THE ROAD
US, 2009, 106 minutes, Colour.
Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit- Mc Phee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Michael Kenneth Williams, Gareth Delahunt.
Directed by John Hillcoat.
This is a beautifully made film which offers so much to reflect on. It is a pity that it won't appeal to a wide audience who may not be attracted by its post-apocalyptic scenario, by its grim quest as a surviving father and son make for the coast. They pass though quake-upheavaled terrain, scorched earth, frozen earth, barren earth,bare and collapsing trees, desolate landscapes, deserted homes, shopping centres, cities, with marauding and cruel gangs, odd straggling strangers, starving, searching for food – with minimal glimmers of hope. The special effects and locations for the earth and the quakes are more than credible with filming in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Oregon and Mt St Helens.
The photography by Javier Aguirresaroba is outstanding. The score is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Fine direction is by John Hillcoat (Ghosts of the Civil Dead, To Have and To Hold, The Proposal).
The Road makes its audience ask themselves what they might do in these circumstances, how they would think, how they would feel, want to survive or not, how they would cope with vicious humans and with needy human beings. Some God questions are raised in this adaptation by playwright, Joe Penhall, form the novel by Cormac Mc Carthy, author of No Country for Old Men.
In the last decade Viggo Mortensen has excelled in Lord of the Rings, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, a versatile, persuasive and humane performer. His presence as the loving and protective father gives The Road great strength. The boy, Kodi Smit- Mc Phee (Romulus, My Father) is good as the son who has known only this devastated world and his memories of his mother (Charlize Theron effective as a tormented, depressed survivor).
There is Robert Duvall at his best in a short telling role as an old man wandering the roads, just about surviving.
A fine film, regrettably not going to be seen as much as it should be.
1.The cinema achievement: adaptation of a novel, the film in itself, an art film, the themes?
2.Audience response: to a post-apocalyptic story, father and son relationship, survival, the good and the bad, despair and hope, how grim? Too specialised for a popular audience?
3.The locations: Louisiana, Oregon, Mount St Helen, Pennsylvania? A sense of realism? The special effects for the scorched earth, the frozen earth, barren, the homes, the cities, ruins, the sea? The musical score, Bach, the piano notes?
4.The title, a road film, off the roads, the mountains and plains, the quest?
5.The introduction, the sudden quake, the family fear, the man and the woman, the bath, her pregnancy, no explanation given?
6.The structure: the man and the boy, on the road, the flashbacks, their placement, the rhythm for the journey? The birth, the grim years, the years passing, husband and wife talking, the wife and her despair, wanting to die, the husband unable to persuade her, going out into the dark, her death? The colour of the later flashbacks, the love, the car? In the man’s dreams? The man’s memories? The boy forgetting?
7.The episodes: father and son alone, hostile nature and the visuals, the turmoil, the need for food, the various locations, the gang, the smashed cars, the shooting of the gang member, the various escapes, hiding, wandering, finding the mansion, the cellar, the bodies, the vicious gang returning, meeting the old man, the black man, the cellar and the food, swimming to the boat, the flare, killing the man who fired the arrow? The man’s illness, taking out the arrow, his death on the beach? The family arriving at the end? The cumulative effect, the pacing?
8.The portrait of the man: a cultured man, doctor, love for his wife, his son, trying to persuade his wife not to die? Heading south? Love for his son, embracing and kissing, protecting him, the shelter, carrying the fire, gradually starving, the gun and the explanation of how to killing himself, the confrontations, the finding of the Coca-Cola?, eating the insects, the mansion and the crisis, the good people and the bad people, the old man, his violent attitude towards the old man, the boy persuading him to be more gentle, talking, sharing? The black man, vengeance, making him strip, abandoning him, the boy’s pleas, their return? The sea, everything lost? The arrow, the illness? Talking with his son, the stories, encouragement, positive values, a flawed man yet a good man, his fears, his death?
9.The boy, his age, memories and their fading, the experience, responding as a child, the love for his father, whether he saw the boy or whether it was hallucination? The compassion, sharing with his father, the Coca- Cola, with the old man, with the black man? The family, the gun, the talking with the new man, the offer of a family, seeing the children, going with them? The mother and her kindness?
10.The mother, in herself, playing the piano, love for her husband, pregnancy, not wanting to give birth, giving birth and its effect on her, the fears, over the years, trying to survive, not wanting to live another winter, going out to die?
11.The portrait of the old man, his age, loss of his son, his eyesight, attitude towards the boy, towards the man, going on his way?
12.The gang, the cruelty, the man threatening the boy, his being shot? Their reappearing at the mansion, their cruelty to the people in the cellar?
13.The black man taking everything, catching up with him on the road, his plea, the boy offering compassion, the man stripping him? Returning with the clothes?
14.The final family, mother and father, speaking to the boy, persuading him?
15.The effect, the portrait of values, the issues of God, prayer and thanksgiving to the people for the food, the image of the cross in the church, the comment by the man that he would create the world exactly as it was were he God?
