Did you know that Max Fairchild, who played the retarded man
Benno in Mad Max, also plays the Broken Victim in Mad Max 2. He's the over-sized bearded
guy strapped to Humungus' vehicle. Yes, the same one who loses his head to a rear end of
the tanker at the end of the movie!
Some people have also commented that perhaps the character of
Blaster in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is either meant as a reference to Benno from Mad
Max, or is possibly even meant to be the same character. This is a reference that I didn't
pick up on myself originally, and although I think Blaster is not meant to be
Benno, I
would tend to agree that the character has additional meaning as a reference to Benno from
the first film.
My opinion
No. In Thunderdome neither character acknowledges
each other in any way, and it seems clear therefore that Jebediah in Thunderdome is not
meant to be the Gyro Captain character from Mad Max 2, otherwise we'd expect some sort of
recognition between them. This is especially true when they first enter
Thunderdome,
and Jebediah is obviously trying to avoid Max because he has stolen his equipment, instead
of going up and saying "hi" and apologising, which is what he should do if he
recognises him from Mad Max 2. The end of Mad Max 2 tells that the Gyro Captain went north
to live out his days, and if he did reappear somewhere else it seems the last person he'd
be stealing from is Max.
Bruce Spence is a distinctive and well known Australian
character actor, and it makes sense that they'd want to use him again for that particular
part in Thunderdome. It's just confusing for us, given that he's already played a
different character in another film in the series!
Plus Jebediah has really good
teeth, which would have been kind of hard for the Gyro Captain to achieve.
Of course, my opinion could be totally wrong, so for your
entertainment, here's one of the more reasonable arguments I've had from the opposing
side, courtesy of The Word Warrior:
"The Wordwarrior's" opinion
"I believe that Bruce Spence's characters, the Gyro captain
and Jebediah, are one in the same. Jebediah stole from Max simply because he didn't know
who he was. Max's face was masked. Considering that Max almost killed the Gyrocaptain for
trying to steal his V-8, I'm not surprised that Jebediah didn't try to get his attention
after stealing his lorry and camels. As far as the Great Northern Tribe, nothing was ever
said about him staying for the rest of his days. Obviously, the Gyrocaptain and Lusty Girl
gave birth to Jebediah Jr. Perhaps she had died during childbirth or decided to stay
with her "family" while the boys went out to trade.
George Miller did not cast Spence in his $12 million
international film as a different character. Why would he cast him in a lead role for two
consecutive sequels? Surely Miller would have changed his attributes for the third film.
In the very first scene in Beyond Thunderdome we see Spence flying about in his plane,
clearly connecting him with the flying Gyrocaptain of the previous movie. There just is no
arguement to be made!"
Mike Jackson also pointed out that this isn't
the first time a possibly "confusing" re-casting of an actor has
happened in a series of films:
"This is not the first time such casting choices
have been made in films: a good example is the Dollars trilogy - Gian Maria Volonte plays the major, but completely unrelated,
villians in the first two films; and Lee Van Cleef plays a major role as a hero in the
second yet a villian in the third!. So I agree with you - different characters for Bruce Spence!"
Of course, there's always Max Fairchild as well, who plays different
characters in Mad Max and Mad Max 2.
Note that apparently at a talk / event George Miller and Terry Hayes
confirmed that Bruce Spence is definitely a different character in the two
films. I don't know when this talk was given, so if anyone has further info on
where this originates (or has the exact quote)
please contact me.
If you have a differing opinion, and want to add your own thoughts,
I suggest visiting the discussion forum.
In the first film towards the end, Max arms himself with his sawn-off shotgun and
revolver,
that is holstered on his waist. In Road Warrior the revolver is not seen
at all through the whole movie. Finally, in Beyond Thuderdome, you see Max hand in his
weapons to the collector, and one of them is the same revolver.
It is a Blue Heeler, sometimes also referred to as an
Australian Cattle Dog. It is a breed found most commonly in farming areas of rural
Australia, and not in residential areas. Blue Heelers have also been bred and used in the
U.S. as cattle dogs, apparently they are about as available as German
Shepherds or Poodles, and I've also been told that apparently the #1 name for
them in the states is "Bandit", so there you go! For more
information you might check out Silverado
Australian Cattle Dogs or www.cattledog.com.
