Movie · 1979 · Action, Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 31m · R · English
Curator score: 4.1/10 (325.8K ratings)
The maximum force of the future.
Overview
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.29/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
George Miller
Production
Kennedy Miller Productions
Cast
Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward, Vincent Gil, Lulu Pinkus, Lisa Aldenhoven, David Bracks, Bertrand Cadart, David Cameron, Robina Chaffey, Stephen Clark, Mathew Constantine, Jerry Day, Reg Evans, Howard Eynon, Max Fairchild, John Farndale
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A rough-edged but highly influential action movie with a lean, nasty energy and a strong sense of speed and menace. It’s more fascinating as a stripped-down prototype for the franchise than as a polished blockbuster, but the car chases, score, and escalating brutality still land.
Best for
fans of gritty 70s genre cinema
viewers interested in the origins of post-apocalyptic action
people who appreciate low-budget ingenuity
audiences who like austere, muscular filmmaking
Skip if
you want a fully polished, modern action rhythm
you dislike uneven pacing or thin characterization
you need a lot of world-building and sci-fi spectacle
you’re mainly here for the later, bigger franchise style
Overview
Mad Max is less a fully formed apocalypse than a pressure cooker of road rage, police procedural, and revenge thriller, with the future just a few bad decisions away. That near-present setting gives it a strange, grounded texture: the world still feels recognizable, which makes the violence and decay hit harder. It’s scrappy, abrupt, and sometimes awkward, but the movie’s rawness is part of its identity.
Worth noting
What stands out most is the ingenuity. George Miller turns budget limits into momentum, using editing, sound, and movement to make every chase feel dangerous and improvised. The film’s structure is lopsided, and it takes its time getting to the point where Max becomes the myth the opening suggests, but the buildup has its own grim logic.
Bottom line
For viewers coming in expecting the later franchise’s operatic scale, this will feel smaller and stranger. For anyone interested in how a cult action universe begins, though, it’s essential: a lean, feral piece of genre filmmaking that helped define the language of modern car-chase cinema.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (4★) · 2895 likes
Definitely gives off "we ran out of budget" vibes in the third act but overall an absurd directorial debut. The score goes insanely hard! I spent the whole movie thinking "Well yeah, obviously Brian May of Queen would turn out something this phenomenal" and then I checked Wikipedia afterwards and it was a different Brian May
demi adejuyigbe · 2695 likes
i find this movie fascinating in a metatextual sense more than i actually enjoy it; the structure is insane, with a climax that feels like the inciting incident and makes the whole movie feel like a prequel. the fact that it made class="h-100"00 million is baffling until you watch the making of doc on the disc and realize the car action is another case of “this thing only seems pretty good because it essentially invented something you see all the… more i find this movie fascinating in a metatextual sense more than i actually enjoy it; the structure is insane, with a climax that feels like the inciting incident and makes the whole movie feel like a prequel. the fact that it made class="h-100"00 million is baffling until you watch the making of doc on the disc and realize the car action is another case of “this thing only seems pretty good because it essentially invented something you see all the… more
Branson Reese · 1825 likes
Not sure how I'd missed this for so long. It's a fun little B-movie that sort of drags but has a few pretty special things going for it:
1- It's only set a few years in the future. So it's sort of post-apocalyptic but they still have the news and shit. More post-apocalyptic media should take a page out of this book and calm down.2- The budget is clearly so low that all of the car crashes are exciting… more
Mike D'Angelo (3★) · 1330 likes
52/100
What a strange film this is. Structurally, it makes little sense: The opening sequence (which is far and away the zenith) introduces Max as an iconic badass, defined by his shades, clothes, and silence; then he's immediately revealed as a perfectly ordinary family man, sensitive and conscientious (wait what?); then the movie proceeds to methodically turn him back into the iconic badass it had already established in the first few minutes. Even ignoring that circular arc, though, this feels… more