Tank Girl (film)

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Tank Girl

Film poster for Tank Girl
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Produced by Tom Astor
Written by Tedi Sarafian
Alan Martin (comic)
Jamie Hewlett (comic)
Starring Lori Petty
Ice-T
Naomi Watts
Malcolm McDowell
Music by Graeme Revell
Cinematography Gale Tattersall
Editing by James R. Symons
Distributed by United Artists
Release date(s) Flag of the United States March 31, 1995
Running time 104 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $25,000,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

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.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The movie takes place in a dystopian 2033 when water is extremely scarce, and what little is available is controlled by the monopolistic "Water & Power" (W&P), led by Kesslee (McDowell). Water & Power are opposed by the almost mythical "Rippers", who's precise nature is unknown as the film opens.

Rebecca (Petty) is a member of a small outlaw group that has set up their own water well in the basement of a house. Learning of the well, W&P attacks, killing most of the people in the house and taking Rebecca and a young girl named Sam (Rebecca's boyfriend's daughter, as it's revealed in The Making of... book). Imprisoned, Rebecca is repeatedly brutalized by Kesslee, who wants to break her spirit. Between intellectual jousts with Kesslee, Rebecca befriends her next-door-cellmate, a mechanic who works on W&P's vehicles.

The two steal a tank and a jet, thereby becoming Tank Girl (TG) and Jet Girl in the process. They start out to rescue Sam, who they learn has been sent to a local brothel. On the way the come across another "outlaw" (Ann Cusack) who, after being disarmed, allows them to disguise their vehicles so W&P will not recognize them as their own. Kesslee, however, is not fooled, and TG is discovered, returned to W&P, and tortured again. Once again failing to break her spirit, Kesslee becomes increasingly frustrated and decides to do away with her.

W&P take TG to the desert, where they have found a Ripper "subgate", an entrance to their underground lairs. Kesslee has his right-hand-man, Sgt. Small (Don Harvey), inject TG with a tracking device and then forces her walk onto the subgate; if the Rippers kill her he will be perfectly happy, and if they don't they will be able to track their location. However, in the midst of having her walk onto the subgate the Rippers attack, massacring the W&P men and mortally wounding Kesslee.

TG and Jet Girl find themselves in a Ripper hideout, a buried bowling alley. The Rippers turn out to be genetically enhanced super-soldiers who were infused with kangaroo DNA. TG befriends, and seduces, T-Saint (Ice-T), and the two are accepted into Ripper society. Once again they set out to rescue Sam, reaching the bordello where a Cole Porter dance scene allows TG to disarm the guards. Fighting ensues.

[edit] 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 stepdaughter, 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.

[edit] Reaction

The film was panned by critics and failed at the box office, only grossing $4 Million against a $25 million dollar budget. 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.[6]

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 only recently re-appeared. 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,[7] ”

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.[8] ”

[edit] Cast

Bongwater performance artist Ann Magnuson and godfather of punk Iggy Pop also cameo as The Madame and Rat face, respectively.

[edit] Soundtrack

Tank Girl Original Soundtrack
Tank Girl Original Soundtrack cover
Soundtrack by various arists
Released March 28, 1995
Genre Alternative rock
Hardcore Rap
Label Warner Bros./Elektra
Professional reviews

The music consultant who assembled the soundtrack for the film was Courtney Love. Rachel Talalay originally wanted Elvis Costello to do the cover version of "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", but he declined, and the song was instead performed as a duet by Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg.

The soundtrack album was released on March 28, 1995 on Warner Bros./Elektra Records.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Ripper Soul" by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, performed by STOMP! – 1:42
  2. "Army of Me" by Björk – 3:56
  3. "Girl U Want" by Devo – 3:51
  4. "Mockingbird Girl" by The Magnificent Bastards featuring Scott Weiland – 3:30
  5. "Shove" by L7 – 3:11
  6. "Drown Soda" by Hole – 3:50
  7. "Bomb" by Bush – 3:23
  8. "Roads" by Portishead – 5:04
  9. "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" by Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg – 2:23
  10. "Thief" by Belly – 3:12
  11. "Aurora" by Veruca Salt – 4:03
  12. "Big Gun" by Ice-T – 3:54

[edit] Other songs in the film

The comics themselves, in keeping with their experimental and often metafictional nature, commonly featured "soundtrack suggestions", like The Vaselines, The Senseless Things, and The Pastels.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
(right to left) Tank Girl, Jet Girl and the modified Stuart M5A1
(right to left) Tank Girl, Jet Girl and the modified Stuart M5A1
  • 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
  • In the film's climax in which the Rippers are leaping around and fighting the employees of Water and Power, the actor's wires are clearly visible.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fan site reprints Talalay's list of studio changes
  2. ^ Talalay mentions studio interference
  3. ^ Wired 2.12: Tank Girl Stomps Hollywood
  4. ^ Rachel Talalay's Tank Girl page (includes scenes the studio cut from the movie)
  5. ^ Meet the Rippers - from storyboard to silver screen
  6. ^ :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews :: Tank Girl (xhtml)
  7. ^ Tank Girl book 2
  8. ^ Phat: Career Guide, Jamie Hewlett and Alan

[edit] External links

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