Search - The Road [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Satisfying Film - Better For Fans of the Book

D. Barbour | Shrewsbury, MA | 12/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition 2009) (Vintage International) is one of my favorite books, so I was nervous about the adaptation to the screen. Fortunately, the film respected it's source material and contains one powerful visual after the next. The film is perfectly cast, very well acted, and adequately written. When you have such a descriptive book as "The Road", it's hard to capture everything - and the film does a good job but doesn't completely succeed. Without spoiling the ending, I will just say I think the emotional sting the book leaves is better than the film. This is also such a dark film I think those not familiar with the source material might find it too dark and depressing. It's certainly not for everyone, but for fans of the book, it's a nice companion."

It is the road that connects us.

C. Gordon | Okhahoma City | 05/09/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"SPOILERS GALORE!!!!

"The Road," written by Cormac McCarthy, is a stark look at what the world would be like with civilization suddenly taken away from us. Spare and erudite, this book is a rage against the cynicism that man is inherently evil by diving straightaway into an environment in which such men would not only thrive, but prosper.

Like a lengthening of the poem, "Darkness," by Lord Byron, we enter after the fall of society. "The Road" tells the story of a man and a boy heading south to escape the brutal existence of surviving after some type of unnamed catastrophic event.

The boy, born after the catastrophic event, knows only the world of the apocalypse. Along the road, they encounter a scattered variety of survivors, each coping with this harsh world in their own tragic stories.

Capitalizing on the apocalypse fantasy that captures the imagination of so many, from zombie to nuclear, McCarthy takes a closer look at what the world would look like in the face of extinction.

So, the film.

Director John Hillcoat was responsible for a film similar in tone (The Proposition) that makes "The Road" seem a perfect fit. For those that have seen "The Proposition," you will remember it as a brutal and stark film. Most who I have talked to who have seen this film were left uncomfortable and upset. For such a film, I consider this a positive result.

I very much expected the same treatment for "The Road." But Hillcoat took a more family friendly approach. "The Road," much like "The Proposition," unfolds like poetry and is in its scope an allegorical fable.

Hillcoat deftly intertwines these story-telling techniques without being heavy handed or intrusive to the story moving forward. He shows, with some slight alterations, that this film's goal is to translate the intent of the novel. I consider the film to be an elaborate multi-media illustration that highlights the more positive aspects of the book and downplays its harsher elements.

Not the movie I either wanted or expected, but a good film, just the same.

For me, the real drive of "The Road," (the film), is in its performances.

I will give a quick nod to the leads, who have had more than enough written about them.

I would like to say that I have read some unfair criticism about the performance given by Kodi Smit-McPhee. His performance is the only real arc in the film. He goes from being kept a little boy to being forced to step forward and exemplify the teachings his father gave him back to his own father. This is tough to pull off.

One criticism I read was that he should be hardened and that he acted like a boy half his age. He's homeschooled and scared shitless!!! Now he's being forced out of hiding into a world full of cannibals and bad guys. How's he supposed to act?

It is apparent to me that the reviewer that wrote this criticism has never met a child or a violent person.

One of my favorite parts of the film, and the most telling of Smit-McPhee's performance, was when Viggo Mortensen says that the child is not the one that has to worry about everything. To which the child replies, "Yes, I am! I am the one." Basically saying that if it wasn't for him, his father might be even more brutal and savage, perhaps being reduced to the savagery that surrounds them.

Managing to put together one of the best casts in film history, this film is a collection of brilliant short performances that shows real actors take small parts as serious as lead roles.

In order, these tiny, acting gems starts with Charlize Theron. Playing the part of "woman," she acts as the Eve to this inhospitable casting out of Eden. While brief, Theron's performance is melancholic and disturbing. In a short time frame, she gives the audience all they need to know about what to expect from the film. Her performance never allows you to feel sorry for her. She keeps you, her husband and child at a distance. She sees the reality of the situation and, while it is overwhelming for her, she has a clear understanding of its meaning. In her, we see the absence of society and that continuing forward is a pointless endeavor that will end tragically.

It is just a matter of deciding the severity of the end, whether it be heartbreaking, brutal, or worst of all, heartbreakingly brutal.

Next comes a character actor who you have probably seen but may not have learned his name yet.

Garret Dillahunt, probably most recognizable from television shows such as "Deadwood," "The Sarah Conner Chronicles," and his role as Deputy Wendell in "No Country for Old Men," Dillahunt plays a marauder who hunts humans in "The Road."

Dillahunt's performance is chilling, and for those that have read the novel, spot on. In a matter of moments we are convinced that this man has a lot of experience capturing humans. He knows what they will and will not do.

Learn this actor's name. You'll need to know it very soon.

Much has been said about Robert Duvall's performance in this film and I will not do much to add to the praise here accept to say, it's Robert fricking Duvall!!!! Do you understand!!?!! If you don't, well, then you shouldn't see this film. Or any film for that matter.

Then there's Michael K. Williams. Many of you will recognize him as Omar Little from the greatest television show in the history of television, "The Wire." To be my favorite character from my favorite show pretty much makes you fail proof. But Williams doesn't rest on his laurels, giving a performance that makes you understand not just this criminal, but all criminals.

When he is left standing naked in the road, you are left with him. Wondering how to solve this problem before it happens in your own life.

Finally, in this array of bit parts, are Guy Pearce and Molly Parker. Rounding out the brilliant performances in this movie, these two bookend this ensemble cast with the skill that is expected of them.

There are some deviations that I find hard to believe, such as the cutting out the pregnant woman scene that was in the book, a vital change that keeps me from thinking this could have been one of the best films I've ever seen. But I love this movie so much that it gets a pass.

Add in the brilliant costuming, production design, props, and cinematography, this film has an honesty all its own, while arguably being a little too tidy.

Another one of my favorite things in the film is at the end. As the credits roll, the score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is simply the ambient noise of people talking, birds, distant traffic, sounds that you suddenly love all the more for the lack of it in the film.

In the end, I say, see the movie, then read the book. While the movie will help to illustrate the vastness of the apocalypse visually, the book will take those visuals and lay them over the deeper, more literate meaning, ensuring that the apocalypse's true meaning is understood and internalized effectively.

In closing I would like to say that this work that McCarthy has done has shown me the importance of my life and my place in this world.

For years I have been in love with notion of apocalypse.

The irony of the dream of apocalypse is that it gives the reader or viewer or gamer, depending on the medium, an escape from their "nine to five" existence.

They see their lives as a mundane struggle to survive. In fact, it is the opposite that is true.

All around them are multiple avenues to connect with others; groups, events, social networking sites...hell, eharmony and [...], if they're brave enough.

The very roads they drive on and the stores they shop in are proof that they are directly engaged with those around them. This invisible web of humanity that surrounds them every day is above their ability to comprehend, taking its safety and inclusive protection for granted.

Instead they fantasize about the crumbling of civilization to finally prove their individual worth.

In the apocalyptic wasteland, their lives will have meaning in the search for food and the banding together of family and friends; a dream of heroism the equivalent to jumping on a gang of bank robbers in the middle of a heist or defusing a bomb moments before it is set to detonate.

McCarthy shows the apocalypse as a stripping away of these elements. You will lose your family. You will lose your friends. You will lose the will to live. You will die nameless like an animal in a vast tract of wilderness.

Like Love and War, the Apocalypse has been stripped of its romantic sheen. Stripped clean by McCarthy's understanding of what is most important to human survival. Not the petty squabbles and allegiances that we hold so dear, but something so much more important.

His tale is about more than the importance of our individuality, but instead about the importance and beauty of civilization. How important and sacred a concept this is.

The roads aren't just to drive on, but connect us to each other. The things we make and the rights we afford each other are sacred and of extreme value.

Books, music, even television are all highlighted and afforded some new value through their absence.

If finding a can of coke in an empty bank on a rundown road many years after everyone is dead and gone can be considered a treasure in our imaginations, then why not now in our reality?

We are in a time of prosperity, a time where we do not have to fear others. This amazing and expansive thing we call human civilization and all that comes with it, no matter how temporary this state of affairs may be or seems to be, is all that matters.

It is civilization that matters, a caring for each and every person in it that matters. Right now, it is the good guys that run the world. Us. We are the good guys. And we must keep moving closer to each other. We must keep watch after each other. We are the ones who have to worry. And we must all be Keepers of the Flame.

So...Buy the book. Buy the movie. Let yourself enjoy the total experience. You won't regret it. I promise."