ROAD TO PERDITION

US, 2002, 132 minutes, Colour.
Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tyler Hoechlin, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Dylan Baker.
Directed by Sam Mendes.

The Catholic Church receives some attention in Road to Perdition. In the widely-shown trailer for the film, Paul Newman is seen receiving Communion. He is also seen as ordering the deaths of business rivals. He is part of the Irish Mafia in Chicago in the early 1930s who were closely associated with Al Capone and his rackets.

Road to Perdition obviously denotes Hell, although it is also the name of the town to which Tom Hanks, playing a hit man on the run, is trying to reach for safety for him and his son. In fact, the film can be seen more as a study of the relationships between fathers and sons than a simple gangster movie. The plot is framed by Hanks' son telling the audience that some considered his father evil, others as a good man. He leaves it for us to judge, saying simply that he was his father.

The Irish families in the US were very clannish and their lives centred on the church. Road to Perdition shows us that, while the individual criminals were often personally devout despite their crimes, they also had an air of public respectability and presented themselves as pillars of the church. In this film, it is shown in a long wake for a murdered accountant.

However, Evening Standard reviewer, Alexander Walker, took director Sam Mendes to task at his press conference during the recent Venice Film Festival. Basing his comments on the 'graphic novel' (an illustrated comic-like book) which he had read, Mr Walker said that the film did not do justice to the role of the Catholic Church in the novel.

He pointed out that in the novel whenever the Tom Hanks character killed someone, he went to confession. There were no confession sequences in the film. The other important point from the novel is that the boy commenting on his father is finally seen to be a priest who declares that he never touched a gun again after the death of his father. In the film there is no explicit religious reference. He is a farmer.

Sam Mendes' reply was that he filmed a confession sequence but that including it in the film made it too heavy a dramatic way of including the church. He said that film audiences rather than readers would have found the boy becoming a priest too much. The communion sequence carried the impact of the church in these people's lives.

Road to Perdition was on the short list for the SIGNIS Jury in Venice, the Jury of the World Catholic Association for Communication. It just missed out on winning a commendation. The jury, which included the Director of Film Classifications for the US Bishops Conference and the Director for the Italian Bishops conference, thought that the film had a Catholic dimension to it and that it showed the perennial themes of sin, repentance and redemption very powerfully.

1. The impact of the film, acclaim? The acting and directing credits?

2. The title, the focus on the town of Perdition, the significance of going to Hell? John Rooney's comments, Michael Sullivan's beliefs?

3. The adaptation from a graphic novel, to make a film, the secularisation of the story (elimination of the confession sequences, of young Michael having become a priest)?

4. The US in 1931, the Depression, the big cities, the homes, Chicago, the countryside, banks and farms, the roads? The blue-grey colours? The musical score? The religious hymns?

5. The framework of the story: young Michael and his comment on his father as being considered bad as well as being good? His finally becoming a farmer? His comment, non-judgmental, that he was his father?

6. The portrait of the Sullivan family, at home, a devoted mother, knowing and loving her children, Michael and his distance? His care for Peter, reserve with Michael (and later explaining that he thought he was like himself)? The hold of John Rooney over the family? Taking in Michael, treating him like a son? The breakfast sequence, going to school? The boys, their study, their talk between themselves, wondering what their father's work really was? The mystery?

7. Their going to the wake, the range of people there, the Irish Catholics, the mix of people, especially the criminals and gangsters? John and the dice, playing with the children, Michael going downstairs to get John's coat, encountering Connor and his making him leave? The father forbidding them to have the dice? The murdered brother's speech, feeling, the beginning of condemnation of Rooney, Michael and the others urging him off? The setting up of relationships and tensions? John's orders for the treatment of the brother after his speech?

8. Michael not going to the concert, Michael Junior hiding in the car, looking under the floor, Connor and Michael, the confrontation with the brother, his explanations of the money situation, Connor suddenly shooting him? Michael seeing everything? Michael Sullivan realising the danger, the phone calls at home, his wife and son being killed, Michael Junior surviving?

9. Michael Sullivan and his going to collect the debt, the note, noticing the gun, the guard wanting bodyguard work with the Rooneys? The sudden shooting, reading the note from Connor to kill him? His going to visit John Rooney, John's warning? The decision to go on the road with Michael, not attending the funeral, the phone call (and its being tapped by the assassin)? Going to Chicago, the meeting with Frank Nitti, Nitti's refusal to support him, the explanations, John and Connor in the next room?

10. The contract for the killer, Nitti and his organising it, the killer and his taking the photos of the dead, his gallery? Intercepting the phone call? Following Michael? Meeting him at the diner, the meal and the discussion? Michael's shrewdness and his shooting the tyres? The firing of the gun? The pursuit? Finding him after the bank robberies, when he went to see the accountant, the killer seeing him, Michael Junior tooting the horn, the documents coming out of the machine, Michael Sullivan's shrewdness, wounding the killer? The finale and going to the holiday house, the killer there ready, the confrontation with Michael, shooting him, Michael Junior coming with the gun, unable to shoot the killer, his father doing it for him?

11. The father teaching the son to drive, the comic touches, the collage of the bank robberies, hitting Al Capone and Nitti? The bank managers and the hidden money?

12. Their having to go to the farm, the old couple welcoming them, Michael Junior feeling at home, Michael Sullivan and the wound from the killer, the recovery?

13. The role of the accountant, the scenes of the meeting of the heads of the Irish Mafia, the decision makers, John Rooney presiding, the accusations against Connor? The accountant and the documents, Michael Sullivan wanting them, going to his apartment, confronting him? The killer shooting him?

14. The sequence in the church, John Rooney going to communion, Michael appearing behind him and wanting to talk? His showing the documentation to John, John Rooney admitting that he knew that Connor was stealing all the time? The scenes between Connor and John, his father's severity with him, yet his love, his inability to control him?

15. The changes in the situation, especially with Frank Nitti, supporting Michael, Connor's death?

16. The rain, the men coming out of the bar, John Rooney, Michael Sullivan and his shooting, shooting the others, coming up behind Rooney, John saying that he was glad that Michael was killing him? His previous comments about their life, their work, going to Hell?

17. Connor and his pressuring Nitti, his presumption, his death?

18. The possibilities for peace, father and son and the bonds growing between them, mutual trust? The experience for Michael and discovering is father's work, seeing the killing, having to cope with his family's death, his strength of mind, the driving? Going to the holiday home, the dog, the sea? The irony of the killer being there, his having the gun, unable to shoot it? His father saving his life?

19. The ending, Michael and his thinking back over the three months? His never touching a gun again? Back at the farm?

20. The conscience of the film, moral stances, American history and its heritage?