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Posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 3:52:46 GMT by: Rick McGrath
Posted under: post apocalyptic movie review drama

Year: 2009
Directors: John Hillcoat
Writers: Joe Penhall & Cormac McCarthy
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Rick McGrath
Rating: 10 out of 10

This is only the second time I’ve given a score of 10 for a film, and this one receives this honor almost solely on the fact it’s taken me five jangly hours to get over just how stupendously brutal this hyper-realistic film is, and how deeply we’ve all misjudged the apparent strength of society and culture.

Based on the highly-acclaimed 2007 Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, The Road is a sort of philosophic horror film with a slightly optimistic ending. The topic under discussion ultimately may be about the survival of humans in general, but it certainly is about the survival of any kind of humanity in a world where force and cunning and paranoia rule. This multi-level story gives us two things to think about: the post-apocalyptic world is an environmental disaster; the post-apocalyptic world invites only the most basic emotions. The former is the setting, the latter the drama.

Here’s how it comes together: a stupendous cataclysm rocks the earth. All birds and animals are dead, as are all trees and plant life. Every day is grey, and getting greyer. It’s cold, and getting colder. It doesn’t take a genius to deduce this is either a nuclear winter, or the aftermath of a huge, unexpected meteor crash. Not good. Through a seamless flow of action shots and flashbacks, usually told in unsettled dreams, we discover our heroes -- an unnamed man and his son -- are heading along a road that will take them to the east coast of the southern US. It’s about 10-12 years after the disaster, and they can no longer stay at their northern home. Mom committed suicide sometime after the boy’s birth, which coincided with the catastrophe. Not surprisingly, travel is dangerous because society has had a long time to break down, and the road is patrolled by roving bands of militia and the woods by gangs of cannibals. Not a friendly situation. However, like any good road movie, our team of “good guys” slowly make their way along and one by one encounter situations dangerous, emotionally moving, humorous, and philosophic as their journey progresses.

The main action, however, is between father and son, not between toy soldiers on trucks and Texas chainsaw cannibals hiding in country mansions. Dad is in full survival mode, but the son, who really hasn’t seen anyone outside of his father, is naturally friendly and trusting, and what we hear between these two as the story progresses is a combination of verbal pact-making and lessons from dad on how to be paranoid and if necessary, suicidal. Their gun only has one bullet left, and the son will be the one to get it if they are ever caught… by anyone. This bleak instruction proves both undoable and ultimately unnecessary, but it shows the heights – or depths – to which a father will go to protect his son from any possible atrocities in a lawless world. That’s their theme – they represent humanity in a devolved inhumane culture, a society based on warlords, on instinct, on the brutal acts the madness of starvation can bring. The movie’s question is: how long can it last?

The second theme – a killer environment – is the story’s continual backdrop of lightning-riddled clouds, endless rain, dead forests, dead everything, all covered with a mortuary-white layer of pervasive ash. Years without the sun has killed everything. No philosophy here, folks. Just the most visually depressing earth you’ll ever see and a stunning visualization of what happens with the failure of the interdependent ecosystem. And it could happen. Lesson over.

The acting is generally superb, and why not, with Viggo Mortensen as the father, Charlize Theron as the wife, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the boy. Mortensen is great as the dying dad, subtly moving from simply protective to desperately concerned as the road continually leads nowhere good and his health is failing. He knows his son is not yet hardened against humanity, but he’s also torn by fears of pushing him into the crazy paranoid abyss. Mortensen expresses these conflicts beautifully an offers up a truly believable and compelling performance of a man in a truly cruel situation. Theron, unfortunately, plays the depressed mother – “I lost my heart when he was born” – and only appears in the father’s dream flashbacks. Her big scene is the walking out into the night suicide moment, and otherwise she lounges around in eye candy casual wear as dad dreams of their early days. She also represents those who simply give up, who see death as a salvation, not something to be feared in the face of the really fearsome. Smit-McPhee is surprisingly good as the son. He, too, becomes a different person by the end of the story – in some ways, his own person – and this change from kid to young adult is well done. One of the surprising cameos is Robert Duval, who appears briefly in the only named role as Eli. Plastered in makeup as to make him virtually unrecognizable, only the voice remains in this one humorous instance in the story. Eli is the first to receive human concern from the boy, however, and dad’s initial rejection of this generosity reveals not only his depth of inhumanity, but the first instance of moral opposition from the boy. An interesting scene.

Director John Hillcoat works wonders with Joe Penhall’s adaptation of McCarthy’s novel. The action moves ahead briskly, we’re not bogged down by too many or too long father-son pact scenes, and the use of flashbacks is superb, worked in as they are as the father’s dreams and daydreams, adroitly filling in the space between endless grey light. The Road’s two hours fly by effortlessly as Hillcoat drags you into this hopeless otherworld and continually beats you with increasing despair. You find yourself asking: would I put up with this?

The camerawork is divine. Shot at a number of incredibly visual locations, including the very Ballardian abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike, the road they travel is dotted with death and destruction, rotted corpses, abandoned cities, all the detritus of a land scavenged to death. The feel is very gritty, cold and grey – perfect foil for the hot and dangerous humans still left alive.

The Road. It’s a trip nobody would ever want to take. Is Culture a mask? Yes. Is Society a form of trust? Yes. Can both survive a devolution to the instinctual level? Perhaps. The ending is a sort of test of your optimism meter. I’m betting your needle goes way too high. Not a good plan when the dust comes down. See this amazing movie if you can… it’s The Road into choices from hell.

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