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Congratulations, Paul. In citing that frying pan you managed to pinpoint the film's only moment that makes me cringe (at its wrongness). Touche! And now I understand your exact feelings a little better; in discussing the THUNDERDOME children earlier, I had forgotten about "Jedediah Jnr."
To let you mark the precise ground separating us, I'll tell you I don't care for the Lucas or Spielberg productions (unless the latter were directed by Dante), OR for much Disney that's post-Walt Disney. That's why I stood so crisply to defend THUNDERDOME against your accusing its children essentially of being "Disneyfied" -- I happened to be thinking only of its desert tribe. You are entirely right about the "chilling" spectacle of the Feral Kid within ROAD WARRIOR.
But the direct contrast to that corrupted childhood in the preceding movie is a major reason why I am fascinated with the abandoned kids in THUNDERDOME, whom Miller gives us as an alternate, equally valid vision of how some other, more sheltered kids might be growing up in that world, away from the same vileness. (It even seems I read something at the time of its release that Miller brought in George Ogilvie, a stage director, specifically to work with the young actors portraying the desert tribe, because at that point he didn't trust in his own ability to get the performances he wanted from all those children. But even if he didn't work with the cast, I still credit Miller with his co-writer for the vision itself.)
As for casting Bruce Spence, I shared your disappointment that he was not playing the Gyro Captain this time -- but because they eventually didn't recognize each other, I accepted that he simply was playing a different character who (as a sly tease) also happened to be a pilot of a different eccentric aircraft. (We earlier survived the James Bond series casting actors in unrelated roles in separate entries -- such as Martine Beswicke, Charles Gray, and Maud Adams -- so precedents exist.) It's even fun to consider that Jedediah may have been formerly the Gyro Captain, though the no-nonsense Max, at the moment they came face to face, couldn't take time for reunions! (However, we know that the Captain succeeded Pappagallo as "the leader of the people" and went north with that first collective, so it's not likely he came back to New South Wales for the school district.)
But allow me to remind you, Paul, that right after Jedediah Jnr.'s "This is a stickup!" the boy adds something like "Anybody move and he's dead meat!" So if it bothers you that the character increases the movie's comparative comic-book nature, at least it's appropriately not a very wholesome comic book. THUNDERDOME still ain't quite Teletubbies.
On my third viewing of ROAD WARRIOR I finally brought along my girlfriend. (I had taken my father the second time as a bonding attempt, since he loves cars the way I love film.) The girlfriend winced, cringed, and periodically covered her face thoughout the picture, so afterward I apologized for having put her through it. That's why three years later, when I finally got a print of the movie, she surprised me by requesting to see it again. Afterward I asked her why, considering her discomfort the first time. She told me, "It was different once I knew it ended okay."
I'm mentioning that only because that very next month THUNDERDOME opened, and she was ready to see it on its first weekend. That same woman's first comment afterward was "There wasn't enough violence!"
By the way, I also appreciate the speed and stunt execution of the first two entries (even as a non-driver!). But a detail which I loved about this third film, early on, was its logical acknowledgment of a fact which so many people can't admit in 2010: that someday Earth's oil supply will be gone. Even though I'm no sort of "green purist," Miller pleased me at the time by appearing to have sensibly set THUNDERDOME in a post-petroleum world -- except for Jedediah's airplane, which we don't even see again until shortly before the end.
By contrast, addressing your earlier analogy, the Superman movies I bothered to see didn't offer me much apart from the character in flight; I never cared for them. The MAD MAX series consistently offered more in content and thought, so that while other viewers were displeased by the third entry denying them their need for speed, I continue to cheer Miller for his creative avoidance of cookie-cutter sequels. That's the Spielberg approach.
Last, this IS a film-music web forum. May's initial MAD MAX score doesn't speak to me the way his ROAD WARRIOR does; I own the discs of both but seldom play the first. (Part of it must be linked to my loving WARRIOR much more as a movie.) But when I saw that Jarre had taken over THUNDERDOME, my first thought was that Warner Bros. must have decided May wasn't a big-enough name.
On first exposure I felt Jarre's Bartertown theme was too great a departure from May's work. And though his melody "The Children" is a gorgeous one -- which has grown on me even more in 25 years -- I also felt at the time that it was just out of place for a Mad Max picture. But that just proves that I wasn't as far away from you, Paul, as I may have seemed. I needed time to truly accept THUNDERDOME's intentional distance from the first two pictures. I've simply embraced it while you haven't.
Over time I came to appreciate that Jarre was a perfect choice, bringing to this film his sublime desert evocation from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA -- as well as from LION OF THE DESERT and THE MESSAGE (although I didn't know those scores back then). Perhaps the music from this one which I most look forward to having at last is that wonderful, rumbling start to the final chase, where the Master Percussionist lets loose his own high-octane fury as vehicles pour down sand dunes to remind the audience that THUNDERDOME is, in fact, part of a great film series.
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