on Australia & the cities got nuked in the process?
I don't really know how to tie it all together. You're right, in that there WAS no underlying mythos for them to build on. MM was "Throw Another Death Wish on The Barbie", and TRW was "Gay Bondage Porn Bullitt". I guess that would make MMBT sort of George Miller's way to cash another paycheck & sort of wrap up the story, in a halfassed way.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 09:46 PM (/MEFr)
They probably went right after all the cows were eaten.
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 09:46 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 09:47 PM (Weq7t)
Well, maybe you can't link eBay pics.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 09:47 PM (Ybskg)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 09:49 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 09:51 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:51 PM (jlvw3)
The Road Warrior is gay? Well, I did notice tonight that Vernon Wells had a bleach blond cake boy snuggled up MIGHTY close to him on his bike. Then he ripped an arrow out of his own arm and everything was all right.
Who are we to judge, though? Maybe massive doses of radiation would turn most guys into pillow biters with mohawks. Also, didn't see a lot of wimmins in the Outback.
If you really want to see gay, watch Vernon Wells mince his way through Commando. That's truly cringe inducing.
Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at November 23, 2009 09:54 PM (P33XN)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:54 PM (jlvw3)
They did have some dry moats that cars couldn't traverse but, yea, that was kinda funny. When the guy flew over the compound in the copter you could see there plenty of easier areas to attack. That's why there weren't many wide shots of the one-wall fort they were hiding in.
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 09:55 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 09:58 PM (jlvw3)
The AMC was a Javelin, cousin to the AMX. Look at the pic. (An AMX.) You can see why we had that confused with Max's Falcon.
One of them had a 390 cu in engine that cranked out nearly 400 hp. (I could have sworn it was bigger than a Chevy big block, somewhere upwards of 500 cu in.)
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 09:59 PM (Ybskg)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:00 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:00 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 10:02 PM (Weq7t)
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 10:03 PM (XllG0)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:04 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:06 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 10:08 PM (Weq7t)
The cities could have gotten nuked in the aftermath of the big exchange between the superpowers. If the remains of post-apocalyptic China's army had turned South & tried to muscle into Australia to try and take over its resources, I could see the same sort of mental midgets who touched off the initial apocalypse deciding to use tactical nukes to stop the overwhelming number (yeah, even after you've nuked half of them, they're still "600 million screamin' Chinamen") of enemy troops moving into their cities. Since Australia's big cities are mostly on the coast, it would make sense that China or whoever was still around could move in quickly & get a toehold in the urban areas before anyone authorized using more nukes.
Hell, I don't know. I'm just making shit up as I go along. Like Snake Plissken. What I do know is that George Miller missed dropping a nuclear cultural reference into MMBT. Instead of "Captain Walker" being the guy who crashed & left all those kids in the desert, he should have made it "Leftenant Hatton" (the pilot of the "Lady Be Good"). I think that "Captain Walker" was a character from The Who's "Tommy", but going all "old school bleached bones in the Libyan desert" with Lt. Hatton would have been inside joke nirvana.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:09 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 10:10 PM (Weq7t)
"Possible consequences include Death, Hard Labour, Acquittal, Gulag, Aunty's Choice, Spin Again, Forfeit Goods, Underworld, Amputation, and Life Imprisonment".
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:10 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:10 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 10:11 PM (XllG0)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:14 PM (jlvw3)
Dude.....it's GARY BUSEY! If I had the choice between a bug-faced alien with luminescent blood & a fetish for killing - and Gary Freakin' Busey.........I'd choose the bug-faced one every freakin' time. Even Chris Walken is scared of Gary Busey.
Chuck Norris? Not "scared", but you'll never see Chuck turn his back on Gary Busey. Ever. Gary stays in view at all times. Just in case.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:14 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 10:15 PM (XllG0)
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 10:15 PM (Ybskg)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:15 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:15 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 10:16 PM (Weq7t)
Well, in the movie they DID mention that the biker trash had only been attacking the refinery for a few days. Ace might be right, and the defenders retreated into the "tirefort" to defend themselves.
I like to think that the refinery defenders stumbled upon the refinery a few weeks before the Humongous showed up, and they were just making a pit stop to brew up some juice on their way to The Northern Territories. It wasn't a long term stronghold, but they had to shore up the defenses & fight it out with the bikers rather than taking their chances on the open road.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:18 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:18 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:21 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:21 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:23 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 10:23 PM (Weq7t)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:24 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: Johnny I at November 23, 2009 10:24 PM (wRAyx)
Posted by: eman at November 23, 2009 10:25 PM (Weq7t)
Mel Gibson should make the next installment. It'll be old Max in his last big battle, reluctantly, once more kicking ass for the little guy. Prolly giving his life saving a village or something. Great way to go back to the well one more time and kill-off the character.
Plus, with Gibson money backing it up, hooboy.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 10:26 PM (Ybskg)
I mean aren't cars with blowers notorious gas guzzlers?
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:26 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: Dirk Diggler at November 23, 2009 10:26 PM (7hbDl)
Ah, that's right. Been a while since i've watched it.
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 10:27 PM (XllG0)
Or, maybe some of them wanted to make a "home" in a spot where they had all that "juice" at their fingertips. Possibly, they thought that possessing the only fuel in the area gave them enough power to dictate terms to the trash & arrive at a negotiated settlement. People get funny when they start thinking that they've only got one way out (sticking with "the juice" and forcing a settlement with Lord Humongous)
And the gyrocaptain would sure as hell have heard about a battle occuring at the refinery, even if it was less than a week old.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:27 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: fartbubble at November 23, 2009 10:27 PM (cBeTr)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:28 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: koopy at November 23, 2009 10:29 PM (XllG0)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:30 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:30 PM (/MEFr)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:31 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 23, 2009 10:31 PM (/MEFr)
He calls him QUICK when Max grabs that snake.
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:32 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:32 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Johnny I at November 23, 2009 10:32 PM (wRAyx)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:33 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 10:34 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 10:44 PM (Ybskg)
Posted by: Johnny I at November 23, 2009 10:54 PM (wRAyx)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 10:55 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 11:06 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: caspera at November 23, 2009 11:07 PM (pK+Zi)
Giant carbs that flush gas like a toilet. I think these are the first movies that I saw with the shot of the intake butterflies opening-- sproing!
Johnny, when Max pulls the plunger on the gearshift, the supercharger engages--the pulley starts spinning. No butterflies. I don't blame you for remembering it that way, though, because every dragster ever seen has three butterflies opening up at the start of the race.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 11:15 PM (WRPFj)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 11:18 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 11:21 PM (jlvw3)
Has anyone ever noticed that the town in The Road Warrior has big walls at the gate, and absolutely no walls whatsoever on the sides and rear?
The highway trash would seem to be pretty dumb. They keep coming to the well-defended gate, rather than going to the completely-unprotected sides and rear of the town.
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 11:21 PM (muUqs)
Ace, it's been so long since I've seen it, all I remember is the interceptor being caught or rammed from behind. Didn't seem likely.
I can just hear the creative meeting: "Okay, we have to separate Max from the interceptor to cast-off the past and for the big climax where he'll be driving a truck, so we'll destroy it. Besides, his new tribe is the source of his power now, yada yada yada."
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 11:21 PM (WRPFj)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 11:23 PM (jlvw3)
I remember butterflies...
Sure it wasn't a super-charger causing the motor to start bucking with power? Cause the flattened-oval scoop had no butterflies, as far as I remember. I remember, because I tracked down the manufacturer when I was in high school, because I thought it was the coolest scoop I'd ever seen, and I had this crazy dream of having a car with that look.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 11:25 PM (WRPFj)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 11:30 PM (muUqs)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 11:33 PM (jlvw3)
I don't even know what butterflies are. I am guessing they are the butterfly-shaped thingees that flip open to allow air-intake. See how little I know? I am forced to guess that's what they are... but I think that's what you mean.
Yep. Every drag race you've ever seen has that shot at the beginning of every race. So we've all seen it a thousand times, even if we don't get into racing tv.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 11:36 PM (WRPFj)
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 23, 2009 11:45 PM (WRPFj)
Posted by: ace at November 23, 2009 11:48 PM (jlvw3)
Posted by: Dr. Spank at November 23, 2009 11:52 PM (muUqs)
They gave him an upgraded car halfway through the movie to encourage him to stay with the force.
Oh, yeah.
I'm lucky. I get to watch the movies again without a lot of the key elements fresh in mind. It's not going to be like seeing them for the first time again, but it'll be about as close as you can get. Cool. I'm always wanting to see movies for the first time again.
I'm jealous of Dumb-Blonde, one of your commentors. She hasn't seen Aliens yet. What fun. I told her she's going to enjoy that one.
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 24, 2009 12:14 AM (WRPFj)
i have switched for boobies and see none.
Google Carrie Keagan. Heh, I just sent her a friend request on FaceBook. Andy Levy is a mutual friend. But I'm sure she'll shoot it down.
Speaking of Levy, he says KSM's favorite word is "boobies"; his least favorite, "can't."
Posted by: ADD McFoolishness (rdb) at November 24, 2009 12:17 AM (WRPFj)
And as for the lack of horses, they were killed and fed to the pigs.
Posted by: gau at November 24, 2009 12:42 AM (n1uMU)
Posted by: Johnny I at November 24, 2009 12:47 AM (wRAyx)
Posted by: Cybrludite at November 24, 2009 12:49 AM (GDpMq)
Posted by: Johnny I at November 24, 2009 12:50 AM (wRAyx)
Posted by: moviegique at November 24, 2009 01:55 AM (1y5Vr)
Oh, and by the way, yours truly had the first and only correct answer.
Posted by: 13times at November 24, 2009 03:00 AM (UxO78)
x10 for MMBT.
Posted by: nickless at November 24, 2009 03:26 AM (MMC8r)
Posted by: Wyatt Earp at November 24, 2009 03:37 AM (zgZzy)
The world belongs to the young, so let's discuss movies that matter! Let's talk about the Star Trek reboot and episodes Episode 1-3 of Star Wars!
Posted by: Tom in Korea at November 24, 2009 03:41 AM (+gX1+)
One thing that I took away from all 3 movies in The Trilogy:
The Post-Apocalyptic World will prize blue collar artists above all else.
Think about it. If you're a paraplegic who has wicked mechanical skills, your counterparts will provide you with a cool sling, your own tow truck, and multiple assistants. If you're a "little person" who can McGyver together a power grid out of pigcrap and baling wire, you'll get your own Giant Window-Licking Assassin to ride on while you make the rounds of Bartertown.
You think that the surviving Forensic Accountants and Regional Sales Managers in this post-apocalyptic hell will get these same sorts of accomodations? Not bloody likely.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 24, 2009 03:44 AM (/MEFr)
Posted by: somejoe at November 24, 2009 04:02 AM (8O1wA)
I've always thought the Alien vs Predator movies were blasphemy. But then again, Predator 2 was blasphemy, how the hell do you go from Arnold and his commandos to Gary Busey and Danny Glover?
They chose Gary Busey for his fine motorcycle driving skills.
Posted by: Roy at November 24, 2009 04:10 AM (eUpjP)
If I had the cash, I'm talking 'Go hump a goat' cash, I'd get me a Pursuit Special for cruising with Elizabeth in some light leather something or another.
It's a double win because 1) I'd be in a Pursuit Special with a blower that would actually work and 2) Elizabeth would be mostly naked.
Posted by: Mortis at November 24, 2009 04:15 AM (hA5JK)
Posted by: Mike and the Bots at November 24, 2009 04:33 AM (1vUKx)
Posted by: fluffy at November 24, 2009 04:33 AM (4Kl5M)
Posted by: shortsighted 52% at November 24, 2009 04:45 AM (PD1tk)
Wolf
PS- look 'em up on IMDB. Worth it.
Posted by: Mr Wolf at November 24, 2009 04:49 AM (r0mEM)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 24, 2009 07:44 AM (/MEFr)
I agree with the idea that people with practical skills would enjoy high demand, and that does seem like a real up-side. However, the MM movies taught me that if there ever is a nuclear war or similar "world ending" catastrophy I hope that the first missile hits me squarely on the noggin. That kind of hell hole couldn't be worth living in. Even at the top of the resulting sociologoical pile, things would be so run down, degraded, and dangerous that there would be little or no pleasure in it. And there's not even a hope for the future to get better, since everything would be poisoned and everybody's DNA would probably be radiation-scrambled. The kids would all have 2 heads or some such. And worse yet - imagine how the quality of distilled liquors would deteriorate, if you could even get them! Adult beverages would all probably taste like pee fermented under a jail cell radiator. Life would go back to being nasty, brutish, and short.
Posted by: Reactionary at November 24, 2009 04:54 AM (P+HSn)
One of the reasons I hated "Thunderdome" was the way they grabbed concepts from every George Lucas movie in sight. The plagiarism was so ridiculous I was sure he was going to sue them.
A thug threatens Max by swinging a pair of jackknives and Max shoots him = the Cairo swordsman scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Auntie Entity and her desert palace = Jabba and his desert palace. Master-Blaster was like an evil version of Luke with Yoda on his back, Blaster was a poor-man's Vader. Max unmasking Blaster and changing his mind about killing him = Luke cutting off Vader's hand and changing his mind about killing him, then later unmasking him. The Thunderdome arena itself was reminiscent of the Rancor pit scene, including the Master's lament over his defeated "pet." The tribal children = Ewoks, the way they talked = Yoda. The most blatant theft was the scene where Max chases some guy through a door and then doubles back, followed by a thousand bad guys chasing him = a scene right out of "Temple of Doom."
This movie didn't have a single original idea in it.
Posted by: Crusty at November 24, 2009 04:54 AM (qzgbP)
Posted by: Jean at November 24, 2009 04:54 AM (NfURg)
51 Ever notice that Waterworld is the seagoing version of RW?
Waterworld's still better than that abomination that I saw on SciFi once - Raiders of the Lost City. Rip off Indiana Jones and throw in some GW religion crap, aliens, and tie it all up with an evil Catholic character that wants to cause the world to flood to bring the rapture (???).
Posted by: Kratos (on the back of Gaia, scaling Mt Olympus) at November 24, 2009 04:57 AM (9hSKh)
#117 The world belongs to the young, so let's discuss movies that matter! Let's talk about the Star Trek reboot and episodes Episode 1-3 of Star Wars!
w/e. My summary - Star Trek reboot was okay and fun to watch, even if it made the main characters look ghey and Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars should be destroyed by the direct invention of God (or Zeus, Ra, Cthulhu, whomever your favorite deity is).
Posted by: Kratos (on the back of Gaia, scaling Mt Olympus) at November 24, 2009 05:00 AM (9hSKh)
Posted by: ParisParamus at November 24, 2009 05:01 AM (I2aaX)
I've got a friend who imported a couple of the Falcons.
Posted by: nickless at November 24, 2009 05:02 AM (MMC8r)
Posted by: nickless at November 24, 2009 05:04 AM (MMC8r)
Posted by: Jean at November 24, 2009 05:08 AM (pIKTP)
Posted by: she goat at November 24, 2009 05:09 AM (4Kl5M)
Two standout scenes from the three, both in Roadwarrior.
1) The demolition of the refinery. No fake subscale smoke and mirrors. An attentive viewer could see debris falling just in front of the camera.
2) The collision at the end between the tanker truck and Lord Humungus, or actually the collision of the tanker truck and Lord Humungus with Wez in between. Again, how can one argue with the artistry of debris flying all over the place.
Posted by: J in StL at November 24, 2009 05:09 AM (7RxTg)
Posted by: Def Leppard at November 24, 2009 05:12 AM (hIOnV)
Feral boy had the right idea. Tunnel out and randomly kill the marauders and then dash back. Capture some alive if you can and tie them to the walls.
And scatter caltrops.
Posted by: toby928 at November 24, 2009 05:16 AM (PD1tk)
Jeez, talk about overanalyzing. It's like this:
(1) Mad Max was a slow B-movie revenge story with bikes. Nice 3rd feature at the drive-in.
(2) Road Warrior was a kick-ass action movie from the git-go, with the bad guys being crypto-fags and mutants, and the hidden message being "violence works, don't be such a retarded peacenik."
(3) Beyond Thunderdome was what the Hollywood commies thought they needed to do to win the Road Warrior fans back to communism and submission. Just like Die Hard II had to make the bad guys US Special Forces and the 2nd (or 3rd?) Dirty Harry had to make cops the bad guys. The Hollywood commies cannot leave us with the message that success succeeds, victory wins and violence is the only thing that works on buttheads.
Posted by: Randall Hoven at November 24, 2009 05:27 AM (yxBFl)
Posted by: Jean at November 24, 2009 05:28 AM (6Njk9)
So the Feral Kid was the "Road Warrior" equivalent to Stonewall Jackson or Scippio Africanus? Interesting.
I've always wondered why the bikers didn't set up a picket line around the refinery once it got dark. It didn't take much "sneaking" for Max to slip through their lines on his way to pick up the gyrocaptain & the tanker. Maybe all the bikers were clustered around the fires because their previous attempts to seal off the refinery had all ended with their sentries picked off one by one by the Feral Kid in the dark?
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 24, 2009 05:28 AM (7n7Br)
Posted by: hack at November 24, 2009 05:35 AM (HZcpp)
Jean, I always wondered about the logistics for Lord Humongous. When they bragged "nothing can live in this wasteland" didn't they understand that "nothing" included......a large group of people with no visible supply system?
And how much trouble would it have been for Miller to build a trebuchet for the refinery people? Flaming containers of oil launched skyward would have given them quite a bit of breathing room & forced Lord Humongous to stage his attacks from outside of the range of his PA system. Epic win on three levels - more difficulty for the beseigers because they would have to attack across a longer "no man's land", a psyop win by silencing Lord Humongous' bullhorn, and epic film sequences of the treb crew zeroing in and destroying targets with walking barrages of flaming petroleum.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 24, 2009 05:35 AM (7n7Br)
Best car chase scenes; yes either Bullit or the Mustang Shelby GT500 chase scene in Gone In 60 seconds. But what gets me in these chase scenes is the glaring disparity between the cars. In Bullit the 1969 Dodge Hemi has a hard time with a 390 mustang. LOL, the 390 was an overrated engine, notoriously weak. The 426 hemi was the 800 pound gorilla of its day.
In the more modern Gone in 60 Seconds roles are reversed. The 427 Shelby cobra Mustang has a hard time with a fucking Auidi. Give me a break people.
Posted by: Vic at November 24, 2009 05:39 AM (CDUiN)
Posted by: Jean at November 24, 2009 05:45 AM (1bQOq)
I'm no chemist , but even I can make the stuff .
Lots of black powder rifles back in the day that could have made for a bad day amongst the gay biker clan .
Sharps rifles , google it , you can .
Beats the shit out of crossbows , it does .
Posted by: awkward davies at November 24, 2009 05:50 AM (wb68R)
Age and Treachery will always overcome Youth and Vigor!
Posted by: palin steele at November 24, 2009 05:52 AM (UEEex)
Posted by: awkward davies
Because they're all enviro-hippies who don't want the carbon-dioxide in the air from gun smoke...but they still drive their SUVs everywhere.
Posted by: Crusty at November 24, 2009 06:04 AM (GvSpB)
THANK YOU RUSS!
A thread on movies in a movie thread, praise God!.
To early for me to get talking about movies, but there is only a couple super movies, Casablanca, of course, a close winner over Gone with the Wind for best movie EVAH.
Posted by: Kemp at November 24, 2009 06:09 AM (2+9Yx)
I love the refinery demolition in RW.
"Oy, think we need more dynamite?"
"Yeah, throw a few more sticks in."
Posted by: RarestRX at November 24, 2009 06:12 AM (rmNST)
Pig crap? Pig crap?! Forget about Mad Max for a minute. Would someone explain dragons to me? I've seen the artwork: Huge winged reptiles flying through the air, sometime as steeds in some mythical rocky, mountainous fantasy kingdom. In every depiction of an open-mouthed dragon, you see all these pointy teeth betraying the beast's carnivorous qualities. And they're always flying over some valley made out of rocks and crystals.
But think about this. Judging from the art, a dragon has to weigh at least 3,000 pounds. Airborne locomotion would require a lot of energy, so I figure that a dragon has to eat about a ton of food a day — every day — and, as I've already pointed out, that food would be meat. This means that the herbavorous animals that get eaten by dragons are eating 100 tons of plants and grain every day, but every possible sqaure inch of real estate that could be used for grazing or for agriculture has a castle on it. The realms of dragons just makes less and less sense to me upon any further analysis, so I'll stop.
(Nice On the Beach reference, Russ. That one's a classic.)
Posted by: FireHorse at November 24, 2009 06:15 AM (Vl5GH)
Posted by: sockpuppet at November 24, 2009 06:18 AM (AQj/2)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 24, 2009 06:23 AM (7n7Br)
. . . maybe you should increase your dragon's food intake by 50% using extrapolation.
I was low-balling the estimates, but you see where I'm going. On one hand, I figure that dragons do a lot less flying than bats or birds. On the other hand, they exhale fire, which would require a huge caloric intake. Law of conservation of energy, y'know?
Posted by: FireHorse at November 24, 2009 06:36 AM (Vl5GH)
What I want to know is where are all the economy cars in this movie?
Because there's no room for pussy cars in the future. I'm sure you noticed the lack of vintage record shops and hipster coffee bars as well.
Posted by: UGAdawg at November 24, 2009 06:39 AM (ev309)
Posted by: Jean at November 24, 2009 06:51 AM (vb5IK)
AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
I just sat down to watch 'THX-1138' that I snagged on DVR last night, and it's MORE FRIGGIN' LUCAS REVISIONISM with CGI and other crap out the wazoo!
Damn you, Lucas, you insecure bastard! Damn you and your surplus of money and your deficit of taste and restraint!
You worthless bearded freak!
You twisted little vermin!
The one film you made worth a crap and you went back and smeared feces all over it! Bloody hell, will you please poke out your eyes and STOP SCREWING UP THE FEW THINGS YOU MANAGED TO GET RIGHT?!?!?
Posted by: nickless at November 24, 2009 06:52 AM (MMC8r)
And maybe we'll finally find out why Max is still "Mad" after all these years....(HINT: it's probably got something to do with the JOOOOOOOS).
I dunno; sometimes I'm not as cranked as I used to be.
And, yeah, Road Warrior is one of my all-time faves. I saw it for the first time while recovering from a pretty wicked car accident involving me, my brand new Camaro and some bimbo behind me checking her zits in the rear-view of her Toyota at 60 mph. The carnage in that movie made me feel a whole lot better.
Posted by: Sort-of-Mad Max at November 24, 2009 06:55 AM (ERJIu)
Randall #3, Thunderdone leftist? Hardly. Auntie Entity and her crew are the guardians of order, and the movie casts them as about the best hope humanity has to achieve civilisation again. The bad guys in that half of the movie are the union organisers in the pigpoo refinery. Moral: strikes by essential industries are a power grab, and the legitimate authorities may break them by any means necessary.
The only way the movie could follow Ronald Reagan's attitude any more closely is if they'd brought the Gipper himself in for a cameo.
Posted by: Zimriel at November 24, 2009 06:59 AM (9Sbz+)
The bikes in this movie definitely prove that it was filmed in 1970s Australia. Kawasaki KZ900s, Suzuki GT750s and other Jap bikes were everywhere, and I don't remember seeing a single American V-twin in the whole production. Definitely cool for an afficionado of early 70's rice rockets and "do it yourself" cafe racers like myself.
Yes, the Japanese bikes ruled until early 90s when the Baby Boomers decided to relive the youth they never had and started buying Harleys. A couple of years ago I went on an all-girl weekend with friends to a small country town in New South Wales. During lunch the local pub had a long line of Harleys and WWII BMW bikes parked in front.
Posted by: Decaf at November 24, 2009 07:00 AM (BoFBr)
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at November 24, 2009 07:06 AM (l1Wlr)
Dr. Spank,
Um... well... if you have horses you have transport.
Um... which is a good question. Where the hell are the horses in Road Warrior and MMBT?
In Australia, horses are in the high country not the desert. No water. That's how the early explorers perished.
Posted by: Decaf at November 24, 2009 07:07 AM (BoFBr)
#32 Eh. One of my favorite movies. I nitpick because I love.
Ace, I know the feeling. I did the same to one of the earlier James Bond films. My husband did not forgive me for years.
Posted by: Decaf at November 24, 2009 07:13 AM (BoFBr)
Zimriel, I suppose you're gonna tell me Billy Jack was another pro-Reagan piece.
(Funny how we're all about peace, except the only way for the leftists to win over the "rightists" is to kick their asses and kill not a few of them. Message is always the same: killing is wrong, unless you are killing Republicans.)
Posted by: Randall Hoven at November 24, 2009 07:16 AM (yxBFl)
If the markets made sense, Jean, we'd see the steel companies' stocks in low earth orbit. We have a government that's been harping "Infrastucture! Wind turbines! Update the electrical grid!" and all these take lots of steel. But Nucor and United States Steel have been less than outstanding as investments lately.
Then there's General Dynamics, which I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Nothing against the company or its products, mind you, but its most important customer (the government) has demonstrated itself to be mercurial, especially regarding defense. I would guess that GD is in for an unpleasant surprise within the next few years, but the market doesn't seem to think this way.
(Say, maybe the Republicans' platform can be Break a deal, face the wheel. This new would apply to everyone — to corporate executives, to Wall Street bigwigs, and especially to people in government.)
Posted by: FireHorse at November 24, 2009 07:20 AM (Vl5GH)
Camels were imported into Australia in mid-nineteenth century as they were hardy and perfectly suited to the terrain. There are thousands of feral camels in the outback but also domesticated one in the Northern Territory.
Posted by: Decaf at November 24, 2009 07:25 AM (BoFBr)
The Humongous has got to be one of the best Movie Villains ever created.
If all the film villains got together - Freddy Krueger, Jason, the Joker, Jimmy Bond - you know they would pick The Humongous to be be their leader. Even if you throw Darth Vader into the mix - that pansy ass Jedi stuff ain't gonna scare The Humongous. He'd make Darth his bitch. (Darth has always been a sucker for strong men in creepy outfits.)
You think you'd see the Humongous crying and wailing "oh padme, padme, please, I wuv you!!!???" HAH! The Humongous laughs at such faggotry!
Posted by: bow down before Lord Humongous at November 24, 2009 07:31 AM (T1boi)
Posted by: Lord Humongous, The Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah at November 24, 2009 07:35 AM (ERJIu)
Randall 168, you didn't address my argument. I guess you're just here to rant?
Posted by: Zimriel at November 24, 2009 07:39 AM (9Sbz+)
The Humongous laughs at such faggotry!
But REAL faggotry, with the assless chaps, eyeliner & forcible sodomy? That's all OK in Lord Humongous' book.
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at November 24, 2009 07:40 AM (7n7Br)
The Road Warrior. Set very soon after the first movie and the bombs. The Apocalypse results in a hunter/gatherer/scavenger society with a premium set on mobility which allows the greatest range to scavenge. Top speeds allow you to outrun and outfight others. Horses are useless, and expensive, in the desert but yet the Arabs bred and prized some of the greatest horses ever? Why? Speed, Victory belongs to the swift.
The refinery is a recent innovation far away from the scavenging grounds of the burbs still left. Built and maintained with one purpose, to make enough fuel for a long term trip North to possible civilization. But it's far from where any of them are from which is why Humongous has only his fighting vehicles. The tribe in the refinery have abandoned home and brought enough supplies to live on till enough fuel is produced. Months at most, probably. It also explains the minimal defenses. Humongous will only attack with vehicles and is limited to the gate. Anyone coming on foot is within range of the arrows long before they get near the camp. The 2 tribe members sent out to find a vehicle, and captured by Humungous, show the lack of planning. The Tribe was not expecting Humungous and needed a dummy vehicle for the breakout.
About the Apocalypse. Of course Australia's ports were on the hit list. The Russians would deny our Pacific fleet any friendly port. Nuking the rest of Australia is pointless as there is no military value to it.
Beyond Thunder Dome: Worst movie of the 3 by far but has it's charms. Perhaps 10 to 20 years after RW. Society has now started to reestablish itself, crudely. Farming once again, trade producing Barter Town. Large animals like pigs and camels are being bred and traded. There's more back-story on the Apocalypse as society has settled down long enough to start doing the tell again. The kids complete the circle by returning to the cities and building again.
The story for part 4? Can only be one thing. Wasteland punks band together to try to take over the established cities in their infancy. Expect them to look and act like non-muslim jihadis with Mohawks. The city dwellers find a leftover nuke. Will they use it?
Posted by: Rocks at November 24, 2009 08:08 AM (Q1lie)
Magic. QED.
Posted by: Rob Crawford at November 24, 2009 08:13 AM (ZJ/un)
Magic. QED.
But can magic power a car, a truck or a motorcycle? Here's where Mad Max could have presented something more plausible:
We know from Asia's first album cover that dragons are at least semiaquatic. And we also know from Clash of the Titans that large beasts can be held captive underwater. So if the dragons are kept in an underwater jail of sorts and can feed on the fish and what-not that swim through the bars, then the feul of our post-apocalyptic future could be dragon crap. Criminals sentenced to hard labor could then be forced to work in the drying facility.
(Of course, now I'm compelled to accept the aerodynamic principles as they pertain to the owl that Hera gave to Perseus.)
Posted by: FireHorse at November 24, 2009 08:44 AM (Vl5GH)
tsk tsk ... oh doubters ...
Over-ANALysing can ruin many good flicks.
Take them individually and enjoy them. It works just fine.
.
.
Posted by: Rokketmania at November 24, 2009 08:52 AM (9a5ev)
Virginia Hey is a perfect example of what sets the MM series apart and above. Here's a damn-sexy warrior woman... actually wearing clothes!!! There is a real sense, throughout the series, that these are just normal folks in a crazy world.
After the tanker truck tips and spills it's "fuel" there's a scene of 4-5 bandits looking dejectedly at it. Cinema gold@! These guys look fairly normal, they're not un-human monsters, they're guys trying to survive. Well, many of the other bandits are monsters, but the point is: that could be you.
Posted by: 5Cats at November 24, 2009 09:03 AM (O5yP8)
But think about this. Judging from the art, a dragon has to weigh at least 3,000 pounds. Airborne locomotion would require a lot of energy, so I figure that a dragon has to eat about a ton of food a day — every day — and, as I've already pointed out, that food would be meat.
Keep in mind that a dragon is a reptile which tend to be cold blooded and very food effecient.
Some snakes, for instance, can go years without eating or spend months digesting a meal. And they are very efficient creatures at turning food into energy, not generally pooping as much as mammals do, and having very low metabolism. Being cold blooded, they also don't use any energy trying to heat their bodies and instead scavange it from the ambient temperature. When not moving they can lay still and practically go into stasis in terms of metabolic upkeep. At lower temps they can even hibernate in a fashion.
Komodo dragons can eat once a month. Captive anacondas have gone as long as 2 years between meals even when food is more plentiful.
Posted by: Entropy at November 24, 2009 09:29 AM (IsLT6)
I'm no chemist , but even I can make the stuff .
Well you can't exactly go to American Science & Surplus and order potassium nitrate.
That would require a whole lot more Expiriments With My Own Piss then I'd care to partake in honestly.
Posted by: Entropy at November 24, 2009 09:39 AM (IsLT6)
Posted by: Dept. of Road Trash Studies at November 24, 2009 10:23 AM (GdqSP)
Posted by: Johnny I at November 24, 2009 02:06 PM (wRAyx)
Chiana was way hotter. BUNK!
Posted by: ol_dirty_/b/tard at November 24, 2009 08:06 PM (IoUF1)
That was a great series notwithstanding the fact that I'll watch any science fiction that happens by. The biggest deal about those movies was Mel Gibson. He was so gorgeous it brought tears to one's eyes. Judging by the current crop of metrosexuals unmanning the helm in the latest Star Trek, really rugged and good-looking men like Mel, Jeff Bridges or Kurt Russell, sort of John Wayne meets Jeff Gordon, are out of style. God help this country. No flags will fly at half mast when Clooney or his ilk meet their makers.
Oh, and Russ, how'd you like the royal gorge-esque chasm in the middle of an incredibly flat Iowa? West Texas anyone? Sitting there at the Star in Council Bluffs, there was snickering and more than a few murmurs. There was also an intuitively obscure silence when the classic 'Vette was deep-sixed into said chasm. With that car classic NOW, imagine what it would be a couple of hundred years on. I've advised my better half several times that when Hollywood destroys a Corvette, it's code for U.S. traditions and traditional culture.
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Posted by: Dirk Diggler at November 23, 2009 09:20 PM (7hbDl)