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Tank Girl (film)
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Tank Girl is a 1995 film based on the Tank Girl comic book, created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. It was directed by Rachel Talalay and stars Lori Petty as Rebecca Buck, aka the eponymous Tank Girl.
Tagline:
- In 2033, justice rides a tank and wears lip gloss.
Contents
- 1 Plot
- 2 Production
- 3 Reaction
- 4 Cast
- 5 Music
- 6 Trivia
- 7 References
- 8 External links
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Plot
Unlike the strip's non-linear,
stream of consciousness,
absurdist cut-and-paste sort of structure, the film has a standard timeline. The plot revolves around the fact that Tank Girl and her rebel group are attacked by Water & Power, a powerful force that controls the remaining water on a
dystopian Earth, led by Kesslee (
Malcolm McDowell). A young girl named Sam (TG's boyfriend's daughter, as it's revealed in
The Making of... book) is abducted and the story revolves around TG's quest to save her and seek vengeance against those who killed her crew with the help of Jet Girl (
Naomi Watts), Sub Girl (
Ann Cusack), the rippers and Booga (
Jeff Kober), who has a noticeably different personality.
Production
Rachel Talalay, longtime producer of John Waters, had fallen in love with the comic after receiving an issue for Christmas one year from her step-daughter, and set out to make 'the ultimate Grrrrl Movie'. Although the resulting film has a considerable cult following along with the far more widely acclaimed comics, Talalay has complained that the studio interfered significantly in the story, screenplay and feel of the movie.[1][2][3]
Studio-cut scenes included:
- a much extended role for Sub Girl, like having her build an ark which turns out to be a sand-sub
- opening sequence where the comet crashes into the Earth and obliterates everything - lots of SpFx by the Skotaks. Little Rebecca in a trailer park, survives pathetically, like in Them!
- a scene with little Sam grabbing all the guards' guns during the Cole Porter number, and Jet getting all Liza Minnelli
- an opening scene in which "an old lady sand hermit digs up a bottle of water, dances a little jig, then drinks it like in an orange juice commercial. then a Water and Power pilot finds she's taken water and brutally shoots her dead. He reclaims the water, but is attacked by a ripper. Tank Girl witnesses all this on her buffalo," replacing the Blade Runner-like studio-imposed introductory voice-over narration, which Talalay says both she and Petty hated.
- a scene with TG and Booga in bed (in a more untoward way than shown in the final cut)
- a scene with TG getting stoned and playing with her collection of dildos
- lots more gags in the 'tank chase' scene including a part with TG using her squirt gun and putting a condom on a banana before throwing it at a guard[4]
The 'rippers' are also changed in the movie from a group of ordinary (albeit talking and a bit mutated) kangaroos to a new race of genetically-modified supersoldiers with spliced kangaroo DNA. The special effects make-up was created by Stan Winston's studio, who reportedly loved the project so much that they cut their prices in half.[5]
Emily Lloyd was originally cast as the title character, but dropped out just before filming began, refusing to
shave her head for the role. Considering the
riot grrrl nature of the comic, Emily Lloyd's somewhat notorious 'difficult woman' and 'wild child' reputation would've been quite fitting with the character, as
Peter Falk became so infuriated with her during the filming of
Cookie that he once slapped her (prompting her to slap him right back),
Bruce Willis could hardly bear to speak with her during the filming of
In Country, and she's been fired from several other productions like
Woody Allen's
Husbands and Wives and a London stage-version of
Pygmalion.
[6]
Reaction
The film was panned by critics and did extremely poorly. Roger Ebert, while praising the film's ambition, said the film's manic energy wore him down, and he couldn't much care about it for more than a moment at a time:
| “
| Whatever the faults of "Tank Girl," lack of ambition is not one of them.
Here is a movie that dives into the bag of filmmaking tricks and chooses all of them. Trying to re-create the multimedia effect of the comic books it's based on, the film employs live action, animation, montages of still graphics, animatronic makeup, prosthetics, song-and-dance routines, models, fake backdrops, holography, title cards, matte drawings and computerized special effects. All I really missed were 3-D and Smell-O-Vision.[7]
| ”
|
Fan opinion of the film (that is, opinion from those who've actually read the comics) is greatly varied. While many appreciate it as a perfectly fun film in its own right, whether or not they feel it captures what makes the comics appealing, others tend to blame it for precluding further publication of the stories, and potentially souring the comics' reputation in general.
In the wake of poor box-office gross, Deadline collapsed, having apparently taken huge gambles on Tank Girl merchandising, and the character and the strip have not re-appeared since, until just recently. Although the creators Hewlett and Martin had joked in numerous interviews about how
| “
| we'd totally like to sell her out to Hollywood. It'd be cool if a bunch of tinseltown producers could get hold of her, totally misunderstand what they're dealing with, ignore our advice, and bring out a movie that would bomb, alienate our fan-base, destroy the comic, and bankrupt the pair of us in the process,[8]
| ”
|
and how they only did the film to "get lots of cash to do what we really want to do: Go on holiday!", both were pretty disappointed with the movie. Their involvement with the production was limited to say the least.
| “
| We wanted Crispin Glover to be in it. But apparently they won't work with him. He's too weird: people say he collects human ears.[9]
| ”
|
Cast
Bongwater performance artist Ann Magnuson and godfather of punk Iggy Pop also cameo as The Madame and Rat face, respectively.
Music
It's worth noting that the comics themselves, in keeping with their experimental and often metafictional nature, commonly featured "soundtrack suggestions" themselves, like The Vaselines, The Senseless Things, and The Pastels.
Trivia
- The tank used in the movie is a heavily modified Stuart M5A1.
- The words 'Tank Girl', 'Jet Girl' or 'Sub Girl' are never spoken in the movie - everyone always calls TG 'Rebecca' or 'Beckie', JG 'Jet', and SG's only a cameo, so she's never called anything except 'liar' and 'rain lady' (although in the deleted scenes Beckie does refer them as 'Jet Girl' and 'Sub Girl')
- Three of the Spice Girls members: Emma Bunton, Geri Haliwell, and Victoria Adams auditioned for the role of Tank Girl
- Björk was originally cast as Sub Girl, but Ann Cusack took over, apparently at Petty's suggestion after working together on A League of Their Own
- Steven Spielberg and his production company at one point expressed some interest in the project, but later decided it was "too hip" for him. This gave rise to a sort of catch-phrase used by the comics and fans thereof: "too hip for Spielberg"
- Sara Stockbridge modeled as Tank Girl for a series of promotional photos to help her get the part in the movie. Though unsuccessful in getting the role, the photos themselves became well known and for a time were seen on the covers of magazines like ELLE, Vogue and The Face
- The tank has a little Salvador Dalí ornament that dangles from the antenna like fuzzy dice
References
