The Road [Blu-ray] [2009]
The Road [Blu-ray]
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Product Description
Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Molly ParkerDirector: John Hillcoat
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Rating
Having watched people walk out of a cinema during the middle of this film announcing loudly that it was “depressing crap” one can testify that “The Road” has generated some strong feelings. Quite why anyone who had read Cormac McCarthy’s uber powerful post apocalyptic dystopia would expect a “feelgood” movie is slightly beyond me but the disaffected punters views were also reflected by some critics with the Daily Mail describing “The Road” as “drab, virtually plot-free and aridly pointless”. Thankfully I knew that if this was the Daily Mail verdict then a fine piece of cinema awaited. What I didn’t expect was a film of such poignancy and what amounts to one of the greatest portrayals of the love between a father and son that it is possible to capture on film.
The film world is littered with great travesties when it comes to film adaption’s of great books. For every epic like “Schindler’s List” there are execrable messes like “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”. We should therefore congratulate the producers of the Road who have largely stayed true to the book. Producer John Hillcoat adaption is unflinching, often very harrowing but ultimately an elevating experience. This is film about a painfully extended apocalypse, one of dirt, grime, brittle forests and jaundiced brown skies. A father and son, who are never named, head for the coast in this bible black charred landscape away from a mother for whom the slow and painful death of the planet is too much to deal with. Charlize Theron plays the part well in slightly extended role than set out in the book. The main protagonists are the father played with enormous care and subtlety by Viggo Mortensen and in a performance of real charm and vulnerability by Kodi Smit-McPhee as the boy. The two live hand to mouth often starving and with the sole protection of a handgun and a couple of bullets and belongings rattling in a supermarket trolley. Along the way they encounter cannibals, gangs and one of the most remarkable cameo performances in movie history by that giant of the cinema Robert Duvall. You can barely make out those wizened features under the dirt and grime of his tramps clothes but his 3 minutes in the film are a wonder.
Do not expect humour, wiz bang effects or a cast of thousands. The films core is the relationship between the father and son and the formers desire to protect him, feed him, love him and kill him if need be. The scene when a can of Coca Cola is found should be produced as a guide to parenting.
The film is by no means perfect and you will see the missteps. It offers no morality tale other the world is full of people who choose goodness as a guiding principle when all evidence around you suggests the contrary. The excellent film blog “Little White Lies” captures this in words that I have not been able to articulate when it states that “Stooped beneath a burden of profound sadness, The Road is a tragic requiem for the death of civilisation. It is a post-apocalyptic road trip through a world of taunting memories. It demands that we face the question of what we would do if it was us, and answer it with brutal honesty”.
You come out of the film wanting a shower you feel that grubby and soiled but you also know that this is a film whose memory will not fade quickly or be washed away. The Road will certainly not be to everyone’s taste and the negative stars will probably equal the positives on this review. Indeed it doesn’t quite match the flawless quality of the book. But as a piece of filmmaking it cannot be faulted since it is a work of raw, austere and haunting power.
Rating
The post-apocalypse world has been represented on film too many times to count but few of them have been as well realised or as bleak as the latest offering from John Hillcoat. Adapted from the book by Cormac McCarthy, this is as brilliant a movie as I have seen in a long time.
A man (Viggo Mortenson) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are travelling the road of the title, trying to get to the coast whilst at the same time struggling to survive in a world that has been rendered a wasteland by an unnamed and largely unseen apocalypse. Foraging in order to get enough food to simply survive from day to day, whilst at the same time trying to avoid contact with some of the more undesirable elements who travel the road and have resorted to some despicable actions in order to survive, the man and the boy inch ever closer to their goal as the film unfolds in front of our eyes.
And what a film it is, with director John Hillcoat having fashioned a deep and involving movie about what it is to be human from a very simple core. Utilising some amazing cinematography to render the ruined earth a startlingly believable place, the film moves along at the leisurely pace of a gentle walk, shot through with occasional moments of fear and genuine horror as the man and the boy struggle to remain the “good guys”, whilst at the same time having to deal with the baser actions of this barren worlds more depraved inhabitants who will do anything in order to survive.
The story at the centre of the film is the story of the man and the boy, never given names throughout the film, and their struggle to maintain their humanity when all around them appear to be loosing theirs. The man has made it his mission to protect the boy, keeping him safe from anyone who would harm him, which in the man’s fevered imaginings means anyone they encounter. However, it is the boy, never having known any world other than this ruined one he now moves through (having been born in the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse, the years that the man and the boy have been together are dealt with in brief flashbacks and the understanding that they have of each other speaks volumes for the time they have spent together) who is the real hope for the future, representing everything that is still good with humanity, wanting to help those he meets rather than fleeing in terror from them, and it is this overriding desire that will hopefully proves humanities salvation.
This is a shockingly bleak film, unrelentingly grim in almost every scene that still manages to contain a positive if not exactly upbeat message about the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity, but you really have to look hard for it, but trust me its there.
Rating
In short the road managed to create visuals that were exactly how I imagined in the book, it should at least have recieved a nod for cinematography, the road wasn’t marketed well and as a result few people went to see it. I thought Mortennson and smiths performances were great without being showy and over the top they certainly didn’t over act, also they had a tough job to to do being the main characters on screen for 90% of the film. Yes it is a very bleak film but ultimately a very beautiful film too. definitely should have got a nomination when you consider some sandra bullock fluff is up for best picture! The film remains very faithfull to the book and definitely isnt a crowdpleasing laugh a minute, but for those of us that like mature intelligent film making the road is one of the best ive seen this year.
Rating
I loved the novel of The Road and also thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s other novel No Country For Old Men [Blu-ray] [2007], so I couldn’t wait to see this one. It stars Viggo Mortensen as “The Man” who has survived the apocalypse and is now taking care of his young son and trying to keep them both alive, struggling against exhaustion, starvation and cannibals. I knew from reading the book that this wouldn’t be a happy film, in fact you couldn’t get much further from it. That doesn’t stop it from being an exciting and heartbreaking film exploring man’s will to survive and the love that he has for his son.
The film is beautifully shot, being partly filmed in post-Katrina New Orleans (as well as Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Oregon, I believe), the scenery is bleak, cold and depressing and most importantly authentically destroyed land, but is equally breathtaking and extremely atmospheric. Acting from Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee is very believable and their bond together did feel genuine to me and mirrored the characters of the novel perfectly. The story is just about survival a coping with the end of the world, basically – nothing more, nothing less. I particularly liked how you never really know why the whole of the human race has been wiped out, so that part of the story is left completely up to you to decide or guess.
The Road is a very haunting and quite powerful film that is very faithful to the novel, but didn’t quite make the impact that the book did as it is always harder to feel what the characters do in a movie as opposed to using your own imagination when reading their emotions in a well written piece of literature. This is no fault of the film though, so don’t let that put you off. I definitely rate this highly and will most certainly purchase it on Blu Ray or DVD when it is released.
Rating
This film will make you laugh, it will make you cry (in fact it will break your heart), it will scare you, make you jump, have you on the edge of your seat with anticipation and anxiety, you will question yourself (what would I do?, how would I react?) it will uplift your soul and yes, at times it will depress you (is that so bad?). I can only conclude that those reviewers who give this film 1 star and write it off as a one-dimesnional depressing film, must have watched it with a room full of friends while enjoying a few drinks. I would urge them to watch it again while sober and lucid. Perhaps they cannot understand the bond between parent and child, or the heartbreak of seperation of man and woman. Mortensen deserves an Oscar, his emotion felt raw and real. I watch a lot of films(3 or 4 a week) and this is one that has stayed with me, lurking at the back of my mind since I watched it 5 nights ago. I haven’t read the book (but I now intend to) so cannot draw comparision and therefore judge this work without prior prejudice. It is deeply moving, and a frightening reminder of what we take for granted and how much we have to lose. Peace.
Rating
Dark. Bleak. Depressing.
The World has gone mad.
One man and his son ‘keep the fire burning’, and search for some kind of happy ending. Well, finding a happy ending in this World will be nearly as tricky as finding an MP without a dodgy expense claim or two…
Papa and his boy are just trying to survive in a World where almost everything is out to get them. It seems even nature itself is trying to destroy man. And our base instinct to survive has taken over, leading some people to become monsters, and commit unspeakable crimes.
On this note, I found the cellar scene disturbing. Very disturbing. Obviously I want to give no spoilers but I was taken aback, which i assure you does not happen often in a movie.
The film itself is beautifully shot, the sense of lonliness really seeps through. The acting, in particular Viggo Mortensen, is very good. All in all, I would definately recommend this film. And if after watching this you get a taste for the post-apocalyptic hell hole, may I recommend Fallout3 on the PS3/360. A game that shares the same themes…
Rating
this really is an excelent movie. the colour renderings used in the cgi do actually give a really good enhancement of the depressed nature of the film. VM is one of the best acctors around and dosn’t dissapoint in this one. herein lies the problem…… it is so well done that i watched the movie and felt like an anagram of carp afterward. it was so good that i saw it again with my partner when she watched it, but i dont think i ever want to view it again. i wish i had rented it. it is similar to the movie spider with ralph fienes, whereby you go away wanting to watch somthing else afterward to regain a bit of feel good. there is a difference between a sad vibe and a depressed vibe. this would fall into the latter.
Rating
I want to start off by saying that this is one of the most entertaining and poignant films that I have ever scene and it is beyond me how anyone could give this film less than five stars. I can’t see how people found the film boring I was on the edge of my seat for the entire duration of the film. The film tells the tale of a man and his son making their way through desolated America in a post apocalyptic world. All of the cast give a great and convincing performance and the films director does a superb job of bringing McCarthy’s novel to life on the big screen. The picture on Blue-Ray is not the best that I have ever scene as it does not show off the format’s true potential for vibrant colours but it’s sharp enough. This is mainly because of the culour pallet that the film uses which consists of dark grays and browns. However the sound is great and gets you immersed in the film with the haunting sounds of gun shots, and the powerful soundtrack. Overall I think that the road is a must see especially if you have read the book.
Rating
The novel behind the film is absolutely breathtaking. The film tries hard to be as good and it neglects the literary means of the book to concentrate on the visual means of the film. We are just after the end of the world due to some kind of big fire that burnt everything down, covered the whole world with a shroud of ashes, killed all natural life whatsoever or nearly and locked up the whole earth in an immense cloud of ashes that caused at once the cooling down of the temperature and then the cold. We are not even given any explanation. We are shown the results and they talk all by themselves. The situation is simple as for the few survivors. The main two characters are a father and a son. A flashback later on will speak of the delivery of the child, quite a few years before, and the mother’s going out to die in the dark after the catastrophe as she was for some vague reason dying. That’s not the most important element. What we are studying is the behavior of the father and the son as long as they are together, that is to say all along, and how this privileged relationship makes them different from the other survivors. Some get together in bands or gangs and they raid the world to get what they can and survive collectively no matter how, that is to say even with hunting other survivors and cannibalism. Then you have those who are more solitary, alone or in couples. We have a few examples of solitary ones who become scavengers, but of the living, hence thieves, looters, killers in a way or another. The contact with these solitary people pushes the father towards some defensive and even over-defensive attitudes. The son intervenes then to counterbalance this over-use of protectiveness and to maybe remind the father of the human duty of sharing. A difficult task. But the film wants to take that boy to the end of the road, to the death of the father, to his mourning and sadness, and at the same time the desire to survive, like the father had said, and that desire will turn the father into a recollection, a memory and let the son accept to be integrated in another wider family structure, still on the road. The visual character of this film seems to tell us even in the direst straits of a final catastrophe, there remains some hope in the mind of human beings and they can first imagine their survival and hence try to survive and second keep some humane principles that are of course the promise of a humane society later on. That’s the question that should be asked: is the survival instinct collective or individual, is the survival instinct capable to follow some ethical line? The answer is not easy since the film, like the book, do not go beyond the mourning the boy is confronted to at the end of his road and at the beginning of a second road. This road will maybe never end but all along the way some spirituality will try to survive. That’s a very optimistic film, at this ethical level, though I seem to remember the book was optimistic too but at the level of the ingenuity and the inventiveness of human beings in some situations when survival becomes an obligation. At the end of this film there is little knowledge about the future but yet a gleam of hope.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
Rating
This is an amazing movie. Why? Because truly good films are becoming rarer by the year and it is a thought provoking antidote to all those ‘spectacle’ based 150 million dollar CGI epics which are about as deep as an episode of ‘Here comes Bod’
I can only describe the number of 1 star reviews as being devoted fans of the aforementioned CGI stupifying epic nonsense.
I read both the novel and watched the film within about 3 days – and they both are the kind of works which will stay with me the rest of my days they are so intense and bleak. Maybe that is why there are so many bad reviews of such a good film, because it portrays as honestly as possible the utterly barren, godless, nihilistic world of some undescribed apocalypse. The scenery, the music, the dialogue shows the utter hell the 2 main characters are thrust into. People are probably more comfortable with the action packed adrenalin void of ’2012′ which describes in far too much detail its unbelievable anesthetized cartoon version of the apocalypse and spoon feed drivel.
Despite the bleakness the film has a core of hope and optimism about humanity (at least some of them)’carrying the flame’ If viewed too casually (I don’t know how anyone could watch this in such a cavalier fashion)the subtle and beautiful sparks of dialogue are lost.
Beautifully shot film, with a minimum of music (The Coen Bros didn’t have music in their Cormac Macarthy adaptation – and it is easy to see why) The film does all the talking, the music merely detracts. I found this refreshing in an age where film soundtracks predominate with pop/rock songs and the soundtrack writ larger than life.(with more than half an eye on music soundtrack merchandising sales)
The acting is first class and there are cameo performances by Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce, so heavily made up you’d be hard pressed to tell who they were.
Please do not be put off by the 1 star reviews, this film will be around a lot longer in memory than the latest blockbuster fodder of the week. A film which demands careful and thoughtful viewing.