Throwback Thursday: ‘Tank Girl’

There’s a realm of cinema that exists within a peculiar limbo between good and bad. Films that the masses consider horrible, but others who fall within various niches of movie geekness find irresistibly alluring. Movies such as these are forever pleasing to these geeks, no matter how much the outside world insists on telling them they’re wrong. For me, and this list is long, ‘Tank Girl’ will always be there on my list of these awkward gems. Let the mocking begin, but I stick to my guns in saying ‘Tank Girl’ is a super-cool, crazy, funky messed up joyride.

‘Tank Girl’ emerged from the dust and ashes and hit theater screens on March 13, 1995. With an estimated budget of $25 million, the film grossed a little over $4 million domestically and another $2.5 million internationally… basically, making ‘Tank Girl’ a financial flop. The movie was directed by Rachel Talalay (Ghost in the Machine) who is probably best known for helming Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Now, with the above information divulged, it may not be surprising to find out that Talalay hasn’t made a single theatrical film since ‘Tank Girl’ but, she has worked extensively in TV. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t a jab but rather a sign that she found her niche a set out to strive in her newly discovered medium of choice. Talalay has directed episodes of Boston Public, Ally McBeal, Supernatural, The Dead Zone and Flash Gordon. That’s not such a bad wrap list.

The movie, written by Tedi Sarafian (T3: Rise of the Machines) was based on the British cult comic by the then twenty-something duo of writers Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. ‘Tank Girl’ is clearly the work of two guys heavily influenced by movies and pop culture, laden with said references and stylistic homages. The writers themselves have eluded to Mad Max as an influence, but this isn’t difficult to piece together. The story takes place i the year 2033, set in a post-apocalyptic Australian Outback. [On a recent note, I realized that Will Ferrell’s ‘Land of the Lost’ stole a shot almost directly from ‘Tank Girl’. Do you know what shot I speak of? I’ll leave this one hanging to see if anyone figures it out. Leave a comment if you think you know…]

Rebecca Buck – aka Tank Girl, played by Lori Petty, is our heroine… actually, scratch that. Tank Girl is the epitome of anti-heroine. She’s free-spirited, fun-loving and crass. She’s sarcastic, untethered and kitschy cool, dressing in rag-tag eccentric punk apparel complete with candy necklace accessories. While she’s unrefined and rough around the edges, Tank Girl is still rooted doing the “right” thing. This side of her comes out to play when the houseful of pot-smoking, water-stealing neo-hippies is brutally murdered by the foot soldiers of the mega-corporation Water & Power, including her boyfriend. The SWAT-geared goons capture her 10-year old female buddy Sam, setting Tank Girl on a mission of destruction to rescue her from the maniacal grip of Kesslee, head honcho of Water & Power.

Malcolm McDowell was perfectly cast as Kesslee, radiating that special kind of creepy cruelty that any insanely evil criminal mastermind should possess, but McDowell has a way of portraying this quality in a way that remains just below the fine line between eccentric and over-the-top. Where many character actors fail to successfully walk that line, McDowell never fails to excel within these tightly stretched boundaries. The first time we meet Kesslee in ‘Tank Girl’ he’s reprimanding his right hand man with a calm, collected serenity that makes a person terribly nervous despite the soothing tone of his voice. Upon making his disappointment known verbally, Kesslee proceeds to emphasize is disgust by making an example of the Captain, politely asking him to take off his boots and walk across the floor, freshly covered with the broken shards of glass resulting from Kesslee’s violent outburst. As the Captain reaches Kesslee, he is made vividly aware of his lack of courage and Kesslee shoves a specialized plastic water bottle into the Captain’s back that drains his body of water. Adding an exclamation point to his example to the other men in the room, Kesslee then walks barefoot across the broken glass without hesitation whilst drinking the water from the Captain’s body. And you thought your boss was a prick!

‘Tank Girl’ also stars Ice-T as one of the Rippers known as T-Saint and Naomi Watts as the nerdy techie known as Jet Girl. Also making brief but very welcome cameo appearances are Iggy Pop as the pervert known as Rat Face and James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China) as Che’tsai, an elderly Chinese evil scientist/doctor who offers Kesslee a cybernetic solution to his eventual limb deficiency. While Tank Girl is the center piece of the movie (imagine that) of the same title, there’s a lot for movie geeks and pop culture buffs to enjoy. The quirkiness of the film overflows. Tank Girl has an obsession with Doris Day. Why… who cares why? Her friend Sam has a metallic toy called a “dangerball” that very closely resembles the deadly spheres from ‘Phantasm’ (1979). Coincidence? I think not! Quick, random cut away close-up shots of various pop culture trinkets and fadgets [that’s a fad gadget, get it] permeate the film in between scenes… just for the helluvit. It actually works to help maintain the tone of the film.

Another heavily used and effective stylistic element of ‘Tank Girl’ is the use of animated sequences that add energy and break up the monotony of reality. The various styles of the animated sequences ranged from Aeon Flux to Ren and Stimpy and many other recognizably popular influences. Added to this is the film’s killer soundtrack, which at the time of the film’s release was a bigger deal than it seems to be today. Many of the artist’s on the soundtrack including Bjork, Veruca Salt and Bush have since fallen out of mass popularity and into more specialized fandom. Also contributing to this soundtrack were Devo, Joan Jett, Hole, The Magnificent Bastards, Stomp, Portishead (a fave of mine), Sky Cries Mary, L7, Belly and Iggy Pop. Rounding the music out is the always cool scoring of composer Graeme Revell and the inclusion of Isaac Hayes theme to ‘Shaft’ when Tank Girl first finds her tank, a sort of love at first sight scene.

While I don’t want to beat a dead horse, I can’t help but return to one of my favorite recurring elements in ‘Tank Girl’ being the slew of references to movies and pop culture. Tank Girl wears some different outfits throughout the film. One of them, making it’s appearance just after Malcolm McDowell’s first scene, features a bowler hat and fake eye lash makeup, paying homage to another crazy movie called ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Come on, now… that’s just cool!

I think the only element of the movie that bothers me a little is the way in which the Rippers were interpreted. The idea itself is cool, with the Rippers being advanced mutated military experiments on kangaroos creating super-soldiers that are now hiding out underground and terrorizing the Water & Power outposts by night. The special effects for the Rippers were done by the late, great and legendary Stan Winston and done well enough in that sense. But honestly, the Rippers were much cooler in the comic books. The movie has them resembling the Warriors of Virtue and that’s just not a good thing. Another interesting piece of lost knowledge about ‘Tank Girl’ and the Rippers is that the love interest (specifically the sex scene) between Rebecca and Booga (one of the Rippers) that appeared in the theatrical release was forcefully cut from the VHS/DVD release by the studio, despite Talalay’s objections.

So, what could be more fitting a way to close this week’s Throwback Thursday than to fill in the blank and show you that relatively short scene which you won’t see on the VHS or DVD versions of ‘Tank Girl’… Enjoy!