ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

____________
__

_____________ The Road (2009) Official Trailer


__________

I don't think we can call The Road an evolution in the sub-genre of post-holocaust scenario films since Five (1951); perhaps, a progression, but even in that there nothing very new here - except the boy, who was born right after the holocaust happened; he has known no other reality except this dreary new world. Otherwise, it simply reconstitutes all the concepts of a post-nuclear war world which we've seen in Five, then in The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959), then Ravagers (1979)... and so on.

______

There might be more grittiness to the tale, more grimness even . . . and the visuals benefit from 21st century FX technology. But, the biggest addition to this version of such a dying world is a touch of poignancy generated by the two main characters. Viggo Mortensen plays the father, looking out for his young son as they journey down the road. Where are they going? To the beach, perhaps. Remember On the Beach from 1959? That's another one. But, we never got to cannibalism in those older films... except in Ravagers, I think.

Others who pop up briefly are played by Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and Molly Parker. Charlize Theron plays the wife/mother, in flashbacks. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, published only a couple of years earlier



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[The Spike]

The Road is directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and written by Joe Penhall (Enduring Love). Based on the 2006 novel of the same name by American author Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men), the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and his son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

How do you sell such a sombre piece to the film loving public? I'm not sure I personally can, such is the whirly like emotions dominating my thoughts. OK, it's a grim and bleak film, of that there's no doubt. Director Hillcoat is not out to make a thrilling end of the world actioner. Staying faithful to McCarthy's novel, this is now a world where animal & plant life is practically extinct, where this particular part of America is lawless and populated by cannibal types. Humanity has long since left the arena. How we arrived at such desolation is not clear - intentionally so. We are now just witnessing the after effects of something world changing, the fall out personally involving us as we hit the road with man & boy.

Hillcoat and his cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe have painted a clinically dead world from which to tell the story. Scorched soil is home to threadbare trees, the skyline punctured by the wreckage of man's progress passed, storms come and go as if to taunt the characters. It's a living hell that begs the question on why would anyone want to survive in it? So here's the thing that finally hit me like a sledgehammer some five days after watching the film, it's not just the bleakness of the apocalypse that gnaws away at you, it's also the expertly portrayed study of parenting. So emotively played by Mortensen, with Smit-McPhee essaying incredible vulnerability, it sinks the heart the longer the movie goes on. All of which is leading up to the ending, where we get something absorbing, revealing and utterly smart.

Tough viewing for sure, but compelling and thought provoking throughout. 8/10
_________________
The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

I might be forgetting other reviews you've written that are just as good as the one above, but while reading it I was impressed enough to think it was indeed the cream of the crop.

I really do want to see this movie (even though I lean more towards stories with more optimism than this one obviously has), and when I do see it feel that — thanks to you — I'll be braced for the rough ride.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

As much as I like the actors in this I too prefer more optimistic fare. I know not all stories have a happy ending, but I watch movies to be 1) entertained, or 2) educated and informed or even 3) to experience an emotional envolvement….NOT to become depressed at the futility of it all.
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Remember the funny PA announcement in Gremlins 2 from inside the "Clamp Building" (a Ted Turner parody, with a little Trump thrown in) when the cheerful announcer says —

“Tonight, on the Clamp Cable Classic Movie Channel, don't miss Casablanca . . . now in full color and with a happier ending!”
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Phantom]

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee portray a father and his son trying to survive in a post-apocalypse movie that is as bleak and unrelenting as Threads. The boy, who was born soon after the catastrophe, knows only the frigid, barren landscape surrounding the road that they have chosen in a never ending search for food.

Viggo Mortensen’s minimalist acting is the perfect cover for a man who, while bone weary and frightened, is intensely driven to the protection of his son. The loving relationship between them is occasionally interrupted by a disagreement, but the break is only temporary. Mortensen and Smit-Magee work extremely well together. There is never a moment when you don’t believe they are absolutely devoted to each other.

Kodi Smit-McPhee delivers a remarkable performance that is as natural and unforced as childhood, itself. As the beneficiary of a dead world, his perspective on the vanished life that was so common to his father can only be experienced when he infrequently comes into contact with the decaying remnants of the past. A dusty deer head trophy on the wall of a house they are exploring is a mystery for a boy who has never seen a living animal. His first sip from a can of coke is like an electric charge to someone who has lived on a basic diet of scraps collected from the rubble of civilization. Swimming with his father in clear, clean water at the base of a waterfall becomes a moment of uncontained joy. Bodies hanging from the ceiling of a deserted house are only of passing interest to a child who has never known the comradeship of family, neighbors or other children.

The Road is one of the darkest movies in the science fiction genre. Nuclear winter has set in, probably forever. Scenes of desolation are lit only by savage images of destruction.








At night, the man is tortured by dreams of his beautiful wife who, unable to cope with the new reality, walked away to “die in the dark.” After so much gloom, the sudden introduction of a full color palette to illustrate his lost world is like a shot of Technicolor lightning through your senses.



The most harrowing episode in the movie is the discovery of a basement in which a family of cannibals has imprisoned their potential victuals. The family returns before they can escape the house. To spare his son the horror of ending up in the cellar, he prepares to shoot the boy with the only remaining bullet in his gun.





After the boy is nearly killed in an encounter with a band of heavily armed thugs, his father attempts to explain the difference between good people whom they can trust and bad people who only want to do them harm.

“Are we the good people?” the boy asks in all innocence.
“Yes,” the man responds. “We’re the good people.”

And that is it. There are no philosophers in this movie. No one suddenly breaks into a flowery monologue with a long diatribe on the nature of mankind, good vs. evil, God and The Devil. Their very existence has been reduced to a single absolute, the moment by moment search for sustenance. There is no time for introspection and self-pity. Carpe diem because there may not be another.

“There is a fire inside us,” the father tells him, "that is the essence of our survival."

But when the boy attempts to put that to the test by helping an old man (an unrecognizable Robert Duval) they meet on the road, the father rejects compassion as a weakness that could get them killed.



At the end of the road is the sea. Then what?



Despite all that has gone before, the child finds a living beetle in the sand and, a few moments later, a bird is seen soaring in the sky. Are these the dying remnants of past Earth or the beginning of new life on future Earth? The movie does not answer that question.

I don’t totally buy the last scene in the movie. While it leaves us with faint hope, it is a bit too cavalry to the rescue.





The Road is not for everyone. Its incessant pessimism is a heavy load to carry for an audience. If we are to find any meaning in so desolate a movie, it is in the humanity of a father and son who, because of the fire within them, would not and could not surrender themselves to the devastation around them.
_________________
What Is Essential Is Invisible

[Bud Brewster]

__________________________________________________

Good grief, I could have sworn I'd added a grateful reply to this wonderful post, Phantom!

It is so beautifully written that I was a bit jealous . . . because I hadn't writing it myself. The images you selected and the way you positioned them within the text does a fine job of enhancing your message.

I wish All Sci-Fi had more members who enjoyed creating finely-crafted comments like yours, sir. Thanks for honoring us with the one above.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)