Mad Max: Fury Road has been voted as the greatest movie of the century by critics and readers in a poll conducted by film magazine Empire.
The post-apocalyptic action film, which was released in 2015, beat out competition from the likes of The Dark Knight and Moonlight to be named the best movie since the year 2000, with The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) not far behind at number two.
On receiving the accolade, the film’s director, George Miller, said: ‘It’s a lovely pat on the back… How do you measure the worth of a film?
‘The best I can come up with is to ask, “How long does it follow you out of the cinema? Some films you’ve forgotten by the time you get to the car park. Other seems to follow you around for the rest of your life.”’
George also revealed that despite the fact that the film took almost 20 years to make, he did not give up.
‘Whenever it fell down, it didn’t stop me thinking about it,’ he added. ‘You couldn’t kill it with a stick.’
Mad Max: Fury Road was notably in development hell for many years, with pre-production starting as early as 1997. Attempts to shoot the film in 2001 and 2003 were also delayed following the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war, with filming finally commencing in 2012 after several years of abandonment.
When the film was eventually released in May 2015, critics praised it as one of the best of the year, with many even considering it as one of the greatest action films of all time.
The film also grossed $378.9 million (£291 million) worldwide, and won six Academy Awards, including for Film Editing and Sound Editing.
Empire polled both the magazine’s readers and critics to cast their votes online for their favourite films of the 21st century, with separate top 10 lists for the readers’ choice and the critics’ choice also being compiled.
Mad Max also topped the critics’ choice list, although it was a different story for the readers’ choice list, with The Fellowship Of The Ring hitting the top spot – leaving Mad Max to settle for number two.
Also making an appearance on the critics’ choice top 10 were epic drama There Will Be Blood (2007) and science fiction tragicomedy Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) at numbers six and seven respectively, while Empire readers are clearly Marvel fans – as Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018) appears on the readers’ choice list at number nine.
Elsewhere on the top 100 list, subsequent Lord Of The Rings films The Return Of The King (200?) and The Towers (200?) appear at numbers 43 and 53 respectively, while Inside Out (2015) is the highest-ranking Disney Pixar movie at number 18.
The 100 Greatest Movies Of The Century are revealed in this month’s issue of Empire magazine, on sale 23 January and revealed online at empireonline.com.
Empire’s 100 Greatest Movies Of The Century: The Top 10
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
- The Dark Knight
- Inception
- Moonlight
- The Social Network
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Get Out
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Lost In Translation
Top Ten Critics’ Choice:
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Dark Knight
- The Social Network
- Moonlight
- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
- There Will Be Blood
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
- Get Out
- Inception
- Lost In Translation
Top Ten Readers’ Choice:
- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Month
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Inception
- Avengers: Infinity War
- The Dark Knight
- Moonlight
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Get Out
- Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
- Lost In Translation
Got a showbiz story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE: The Walking Dead: Could Michonne be murdered by Beta as she is set to leave the series?
MORE: Eminem slated by Manchester bombing victim Martyn Hett’s mum over terror attack lyrics
