The Road (John Hillcoat, 2009)

[Peckinbauch]

In speaking of possible directors in place of Hillcoat, I personally think Paul Thomas Anderson would have been a good pick for either Road or Meridian. As a huge fan of TWBB, it seems as though Anderson may have a credible artistic insight into the Gothic Americana that is present in so much of McCarthy's work (Although I am a fan of Hillcoat as well).

I bring up Meridian because I believe Field to be a rather odd choice to be at the helm of that particular project. Nothing against the man. Just surprised.

Coincidentally, this is my first post on the forum. So. Hi everybody!

[LQ]

AV Club interview with John Hillcoat.
The Road is really the most translated fiction book in, as he puts it, 'modern times'? That sounds like a specious claim....

[Mr Sausage]

AV Club interview with John Hillcoat.
The Road is really the most translated fiction book in, as he puts it, 'modern times'? That sounds like a specious claim....

That'd be nice, but I'm pretty sure something like The Da Vinci Code is translated more.

[domino harvey]

He said "fiction," you wily Illuminati-denying mason

[hidaniel]

Ugh, saw this a couple of days ago. So, so blase about it. Hillcoat took a book filled with tension and about the immediacy of survival and turned it into over-sentimental crud about a man who can't let go of the past. Which on its own is fine but has little to do with the novel -- just like the ending of the movie, thanks for getting rid of any ambiguity there. I almost expected REM's Happy Shiny People to play over the closing credits.

The Proposition was very good but but this does not bode well for his possible adaptation of Blood Meridian. I can see it turning into a movie where The Kid thinks his mother is still alive and the movie focusing on his quest to find her with a band of merry misfits and miscreants tagging along in the old west. Possibly as a musical.

As for who should do Blood Meridian; I'd love to see Lynch's take on it. The damn thing is one long nightmare about the devil with crazy dream sequences interspersed throughout. I think he would have a good chance of getting the feeling right which to me is more important to a McCarthy novel than anything else.

[kaujot]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but from what you've said Hillcoat took McCarthy's statement that the book is just about a father loving his son a bit too seriously.

[Grand Illusion]

The film looks great. Cinematography, effects, and art direction are all top-notch.

That said, I don't think The Road does much else new with the post-apocalyptic world other than that. There's no real creative use of the space. The roving gangs, the preserved food, the abandoned houses - seen it all before.

I actually did like the flashbacks because

SpoilerShow

it established the motif of Viggo always waking by spasming his body out of nightmare. That was one original detail of the effect this world has on its inhabitants.

Mortensen himself is serviceable, but the Boy is terrible. He walks around with his mouth open, and he's not given much to do with the script. He's either asking questions or moralizing in the middle of an otherwise interesting scenario. The screenwriters build scenes the same way several times. Viggo does or does not do something ethically questionable to survive, and the Boy, in obvious dialogue, questions him. Repeat.

The Boy also has zero character arc, which makes him even more one-dimensional. At no point is his moral compass shattered or even slightly-off. Compare this with the layered performance of Max Records in Where the Wild Things Are. An audience doesn't have to always like or intellectually relate to a character to empathize with them.

The ending only further expresses how much this character flatlines.

SpoilerShow

The one interesting thesis of the film was that, apocalyptic milieu or not, a parent's one greatest fear is rearing a child to take on the world themselves. And this Boy learns nothing from the father. There's zero character arc.

The father keeps the two of them alive throughout the duration of the film. The grim world full of cannibals and gangs and random archers is dangerous. And the father stole and killed to get through it. So when the father dies, the Boy trusts the first guy to come along with a crooked smile, and everything is A-OK!

What's the message there? The kid was dumb. Also, if there was no character growth for him, what was the purpose of the father character at all? Is the point of the film that no matter how you raise your child, he'll ignore you but still end up ok? The ending moment of the film demolishes any foundation of an interesting thesis that the film might have had about raising a child. It's completely superfluous.

[James]

The person who writes on The Playlist blog likened this to Time of the Wolf. I haven't seen The Road, but it sounds like an apt comparison that makes me want to watch Haneke's movie again.

[LQ]

I was hoping to come out of The Road with something more positive to say than the previous posters, but they're dead-on. It's unremarkable and stolid. The film has nothing new to offer, and isn't all that good in and of itself. For being such a quiet, sparse movie, there was a dismaying lack of subtlety in the dialogue and the music; both fell thudding on the ears. A written phrase as precious as "carrying the fire" in the novel became an inane-sounding non sequitur when spoken aloud by the Child, especially in the end scene. The Wife's "other families are doing it" sounded ridiculous in the context. Although I thought both Viggo and the kid did well in their respective rolls, the interactions between the two did little to involve emotionally. The maudlin & cliche "stirring" piano music was very off-putting as well, it shouldn't have been scored at all IMO.

The ending...sigh. Grand Illusion said it best. I suppose that's a very valid criticism of the book too, but I don't remember it feeling so cheap when I read it.

[greggster59]

From the moment I finished the novel it was obvious to me that any attempt to adapt it to another medium would fall far too short. The spare prose evoked many vivid images and emotions in me and trying to capture this in a movie would be something like trying to describe what it feels like to skydive.

Ain't gonna go.

[blindside8zao]

I don't know about the movie, as I haven't had the opportunity to see it because of the release stunt, but, I watched time of the wolf right after I read the Road and felt it served as a good follow-up. If this is a failure I'd suggest that movie for anyone who wants a remake of the book. Very eerily similar tones.

[tajmahal]

From the moment I finished the novel it was obvious to me that any attempt to adapt it to another medium would fall far too short. The spare prose evoked many vivid images and emotions in me and trying to capture this in a movie would be something like trying to describe what it feels like to skydive.

Ain't gonna go.

Agreed. I've just finished the novel. To add to your comments, I can also see where a filmed version could be boring. I'm not quite sure an entire film could rely on the minimalist conversations between the father and son. There are a number of key scenes which are very filmic, but I can imagine how there could be one note to the film. I'll be interested to see what John Hillcoat has achieved.

[hidaniel]

Agreed. I've just finished the novel. To add to your comments, I can also see where a filmed version could be boring. I'm not quite sure an entire film could rely on the minimalist conversations between the father and son. There are a number of key scenes which are very filmic, but I can imagine how there could be one note to the film. I'll be interested to see what John Hillcoat has achieved.

Disagreed. The film could have gone with less dialogue ala Le Dernier Combat. What it lacked was any sense of urgency. Everyone in the movie walks around like they're on a Sunday stroll and even though they're starving to death, almost every scene has the father and son eating something -- as brought to you by the Coca-Cola corporation.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

almost every scene has the father and son eating something -- as brought to you by the Coca-Cola corporation.

"Brawndo's Got Electrolytes!"