Beyond the Road Warrior
I was just watching Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome the other day and began to thing about the trilogy.
Mad Max - lawlessness is breaking out in a formally civil society and Max, part of the new highway law, is dealing with the bands of transient gangs and loses his family. Fuel is very important for these gangs to carry out their transient thievery.
The Road Warrior - Max, assuming years and miles removed from the original, stumbles upon a holdout of civilization against the now well-developed lawless gangs. The gangs covet the oil rig and refined fuel of the island of civilization.
Thunderdome - Max, again farther removed, stumbles upon the beginnings of new trade and civilization. Energy is of utmost importance for the economic development of any society, so the issues with MasterBlaster and Tina.
My issue is with the Road Warrior. The running themes are supposed to be the threat of lawlessenss and scarcity of energy. However, the whole energy does not make sense in the second installment. Yes, the civilized peeps need it to eventually caravan to what may be a better location. Why, though, do the lawless hordes want the fuel? They don't seem to have aspirations to move, in fact, they seem to be getting along quite fine in the desert. Further, with all the fuel they burn circling and antagonizing the civilized peeps, they could have been long gone. There is just no need for that fuel in this installment.
posted by ajparrillo at 11:48 AM
6 Comments:
humungus' crew are nomadic, and only survive on what they can steal. in order to steal they need to move, in order to move they need gasoline.
the civilised peeps need it to trade, not to move. civilization is not moving. that's why they can't "JUST WALK AWAY"
did you watch the same movie as me?
if you want to attack something about it, attack the anti gay agenda it portrays.
p.s. thunderdome is still my favorite.
Last year at Pumpkin Pull we tried to get Cat (very small) and Kong (very big) to dress up as Master Blaster. It would have been awesome! Strangely neither of them were really into it.
Did Tina Turner's wig win an Oscar?
the civilization is moving! That is why they need Max and his tanker. They are protecting the fuel source to store enough to move to another location. For being nomadic and short on fuel they expend a lot terrorizing. sure there are holes in my discussion, but only as many as the movie itself. I still love the movie, but ripe for discussion. Also, does Max know there is no gas in the tanker?
No, Max has no idea. Plausible deniability, except all backward. My favorite is that whenever one of the tanker defenders tries to help another person they get killed. Hillarious!
Pole question: would you tell Max the tanker is full of dirt? I wouldn't.
I haven't seen this movie in a long time, so what I remember is not very much. But I will tell you that people really only care about two things: Money and Power. Controlling the oil means you are powerful and have lots of money (or goods, as it may be), that's why the nomads want it. It makes them more powerful. As to the tanker being empty, it's a diversion and a convenient way to kill a bunch of nomads. And no, you don't tell anyone it's full of sand.
It makes a stronger satirical statment if max does not know. The "civilized" people are the ones that stab him in the back, not the "barbarians."
Oil only equates to power if it is usefull AND necessary. I do step back a bit from my original argument, but shouldn't the hordes have run out of gas with how the burn it? Of course, we don't know the timespan.
I call for a prequel to the Road Warrior where we see the events that directly preceed Max's arrival. THE SIEGE.
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