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played the title role in Tank Girl , in 2008 Writing in the 1997 book Trash
Aesthetics: Popular Culture and Its Audience , Deborah Cartmell states that
while the comic showed Tank Girl to be "unheroic or even [an] accidental
antihero ", the film sets her up with "classic western generic" emotional and
moral justifications for her liberation and revenge on W&P;, as she witnesses
the slaughter of her boyfriend and her "trusty steed". She also sees one of
the commune's children being abducted, and is herself captured and enslaved.
Cartmell also says Tank Girl holds parallels with other "contemporary '
postfeminist ' icons", as she displays dominant female sexuality and a
"familiarity and knowing coolness of 'outlawed' modes of sexuality", such as
masturbation , sadomasochism and lesbianism. [5] In her 2006 book The Modern
Amazons: Warrior Women On-Screen , Dominique Mainon writes that the film has
antiestablishment themes and, unlike many comic-book adaptation films which
feature "gratuitous sexual objectification" of women, Tank Girl stands out as
being "stridently feminist", with the exception of the "cliché victim/avenger
complex". [6] According to Mainon, the film makes fun of female stereotypes,
as shown by Tank Girl's repeated emasculation of Kesslee with witty comebacks
while she is being tortured, and by her response to the computer training
device telling her how to present herself to men at the Liquid Silver club.
The device provides seductive clothing and tells Tank Girl to remove her body
hair and to wear make-up and a wig. Tank Girl completely ignores the advice
and modifies the clothes to create her own style. [7] In the 2011 book Cult
Cinema , Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton discuss the issue of whether cult
films purported to be feminist were truly feminist or "partly the effect of
the performance of feminist attitudes in its reception". The authors consider
Tank Girl to be a "'real' feminist cult film", as opposed to the feminist cult
films of Kathryn Bigelow and Catherine Hardwicke , which they consider to be
too masculine and too eager to cater to "hetero-normativity", respectively.
[8] Production [ edit ] Preproduction [ edit ] In 1988, about a year after the
launch of the Tank Girl comic in the British magazine Deadline , its
publisher, Tom Astor, began looking for a studio interested in making a film
adaptation. While several studios, including New Line Cinema , expressed
interest, progress was slow. [9] Rachel Talalay's stepdaughter gave her a Tank
Girl comic to read while she was shooting her directorial debut film, Freddy's
Dead: The Final Nightmare (released in 1991). Talalay read the comic between
takes and became interested in directing a Tank Girl film. [10] She contacted
Astor and, after hearing nothing for almost a year, was about to give up
trying to secure the rights when he gave her permission to make the film. [11]
Talalay pitched the film to Amblin Entertainment and Columbia Pictures , which
both turned it down. Talalay turned down an offer from Disney , as she did not
believe the studio would allow the levels of violence and the sexual
references the plot required. [11] An offer from MGM was accepted. [12]
Talalay worked closely with the Tank Girl comic's co-creators Alan Martin and
Jamie Hewlett during the film's production, and selected Catherine Hardwicke
to be the production designer. The studio was unhappy with Hardwicke, who was
relatively unknown at the time, being chosen over more experienced designers,
and Talalay had to meet with the producers to persuade them to allow Hardwicke
to work on the project. [13] Tedi Sarafian wrote the screenplay and Gale
Tattersall was chosen as cinematographer . [14] Believing that MGM would not
allow the depiction of a bestial relationship in the film, the romance between
Tank Girl and Booga was only written into the second or third version of the
script, after the character was already established in the minds of people
involved in the production. By this stage, Booga: "was a character and not
just a kangaroo [so] it wasn't an issue anymore." [15] Casting [ edit ] MGM
held open casting sessions in London, Los Angeles, and New York for the role
of Tank Girl. According to Talalay, "two or three" of the Spice Girls met
while waiting in line for the auditions; [16] Victoria Beckham and Geri
Halliwell can be seen standing next to each-other in footage from the event.
[17] There was skepticism towards the audition even at the time, [13] and
Talalay later confirmed it was a publicity stunt arranged by MGM; [17] Talalay
had already been asking the studio to cast a well-known English actress, Emily
Lloyd . Talalay says she fired Lloyd after she refused to cut her hair for the
role. [13] [18] Lloyd, who had spent four months training for the role,
disputes this, saying production had been going well until Talalay found out
she was staying at the same hotel as Sarafian. Lloyd says it was a coincidence
and she barely spoke to Sarafian, and could only speculate as to why Talalay
subsequently became "frosty with both of [them]" and then fired her,
ostensibly for rescheduling her appointment with the film's hair stylist. [19]
Talalay cast Lori Petty, an American, because "she is crazy in her own life
and [the film] needed somebody like that." [20] MGM faxed Deadline asking them
for an "ideal cast" list; they selected Malcolm McDowell for Kesslee, but
never believed MGM would actually contact him. [21] McDowell has spoken
favorably of his experience working on the film, saying it had the "same
flavour" as A Clockwork Orange , and praised Talalay and Petty. [22] Talalay
was approached by several people who wanted cameos in the film, but she did
not want the film to be overshadowed by such appearances. Two cameos were
settled on – Iggy Pop was given the role of Rat Face, and Björk was offered
Sub Girl. She later dropped out, her character's scenes were rewritten, and
the role was then given to Ann Cusack. [23] Filming [ edit ] Tank Girl was
filmed over 16 weeks, [24] in three locations; desert scenes were filmed in
White Sands, New Mexico, the Liquid Silver club set was built at an abandoned
shopping mall in Phoenix, Arizona , [25] and all remaining scenes were filmed
within 40 miles of Tucson, Arizona. [26] Many scenes were filmed in an
abandoned open-pit mine , where filming had to be halted one day due to a
chemical leak. Permission was received to film the water pipe scenes at the
Titan Missile Museum , near the mine, but the day before shooting, permission
was withdrawn. These scenes were filmed, instead, in a tunnel at the abandoned
mine. New sets were often found by simply searching the mine. [27] Principal
photography was completed on September 27, 1994, [13] two days over schedule,
though still within the original budget. [28] Effects [ edit ] The tank as
seen in the film, which featured accessories ranging from lawn chairs to
rocket launchers. [29] The rear section of a 1969 Cadillac Eldorado is visible
at the back of the tank. In the comics, the Rippers are considerably more
kangaroo-like. However, Talalay wanted real actors rather than stuntmen in
suits playing the roles. She asked Hewlett to redesign the Rippers to make
them more human, allowing them to have the actual actors' facial expressions.
[21] Requests were sent out to "all the major make-up and effects people",
including Stan Winston, whose prior work included the Terminator films ,
Aliens and Jurassic Park . Talalay said that while she considered Winston to
be the best, she did not expect to hear back from him. [30] When she did, she