Ryan McNeil
Runtime
88 minutes
Up for Discussion
Show Contents
0:00 Introduction
3:14 Know Your Enemy: Tim Rideout
13:35 The Other Side pt. I: MAD MAX
24:53 The Other Side pt. II: THE ROAD WARRIOR
39:10 The Other Side pt. III: BEYOND THUNDERDOME
50:32 The New Slang: FURY ROAD
1:19:28 Further Down the Spiral
Thoughts from your host…
It’s a holiday up here in The Great White North, and I dare say that it’s a well-timed one. After all, as I type these thoughts, I do so with echoes of both Mad Men and Game of Thrones rattling around in my head. No spoilers!
As for the matter at-hand, I do want to thank the few of you who gave feedback on the new “Further Down the Spiral” section of the show. I wasn’t dead-certain that it would work, since so often the show digresses into other ideas anyway, but I feel as though with so many of my guests being interested in so many other things, that it’s a way we can enjoy a sweet digression. Like a spoonful of dessert at the end of a good meal.
Which brings us to today and our discussion of a whole quadrilogy.
While this is very much a “summer of sequels”, there is no other franchise I feel like giving this much attention to. But given the place Mad Max holds in pop culture history…and the reaction this latest film sparked…it seemed like a moment worth documenting. When time came to invite on a guest, I knew that only an old friend of the show would do.
Further Down the Spiral Suggestions:
From Tim… “Low” comic books by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini
From Ryan… photography by Galen Rowell
Thanks for tuning into episode one-hundred-thirty-seven.
Tim’s Twitter feed can be found here. Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.
Enjoy!
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As previously discussed I love Mad Max, it was my choice for a film I wish I had made way back when I was a guest on matineecast. Not only am I glad that enjoyed Fury Road as much as I did, more interestingly we seemed to like it for a lot of the same reasons.
I actually watched the original trilogy in reverse order. I was 6 or 7 when Mad Max 2 came out, a neighbour who was a couple of years older than me and had an older brother was always on about it, but I didn’t get to see it for obvious reasons. Then when I was about 12, I rented Beyond Thunderdome, it was a 15 certificate but I could get away with it from my local video shop. I then talked my mom into renting the 18 rated Mad Max 2 (they didn’t have the first film), I loved it. I then had to wait a couple of years to see Mad Max when it was on TV. It was on just after midnight at new year, I remember watching it and recording it. I watched it again the next day.
The thing I love about the first film, besides what they achieved on a micro budget, is how unusual it is. There have been lots of dystopian movies and a few apocalyptic disaster movies, but Mad Max, is a world on the edge, its handing on but you can see it is only a matter of time before it loses its grip. Nothing else has achieved that. The closest was probably The Rover last year.
My Further Down the Spiral Suggestion would be the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey. A very different take on a dystopian apocalyptic future.
Love the idea of a single franchise podcast, would love to hear another one in future, Star Wars?
In the month since recording this episode (and seeing FURY ROAD) the film has only climbed higher and higher in my regard. At this stage, I’d be surprised if it didn’t make my year-end top five!
As you may-or-may-not know, I’m reading like a mad man these days, so thanks for the tip on the “Wool” trilogy. Consider it added to the list!
As for a single franchise podcast…they’re sorta tricky, since only three or four part series work well within the runtime of my show (hence, no chance at an Alien episode). So Star Wars might not work so well when we consider that there’s be seven to talk about all told.
That said, the episode I did two summers back on Linklater’s “Before” trilogy stands as one of my favorite episodes…case you’ve never heard it 😉
One of the reasons THE ROAD WARRIOR was many people’s first experience with MAD MAX was that original got a very limited release in North America (and was redubbed).
I actually saw the films in order (albeit multiple years apart), though THE ROAD WARRIOR is the one that I like the best and rewatched the most.
I grew up on The Road Warrior and Max Max (American dubbed) as an 80’s kid. So when Thunderdome came out in theaters, I was excited. However, I was worried about the PG-13 rating and I ended up being right. I remember being kind of bummed leaving the theater because I saw more of a Spielberg/Lucas/Zemeckis movie than an badass Mad Max movie. The fear of living in the Mad Max universe was gone.
After re-watching Thunderdome (with the rest of trilogy) in preparation for Fury Road, I actually didn’t dislike it as much as I used to as a kid. This time I just enjoyed it more as a kid-friendly action-adventure, rather than a Mad Max film. There are internal logic issues, but it does make some sense. The kids want to leave “the green place” obviously because of curiosity and complacency. Max even has to put a gun to some of their heads to make them stay. The dessert between Bartertown and the forest seems brutal enough to prevent cars from entering. Why the one guy with a plane either doesn’t know about the forest or maybe just refuses to habit there doesn’t make much sense. I don’t understand why they didn’t return the forest after snatching Master. Why move to an abandoned Sydney? My only rational explanation is evolution. Maybe? lol They choose to rebuild humanity and learn about their history. Ideas like this make me like the film a little more.
Sorry for the very delayed response, but Welcome to The Matinee!
The thing about THUNDERDOME is that now flanked by the *three* other films, it **really** seems out-of-place. There’s no problem making a kid-friendly story that involves aspects of that world, but the moment you put the franchise label on it, you need it to fit in several ways with what’s already happened…and I don’t think that THUNDERDOME does. For a while, sure…but nothing after The Gulag.
Thanks for tuning-in! Hopefully you come back for more – the SLOW WEST episode will be dropping on Monday!