In contrast to now where comic book movies continue to be heralded as major events, be they about Superman or some jackass in red pyjamas, the nineties was a very different place when it came to such adaptations. We had everything from cheesefests apparently written by an extremely drunk person listening to Basil Poledouris on full blast like Judge Dredd, to Jim Carrey thrusting his crotch in your face in Batman Forever, to the soul-reaving abomination that was Spawn. But in the midst of all this was one that flopped on release, but still gets revisited now for at least being something different theme-wise—let’s see if there’s anything armor-clad with Tank Girl.
Created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, the original comic came about in that period in the late eighties and early nineties when indie comics had something of a boon—oh sure they’re still around now, but a bit harder to find when you’re a niche within a niche. The strip was, amazingly, about a girl with a tank…and a mutant kangaroo for a boyfriend…doing pretty much whatever the hell she wanted in a post-apocalyptic Australia, for it is law now that the land Down Under will be invariably overrun by radioactive lunatic punks. It’s not one I exactly got super into, but the artwork was distinctively super energetic and buzzing with the anarchic punk attitude that permeated the whole thing. Aaaaaand then Hollywood suits took notice.
Direction was given over to Rachel Talalay, and initially, things seemed promising. You had special effects wizard Stan Winston involved, you had Lori Petty as a decent lead role, and you even had Malcolm McDowell as your bad guy…and then we ran into budget issues on top of redos demanded by producers, which lead to Hewlett and Martin actually drawing comic-style images in place of transition shots. As in, every few minutes or so. Well, some movies have succeeded despite such headaches, so did this one?
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| If you're not sure what you're looking at, well I guess it's a good a metaphor for the making of this flick as any. |
Erm…sort of, but not really, but maybe actually a bit. We take place in a post-apocalyptic desert where Lori is part of a commune hoarding water—which the big evil corporation lead by McDowell that apparently holds sole authority now takes umbrage to. Lori’s character consists mostly of making pop culture references that don’t really make sense in the film’s oncoming future of 2033 (who really makes Baywatch references now? Unless god forbid it’s the Dwayne Johnson version?) and being very flippant to authority figures, even when being kidnapped and press-ganged by said corporation. Depending on how you look at it, she goes from grating to entertainingly over the top scrappy…often times both.
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| Still kinder than Kubrick. |
As for McDowell, he was one of those actually enjoying the production—sure his bad guy has no real depth beyond ‘bwa ha ha I’m evil’, but there Is something to be said for him executing a subordinate simply to pre-empt him failing to conquer the 5% of land he doesn’t yet own. It’s so stupid, but hell, he’s getting a kick out of it!
Anyway, Lori ends up making not-entirely-platonic bonds with a mechanic played by Naomi Watts, who’s…actually probably the more interesting lead, going through a much more defined character arc of being pushed around by jocky male overseers to pushing back by way of hijacked heavily armed jet gunships. Both ladies end up escaping with their commandeered vehicles to go on various hijinks, including a bizarre musical number inside a bordello that stands completely out of place in this setting…but it’s memorable, I guess?
Oh, and at one point we get an animated sequence out of nowhere. Here, we saw something that actually properly captured the energy the film was going for, as well as the source material—and left me wondering why they couldn’t just make it all like that. Instead, more comic stills, which go get a bit old despite Hewlett and Martin’s best efforts.
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| "And now here's motherfuckin' Ice-T...stop laughing, dammit! I was in Body Count!" |
Eventually we meet a group of mutant kangaroo people (it…er…actually doesn’t make a huge deal more sense in context!) that includes Ice T, of all people. The tradition of rappers taking on really weird movie roles was still young, you see. At this point the film oscillates between leaving you baffled as to what you’re even looking at, to being kinda amusing when Lori seemingly gets to ad-lib or at least ham it up a bit, before we get a rather truncated climax.
It’s a weird, uneven film—but one that at least stands out in its uneven weirdness. Between moments of nonsense, you’ve got an earnest attempt at feminist themes, and you’ve also got things being blown up by tanks—which is all well and good for those bits there. I’ve honestly seen worse even from this era…and it got me thinking, that if this was released now, it’d be talked about a lot more than it was in ’95, but not necessarily all the right reasons. I don’t doubt you’d see an onslaught of certain types of video proclaiming this some assault against culture with buzzwords galore—the same old stupid tiresome discourse that infests near everything now. I suppose one reason Tank Girl still gets held up as a cult piece is exactly because it’s divorced from that, and gives people something different that can be seen on its own. Flawed as it may be, it did at least put some things in perspective for me…
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