Cast:
Mel Gibson (Mad Max), Tina Turner (Aunty Entity), Bruce Spence (Jedediah), Adam Cockburn (Jedediah Jr), 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), and Bob Hornery (Waterseller) Directed by George Miller (#380 - Mad Max, #392 - Happy Feet, #493 - The Witches of Eastwick, #707 - Mad Max 2, #781 - Mad Max: Fury Road, #2026 - Twilight Zone: The Movie) and George Ogilvie.
Review:
"It, in a way of all the films, it’s the one I have most affection for of the three films. Even though most people wouldn’t agree. I realise looking back on it that we almost took on too much story. We told about three, two or three different worlds, trying to struggle … juggle all those things together. So that’s what led to the third story. It’s just … the third film. It’s just the story came along."
In 1979, Mad Max came out with such visceral power that could only come from someone with a dedicated eye to make an involving film, as set out by director/co-writer George Miller and producer Byron Kennedy (who also served as a co-writer with James McCausland). He had studied and had served as a doctor in his native Australia before he was a director, you know. It probably won't surprise you to know that the original idea for what became the third film was actually sprung out of a suggestion made when it was just an offshoot post-apocalyptic film about a tribe of children found by an adult that, well, is what you see in the second half of the film (naturally those familiar with the Lord of the Flies novel would know what I mean); Miller and Terry Hayes, who wrote the last film together, wrote for this one. This was the first of the series made without Kennedy involved, as he died in a helicopter accident in 1983. Miller, already in the ideas of making the third film, decided to move past his reluctance and made it basically as a way to "just to get over the shock and grief of all of that", which in turn saw him bring in George Ogilvie as a co-director. For the most part, Miller and Ogilvie were together during production, as opposed to say, directing separately. This was the feature film debut for Ogilvie, who had worked as both actor and director in the theatre and television since growing up in New South Wales in Australia. He directed three further feature films but was busier with television (such as miniseries) before he died in 2020 at the age of 89. The film was the last Mad Max film (Miller never thought of it as a franchise or envisioned it as such) for three decades, although the idea behind what became Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) had been first thought about since 1987 as "almost a continuous chase".
I wish I liked the film better, I really do. It has a good deal of worthwhile production value of 107 minutes that has a pretty interesting first half involving "Bartertown" when it comes to the ever-shifting mores of where wasteland society (read: place that happens to look like Australia); incidentally, the film is apparently set 15 years after the second film. The performances with its main two of Gibson and Turner is probably the most curious interaction of wanderer and non-wanderer in the last features when it comes to a place that tries to value for trade and, well, an arena that could only be called Thunderdome that has a pretty harrowing battle sequence and decision to come with a mass calling for blood. And then of course there is the part of the film that deals with an oasis of "Planet Erf" and a tribe of children that see our lead as their possible hero. It might not be fair to say it reminds me a bit of Return of the Jedi (1983) when it comes to its place when compared to the first two films of a series, but I digress. Gibson and Turner equally have something worth watching when together in a manner that is distinct from what we saw in the past two films in terms of dueling interests that sees a mix of vitality and one coming to terms with their sense of self (easy to do that when confronting the use of pigs and methane as a potential road forward). This was one of two films with the noted singer Turner in a main role, with the other being Tommy (1975), and she makes the most of it in enterprising stature that she clearly is enjoying going with Gibson and the general self-sufficient nature that comes in the odyssey of a man in sand. He wanders the earth with an odyssey that he commits to in the way you would expect from a pro like him. The chase that arises from that does make for an interesting resolution, at least. This was the last major role for dwarf actor Rossitto, who had a lengthy career prior to his death in 1991, and he lends a few chuckles here and there. The rest of the cast is fine, but somehow, it just feels strange to deal with the fact that one is basically watching two films trying to play as one with a softer sense of the apocalyptic wasteland that is just...okay. I'm not really sure how to put it succinctly, but somehow, having children take ahold of the attention makes the action that come from the climax (plane included) seem more safe than the chaos that made the last two all the more interesting. Besides, having read Lord of the Flies long ago, one can say that the folks here aren't exactly as compelling in that attempt of trying to make do on their own. It is always possible that a re-watch in the next few years could make things seem different, but even calling it the lesser of the Mad Max films is still a compliment when it comes to a film that is pretty efficient in the entertainment value when it comes to that rip-roaring foundation set in the beginning that sticks the eventual landing that stands on its own regardless of what ended up coming later on.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
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