--- description: 'Mad Max: Fury Road' has big tires to fill title: This Is Why the Original 'Mad Max' Was Awesome image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67617db387c1196d/6987eece2dce0117ae9e1b86/mad-max.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is Why the Original _Mad Max_ Was Awesome  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 15, 2015 4:00 PM CUT  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](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 15, 2015 4:00 PM CUT 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/ "undefined") ```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":"2026-02-22T07:01:30.984Z","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"}}] ```