My first question after watching Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome was why is this film even called Thunderdome. The “Thunderdome” is a cage fight which lasts maybe a quarter of the movie, and it wasn’t discussed before or after that scene. Arguably, the movie could more accurately called Mad Max: Underground Pigs, or even Mad Max: Airplanes since there were multiple scenes which featured an airplane prominently.  It seems like some movie executive liked the word “Thunderdome” and made that the title. The content of the movie was about as logical and thought-out as the title. The plot gets a little lost halfway through the film and society has REALLY taken a weird turn considering its only been like 30 years since the start of the apocalypse. Apparently the moment law and order break down, humanity’s first course of action will be to start wearing headdresses and covering our cars in cow hide. So should anyone watch this movie? Yes.

Thunderdome isn’t a good movie, but nevertheless it serves a purpose as a representation of the culture of the 1980s. Some of the things which we label as flaws in the movie were put into the film intentionally. Therefore, they shouldn’t be seen as flaws, but rather indications of how culture has changes over the last 30 years since this movie was made. Now I know that the 1980s aren’t some mysterious era which has been obscured by the mists of time. Nevertheless, old media from the past is a good way to see the feelings, emotions, and values o the people during that time. Thunderdome, or really any 1980s movies (there are better ones), should be watched to view a culture which is different from our own. We can learn from the experience and maybe understand how our present culture has come to be.