Released at the height of her tabloid fame, the ludicrous flick was a notorious flop that destroyed Anderson’s acting career. Looking back now, it—and she—deserved much better.
was released in May of 1996, Anderson was no longer just a household name, she was inescapable. Had it been a success,Gramercy Picturestook a nosedive the minute it hit theaters, returning just a paltry $1 million opening weekend—a fraction of its $9 million budget. By the time it was wheeled out of cinemas on a stretcher, a critical panning and negative audience buzz had it returning under $4 million for its total worldwide gross. In short: it was a catastrophic flop.
Cut to what is perhaps one of the most gratuitous opening credits sequences ever put to celluloid: Anderson gyrating and whipping her hair while being hosed down with water. The camera focuses on Anderson for a good couple of minutes as her shoddy blonde extensions and leather corset get soaked. Eventually, her boobs just fall right out, nearly taking an eye or two with them.
When the camera pans out, we see that this isn’t just Anderson dancing twirling around for the audience’s titillation, but Barb Wire doing a strip tease for a room full of piggish men at a Steel Harbor club. When a vile, drunken patron shouts at her to take all of her clothes off, harassing her with repeated pleas of, “Come on, babe,” Barb removes a stiletto and sends it flying toward him, the heel sticking him right between the eyes.
The film’s opening sequence is so brazenly confident that it’s harder to laugh at the film than it is to admire its audacity. But the camp factor really sets in when Barb pulls over in her muscle car to gaze out into the orange light of an apocalyptic day. “It was the middle of the second American Civil War, the world had gone to hell,” Anderson’s narration tells us. “It was 2017, the worst year of my life.
Yet, critics and audiences failed to see much merit in the film—or Anderson’s performance—at all. Then-
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