Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8675 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-01-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
French\Italian
English\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English\Dolby Surround French\Mono Italian
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Arabic\Dutch\English\French\Italian\Portuguese\Spanish

Synopsis
In this third installment in the "Mad Max" series, Max battles the crafty ruler of Bartertown, Aunty Entity (Tina Turner). Among many other pop hits, the film features the songs, "We Don't Need Another Hero," and "One of the Living."

Customer Reviews

Thunderous Entertainment
A thunderous and wondrous action adventure which happens to be a personal favourite of mine from the eighties. Massively underrated in its day and long forgotten by audiences over the years, Beyond Thunder dome is one of those cult classics that succeeds due to the breathtaking visuals, beautiful production design and sheer wealth of imagination on display.

Mel Gibson takes a large portion of his performance from Clint Eastwood's "Man with no name" character of the "Dollars trilogy" movies and evolves the stone cold character of entries 1 & 2 into a much more sympathetic creation. And any film that casts a terrific Tina Turner in the role of arch villainess deserves applause for originality, which this film is full to the brim with. The sets look absolutely marvellous, from the post apocalyptic Bartertown, to the arena of Thunder dome itself, and the feral city of the lost children all look beautiful, complementing George Miller's visionary future world perfectly. The plot is an amalgamation of so many different stories and ideas; The Road Warrior, Peter Pan, A Fistful of Dollars, Lord of the Flies, Blade Runner, Indiana Jones, plus various others. All blend together brilliantly to bring this third and final chapter of the Mad Max trilogy vividly to life.

This instalment was much criticised for soft pedalling the violence to make it more accessible for children, and while Max III never disturbs in the way its brutal predecessors did, it certainly makes for more rounded and enjoyable fantasy adventure combining welcome touches of humour and spectacular stunts minus the gore. For me this is definitive genre stuff, splintering its time between the outlandish action adventure familiar from "The Road Warrior," the darker science fiction elements regarding the human `fall-out' from nuclear apocalypse and the slightly more whimsical sentiment with the lost civilization of children who represent mankind's last potential generation. And it all fits neatly into ninety or so minutes whilst still qualifying for the feel of epic fantasy.

This shouldn't be compared like a diminishing offspring to its parent originals, this is definitely its own breed of Australian fiction of the most imaginative kind, home to a pair of superb lead performances from Gibson and Turner, some gorgeous production design, a great story that references all kinds of classic inspirations, a masterfully melodic score that simply pulses with atmosphere, all capped off with a thundering climax of spectacular proportions. This film, in my humble opinion, rivals even Spielberg at his "Indiana Jones," best, and its got a wicked Tina Turner song at the finish. That chorus says it all; "We don't need another hero!" I second that. A classic.

Two Men Enter. One Man Leaves.
Gibson Takes on The Barbarians of The Post-Nuclear Future, While Tina Turner Plays a Power-Mad Dominatrix.Great 80's Film, And the Best of The Mad Max Tilogy. Just Total Escapism With Excellent Fight Scenes.Good Soundtrack Too.

No ,future without courage and spirituality
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