Tank Girl Information

Tank Girl is a 1995 American science fiction action film loosely 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, who had originally appeared in the UK comic magazine Deadline.

Plot

In the year 2033, the Earth has been in an eleven year drought due to a comet crashing into the planet. The majority of the scanty water reserves are controlled by Water & Power, which uses them to control the population. Rebecca aka Tank Girl (Lori Petty) is a member of a resistance movement that steals what little reserves they can find for their community. They are soon attacked by W&P: Rebecca's boyfriend is killed and a young friend of hers, Sam (Stacy Linn Ramsower), is taken captive. Tank Girl is captured as well, but her defiant nature and independent attitude intrigue Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell) who tortures her instead of executing her, and then makes her a slave to soften her up. Tank Girl meets Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), a talented but introverted mechanic who has given up hope of being freed; she tries to convince Rebecca to make less trouble for them. But Rebecca's continued refusal to conform only results in her being tortured more.

Meanwhile, W&P is having difficulty obtaining water reserves because of the Rippers, a group of inhuman renegades that continually slaughters Kesslee's men and escapes undetected. Kesslee uses Tank Girl as bait to kill the Rippers, but they turn the tables, mutilating Kesslee and allowing her to escape. Jet Girl joins her, and they learn from the eccentric Sub Girl (Ann Cusack) that Sam has been put to work at Liquid Silver, an adult entertainment club. They infiltrate the club and rescue Sam from a lecherous pedophile before humiliating the owner "The Madame" by making her sing Cole Porter's "Let's Do It." W&P breaks up the song and dance routine and Sam is again captured. With nowhere to go, Tank Girl and Jet wander the wastes, eventually finding the Rippers' hideout (a buried bowling alley) where they discover that the Rippers are humans made into mutant kangaroos, with the exception of Booga (Jeff Kober), who was originally a dog. He and Rebecca quickly develop a mutual attraction. Despite their suspicions, the Rippers send Tank and Jet out on a reconnaissance mission to destroy a shipment of weapons, only to discover they were set up after finding the body of their creator Johnny Prophet stuffed in one of the weapons crates.

Jet Girl comes up with a plan to sneak into W&P by using her jet while Tank Girl infiltrates with her tank. Kesslee, who was reconstructed after his injuries, reveals that Rebecca was bugged; their assault turns into a firefight trap that kills Deetee (Reg E. Cathey). Enraged, the Rippers quickly turn the tide of battle while Jet Girl confronts and kills Sergeant Small (Don Harvey) who had sexually assaulted her when she was a prisoner. Kesslee reveals that Sam is in the pipe, a hollow tube that he is slowly filling with water which had also been used to torture Rebecca. With assistance from Tank Girl's loyal tank, she is able to disable and kill Kesslee before pulling Sam from the pipe and reuniting with her. The scene is followed by an animated sequence where water flows freely and Rebecca takes her boyfriend Booga water skiing; she tells Jet not to warn them of a waterfall as a surprise to Booga who dives from the cliff as the credits roll.

Cast

• Lori Petty as Tank Girl / Rebecca
• Ice-T as T-Saint
• Naomi Watts as Jet Girl
• Don Harvey as Sergeant Small
• Jeff Kober as Booga
• Reg E. Cathey as Deetee
• Scott Coffey as Donner
• Malcolm McDowell as Kesslee
• Stacy Linn Ramsower as Sam
• Ann Cusack as Sub Girl

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.

The Rippers were 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 makeup effects were created by Stan Winston's studio, who reportedly loved the project so much that they cut their prices in half.

Reception

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and had disappointing sales at the box office. It only grossed $4 million on a $25 million budget. The film holds a 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews (14 positive, 19 negative).

Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars. While praising the film's ambition, he stated the film's manic energy wore him down:

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, scale models, fake backdrops, holography, title cards, matte drawings, and computerized special effects. All I really missed were 3-D and Smell-O-Vision.

In the wake of poor box office gross, Deadline collapsed, having apparently taken huge gambles on Tank Girl. Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett have since spoken poorly of their experiences in creating the film, calling it "a bit of a sore point" for them. Hewlett said, "The script was lousy; me and Alan kept rewriting it and putting Grange Hill jokes and Benny Hill jokes in, and they obviously weren't getting it. They forgot to film about ten major scenes so we had to animate them ... it was a horrible experience."

Despite the failure of the movie both critically and financially, the film has developed a cult following in recent years.

Soundtrack

The music consultant who assembled the soundtrack for the film was Courtney Love. 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 of The Replacements. Devo recorded a new version of their song "Girl U Want" specifically for the film.

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

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1. "Ripper Sole" 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 (of The Replacements) " 2:23
10. "Thief" by Belly " 3:12
11. "Aurora" by Veruca Salt " 4:03
12. "Big Gun" by Ice-T " 3:54

Other songs in the film

• "B-A-B-Y" by Rachel Sweet
• "Big Time Sensuality" by Björk
• "Blank Generation" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids
• "Disconnected" by Face to Face
• "Shipwrecked" by Sky Cries Mary
• "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes
• "2 Cents" by Beowülf
• "Wild, Wild, Thing" by Iggy Pop

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