Player's Summit

Not sure on what planet Mad Max wasn't depressing, but it isn't this one.


And Fallout aside, 'post apocalypic' is nearly a synonym for grim, gritty & depressing. As befits a genre that takes the destruction of civilizations as its launching point...

The same sort of planet where the best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women. The same one where the stranger with no name wanders into town and is coerced into helping the townsfolk drive off a brutal gang of miscreants. The same one where a man/child witnessing the murder of his family isn't driven to a life of therapy, but rather to a life of vengeance/justice.

Oh, absolutely agree. And for clarity's sake, I am in no way implying your experience/take was wrong. Sounds like a completely different brand of equally good times to me.

Just saying, let's not leap to the conclusion that post-apoc is amusing because it can be, because it also can lead to something more serious also.

And vice versa. We're just having a fairly amicable discussion I thought.

I can absolutely see how a post apocalyptic setting could be grim and depressing. But the more piecemeal sports equipment/hardware store/junkpile armor you throw in, the more inherently absurd it becomes visually. And I'm guessing that that absurdity is what was being sought with the costume suggestion. Heck, the Freakshow could easily fit into Gamma World/Fallout.

Conan was depressing, most Eastwood-starred westerns were depressing, and almost every iteration of Batman (Hi Adam West!) was depressing.

Just because the stories are entertaining and action-packed, doesn't make the premise and background any less depressing.

Good, just wanted to confirm - forums discusiosn have a history of running amok, afterall.

Agreed. I could easily see Freakshow running around a Gamma World type setting.

You're easily depressed.

Next you'll say Wile E. Coyote's plight is depressing. All the pain and suffering he goes through just trying to get a meal. And then when he finally catches his prey it's *still* beyond his reach. None of the action involved changes this inherently depressing situation. At all. Presentation is meaningless.

I am weird, but I found the whole "Dies the Fire" books by S.M. Stirling very uplifting. Then again, I am an avid (or was before cancer) practitioner of such things as sword fighting and wilderness survival.

For a newer look there are the "Directive 51" books (depressing), For PA in our world the book "Ex-Heroes" would be a good look, "The book of Eli" was mentioned at the panel. PA is actually one of my favorite themes in books and movies. I still skipped "The Road" though because of how depressing I have been told it is.

Most PA these days tends to be Fallout style or Zombie PA.

There are a few more cool examples I forgot to give. The movie "Legion" (which I hated) was pretty much a PA movie, also the movie "Priest" was a pretty cool PA movie, that could be considered a super hero movie.

There was a video game a few years ago that was PA and had HUGE potential but the company was run by idiots and it tanked, and was turned into an Asian f2p game that sucks from all I am told. I think NCsoft's Autoassault was also PA.

Yeah, it does have a way of being a depressing theme. I think I like it more because I view it more in the lines of what I would do in the same situation, and it is usually a lot different.

Exactly.

Wile E. Coyote is trapped in a Sisyphean hell... that's DAMN depressing. They don't even bother to make the Roadrunner appealing.

Again, that doesn't mean it can't be funny. Just acknowledge the circumstances.

Considering the emo world we live in now where a nasty facebook message can shatter someone's world, anything at all depressing is, like...multiplied by a bajillion and five!

It's soul crushing!!!

Well, those films are all quite thematically depressing.

But Conan & Batman are pure fantasy while the Leone films are sly distillations of their genre, imbuing them with an underlying humor even at their most apocalyptic.

Mad Max is a straight up exploitation vengeance quest, notably lacking in humor or referential cinematic commentary and deeply rooted in contemporary reality. He isn't battling wizards & monsters, he hasn't trained himself to a superhuman peak of perfection, he's just a dude with a car and a gun.

It's basically Death Wish with some spectacular set piece chase scenes.

Man, you have been in rare form the past few days. You really did want Thrown Weapons didn't you?

If it doesn't depress me, it ain't depressing. Having all the elements that *could* elicit a particular emotional response does not necessarily make the whole emotive in that respect. More than the sum of its parts and all that.

Maybe in the first one, but in all the sequels he had transformed into a BA one would not want to mess with.

Oh there was Steel Dawn Patrick Swayze, not too depressing. Also Six-String Samurai which was PA and pretty cool.

I was under the impression we were discussing the first one.

Road Warrior was definitely more of a post-apocalyptic Leone western in tone...and the less said about Beyond Blunderdome the better.

Two men enter, no plot leaves!

And John McClane was just a dude with a gun and no shoes having a really bad day. More than once.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr was just a dude with a whip fetish and a penchant for running afoul of Nazis.

Alex Murphy was just a good cop who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And let's not get into the depressing life of Martin Riggs.

Many action heroes have (or have had) tough lives.

How can you turn your back on a film that gave us such gems as:

"Who run Bartertown?"
"Two men enter, one man leaves!"
"Break a deal, face the Wheel!"

And basically Tina Turner's whole performance.

Beyond Thunderdome was a masterwork of the genre, and not at all depressing like Mad Max or The Road Warrior. (I think we were actually discussing the second movie of the series, but Mad Max is much more grim, I think)

Even in the first one he was a trained Cop. Most people thing that Road Warrior was the first one, shoot I did until I was in my teens and ran across Mad Max. Seems there is going to be at least 2 more Mad Max movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_%28franchise%29

I'll never get beyond Thunderdome.

I was discussing the series as a whole. I believe I partially parsed it out earlier in the discussion by mentioning that the first movie was the darkest of the three. And I specifically made a man with no name reference due to the second movie.

However, the first movie had less of the post-apocalyptic vibe, IMO. Watching it is almost like watching a movie in a completely different setting than the two sequels. And I'd say it has worse pacing than the sequels as well.

Any movie that starts with a Guy's wife an kid getting killed can be labeled as depressing.

I'm stealing this.

I disagree. That's the start - it can go anywhere from there. Now, if it *ends* on that note, then it's more likely depressing.