“There was a blinding white light then a series of low concussions” and that is the beginning of the end of the world in John Hillcoats’ new post-apocalyptic thriller The Road. Starring Viggo Mortensen, in a role which will likely see him in the running for an Oscar come March.
Having read, and enjoyed, the book by Cormac McCarthy some time last year I very much hoping that the film would do it justice. I’d thoroughly enjoyed the Coen Brothers adaptation of McCarthy’s other novel No Country For Old Men and Hillcoat had impressed me with his revisionist western The Proposition. Would he be able to get across the tone of the book, and the feeling of dread that one has when reading it?
I’m pleased to report that he has. The cinematography manages to capture the absolute devastation that has befallen the world, everything looks washed out, de-saturated and grey. We see highways with long abandoned cars on them, forests where the trees have been stripped of all their leaves and branches, leaving them looking like bones poking out of the earth. Everything is blanketed in ash and fog and the world looks grey.
This isn’t the world of Mad Max, where everyone still looks well fed and bathed and are able to scrounge up flamboyant costumes and gas guzzling automobiles. Everyone is caked in grime and mud, their bodies are skeletal and they look exhausted. Packs of cannibals and thieves roam the terrain and trust is a luxury which can never be indulged.
Despite all this Viggo is determined that he and his son make it South to the coast where he believes that they will have a better chance of survival. It is this unwavering belief, and the love for his son which stops him from giving up, although he does carry a pistol with two remaining shells, “one for me, and one for you”.
I mentioned before that The Proposition was a revisionist western. It shows that the men who travelled the plains, here it’s Australia rather than America, weren’t noble heroes writing wrongs. Instead they are seen to be hard, savage men who weren’t above murder, theft, and rape.
The Road could certainly be considered a revisionist post-apocalyptic film. While the genre isn’t quite as revered as the western, and more often than they feature scores of the undead, it is still a popular storytelling device.
Films like Dawn of the Dead, or I Am Legend often have a glimmer of hope for the human race and there are even moments of levity in the film, Dawn of the Deads’ middle section particularly, when the survivors in the mall almost seem to be living a life of luxury, safe from the undead outside the store.
The Road tries to make one concession towards this. Father and son stumble across a well stocked fallout shelter and it seems like things may take a turn for the better. This optimism is soon quashed though as they are forced to move on. There is also no attempt to explain what caused the cataclysmic event which makes it all the more chilling as it leaves it to your own imagination as to the cause.
Although the film is set in a post-apocalyptic world the focus is really on the relationship between father and son and the lengths that he will go in order to protect him. He tells his son that they are the good guys but by the end of the film the distinction between good and bad becomes a little blurred, all of this done so that the boy can keep his innocence.
Fans of the book will find that there are no real surprises to be had. The film is a pretty faithful adaptation, with a few minor scenes cut out. It manages to capture the books grim tone and the casual ellipsis in time as we see The Man and The Boy trudging down the road. Anyone who was worried that the scenes with the wife would be beefed up due to Charlize Theron taking the role needn’t be. They are broken up throughout the film but wouldn’t amount to more than a handful of minutes.
I have already written about the soundtrack in depth so I won’t talk about it too much here. For the most part it works incredibly well with the film, the haunting violins and gentle piano help highlight the grimness of the situation but at times they are a little overbearing, particularly during one scene by a river.
Interaction with other survivors on The Road is kept to a minimum, although the small roles have been given to pretty high profile actors. Robert Duvall plays an old man they come across. Michael K Williams, better known as Omar from The Wire, has a role as a would be thief and Guy Pearce, who seems to be making a habit of these small cameos with this and The Hurt Locker in which he was on screen for all of five minutes.
The only actor really worth speaking about though is Viggo Mortensen who has in only a few films has gone from that handsome actor in The Lord of the Rings to an astounding character actor who completely loses himself in his roles. You really believe that this is a man who has spent years roaming the country and would do anything for his son, including kill. In the hands of a lesser actor the character could have come across as one dimensional and boring but the look of anguish that is nearly constantly on his face is genuine and his despairing voice-over where he talks about his worries for the boy really helps sell it.
The Road is a gut-wrenching experience which will no doubt leave many cinema goers feeling like they’ve been put through the wringer. It is a powerful film which deserves to be watched by anyone with an interest in the themes of faith, the bonds of family, and the destruction of mankind. Just be prepared to be a little shaken after watching it.
Tags:
Charlize Theron, Coen Brothers, Cormac McCarthy, Dawn of the Dead, I Am Legend, John Hillcoat, Mad Max, Michael K Williams, No Country For Old Men, Robert Duvall, The Hurt Locker, The Lord of the Rings, The Proposition, The Road, The Wire, Viggo Mortensen
