--- title: Mad Max Movie: Why the Original Was Awesome description: 'Mad Max: Fury Road' has big tires to fill canonical: https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-15T16:00:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:17.676Z article:section: History og:title: This Is Why the Original 'Mad Max' Was Awesome og:description: 'Mad Max: Fury Road' has big tires to fill og:url: https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67617db387c1196d/6987eece2dce0117ae9e1b86/mad-max.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Mel Gibson In 'Mad Max' og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Why the Original 'Mad Max' Was Awesome twitter:description: 'Mad Max: Fury Road' has big tires to fill twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67617db387c1196d/6987eece2dce0117ae9e1b86/mad-max.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Why the Original _Mad Max_ Was Awesome ## Video: The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces [Watch (HLS stream): The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8) (4:45)  _Published 2010-01-11. Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 15, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Mad Max', 1979. Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Mad Max', 1979.Archive Photos / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 15, 2015 4:00 PM UTC The new _Mad Max_ movie, _Mad Max: Fury Road_, in theaters this Friday, will be the first one in the franchise without the familiar face of Mel Gibson. (Tom Hardy plays Max this time around.) But that might not really matter. As Richard Corliss wrote in his review of the original 1979 thriller, the title character wasn’t the real reason _Mad Max_ worked: --- > “” --- In fact, Corliss wrote, Miller’s skill with the language of violence amounted to an example of true directorial integrity — and that its “tough-gutted intelligence” would be studied in film schools in years to come. **_Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Poetic Car-Nage](http://time.com/vault/issue/1980-07-14/page/93/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/"},"headline":"This Is Why the Original Mad Max Was Awesome","datePublished":"2015-05-15T16:00:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:17.676Z","description":"'Mad Max: Fury Road' has big tires to fill","url":"https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67617db387c1196d/6987eece2dce0117ae9e1b86/mad-max.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67617db387c1196d/6987eece2dce0117ae9e1b86/mad-max.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mel Gibson In 'Mad Max'","caption":"Mel Gibson In 'Mad Max'","creditText":"Archive Photos / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/","name":"This Is Why the Original Mad Max Was Awesome"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces","description":"Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xe99vdU4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-01-11T22:26:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/","duration":"PT4M45S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3850528/original-mad-max-review/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```