I was saddened to hear about the passing of Tina Turner this last week. She was known for her electifying on-stage performance as well as a singing voice that no one could ever duplicate. But for many other people, she was known as Aunty Entity the ruthless leader of Bartertown in the barren wasteland of post-apocalyptic Australia in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It was creative casting considering Tina hadn’t had much prior acting credits but she was an entertainer and Aunty is a very eccentric character who commands the spotlight.
I always got a kick at her introduction to the people crowding around the arena as she exclaims, “Welcome to another edition of Thunderdome!” The event is both public amusement and the barbaric form of justice in the iconic movie. In the movie, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) challenges the hulking Blaster to the gladiator-style event after Blaster and his father, Master (Angelo Rossito), steals Max’s vehicle for his own use. Thunderdome consists of two men strapped to harness with bungee-cord elastics in which they can leap up and down grabbing weapons (chainsaw, metal sledgehammer, spiked mace) to maim and kill their opponents from the Thunderdome structure patterned after a huge jungle gym where spectators climb around to watch the carnage.
But it’s actually a ploy Aunty has set Max up to kill Blaster so she can control Master, his dwarf father. Master is the brains while Blaster is the braun. Even though he manages to get the best of Blaster and comes close to killing him, he refuses. Max knocks the steel helmet off Blaster’s face only to discover Blaster (Paul Larsson) is actually a person with intellectual disabilities. And as he hestitates, Master pleads for his life to be spared.
There’s a war going on in Bartertown between Master and Aunty over control. Master has been able to convert methane gas and fecal matter to use for energy that allows the town to thrive. But they live underneath the surface while Aunty most remains above ground high up in her residence/office in a structure on stilts. But is Aunty a villain or is she just a ruler having to make the tough decisions she has to?
Bartertown may not be a civilized society in the way we think but it’s a society where there are rules and laws of which people need to abide. While some people have criticized the movie for its introduction of young children in the second half, it’s no different than the Feral Child in the second one of Max’s own son. I think it represents the innocence of the children who see hope while Max (as the movie is set 15 years after the second one) represents the despair of life experiences.
In the end, Max risks his own life and escape to make sure the children leave the area and go back to the barren city from which they came. This was the first Mad Max movie to get U.S. financing. The difference in tone is the result of George Miller seeking the assistance of co-director George Ogilvie. Byron Kennedy, who had worked with Miller on the previous movies as producer, was killed in a helicopter crash in 1983 while scouting locations.
Like all Mad Max movies, it’s hard to critique them because each one is done a little bit differently. The first one was as society on is the cusp of collapsing. The sequel with the subtitle The Road Warrior is more like Yojimbo in the dystopia outback wasteland while people are scrounging to stay alive. Fury Road is like a live-action version of Mario Kart that was a surprise Oscar winner. Thunderdome is more like Judge Dredd meets Lord of the Flies. Along with Blade Runner, the Mad Max movies helped write the rules on how dystopia should be in a future that is falling apart yet people are trying to survive. Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do from day to day?
Tina had to shave her head reportedly for a special wig that was made. She also had a costume to wear that weighed about 120 pounds. It’s probably why she only appeared in smaller roles in other movies. She has appeared briefly as the Acid Queen on screen with Roger Daltry in Tommy and as herself as the Mayor of Los Angeles in the movie within a movie in Last Action Hero. Sharing screentime with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the scene is now more remembered for Schwarzenegger’s line about being notified when the governor arrives at the scene. Schwarzenegger would later serve as governor of California.
But more people would learn of Tina’s life in the hit movie What’s Love Got to Do With It based on her autobiography I, Tina she co-wrote with Kurt Loder. Even though the 1993 movie was met with almost universal acclaim and earning Angela Bassett (as Tina) and Laurence Fishburne (as Ike Turner) Oscar nominations, both the real Tina and Ike would criticize it. Tina said the movie focused more on the domestic abuse she reported rather than her life and career. She later said she didn’t want to be seen just as a domestic abuse survivor.
Ike would criticize several scenes that he said were fictionalized. He openly admitted only on a handful of occasions in which he may have gotten physical, but said Tina would often hit him back even harder. Ike denied the movie’s portrayal of him sexually assaulting Tina, withholding money from her so that she barely had pocket change on her and even sleeping mostly on top of her at night to keep her from leaving him. Other people associated with Ike said the 1993 movie was mostly fiction in its portrayal of their relationship. Ike reportedly had a serious drug problem which Tina had said had become problematic as well in their relationship.
Regardless if it was a few times or a few dozen times, Tina brought it front and center during an era in which people were still thinking it was ok to give their women co-workers pats on the bottom. Women were both shunned for staying in toxic abusive relationships as well as leaving them. During their divorce, Tina fought for the rights of her stage name even if it meant given up some of her music rights. Even though “Proud Mary” was written by John Fogerty and performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival, it was Tina’s cover that is more memorable.
And over time, after her split with Ike, she had to rebuild her career, being a black woman solo performer in her late 30s and 40s during an era in which the younger you were the better for your career. Tina had to compete with Madonna, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Pat Benatar and Cyndi Lauper to name a few, all of which were younger and more popular with the youth/teen market base of the 1980s. So, it’s probably a no-brainer that Thunderdome and her two songs “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” and “Only the Living” off the soundtrack helped make her popular with the younger generation. In the 1980s, you had to have a soundtrack to a movie.
Even though she was born Anna Mae Bullock and raised Baptist, Tina would later go on to practice Buddhism in the late 1970s and continued to call herself a Buddhist-Baptist. In 2013, she would relinquish her U.S. citizenship and spend the last 10 years of her life living in Switzerland having a more private life with her husband, Erwin Bach, even though she would continue to perform up until 2021.
As Mad Max remains a popular film franchise and Thunderdome itself is now part of the vernacular, Tina’s legacy both on screen and in music will probably live on for many more generations to come.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 