The Road

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lorin
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The Road

Post by lorin »

Don't think I saw it mentioned yet. I am really looking forward to this movie. I read the book by Cormac McCarthy and it was staggering. He also wrote No Country for Old Men. He is not a bundle of cheer.

Watch out for the summaries, they have a lot of spoilers.


www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/
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finn
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Post by finn »

Watched this over the w/e (DVD) and thought it was an average post apolcalypse movie, with some fine performances, good filming and good effects. Tho' Viggo Mortensen plays the role to the hilt and is well supported by cameos from Robert Duval, Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron as well as a solid performance from Kodi Smit-McPhee as the kid, the film fails for me to portray the theme except in characature, a sort of Waltons do post apocalyspse.

The movie is shot in grey/sepia tones reflecting the lack of life and lustre after the collapse of the world with flashbacks in vivid colour highlighting the bleakness. The central theme appears to be about carrying-on, carrying-on, staying doggedly fixed to anything that represents not giving up..............
Spoiler
and the outcome rewards that with Viggo getting the boy to the next stage of personal survival.
................but also not surrendering basic humanity to indiscriminate killing, canibalism etc.

The dirt and grime and the toll on the psyche were played well but not fully, I must say I thought the physical toll would have been better played with the loss of a few teeth! I also thought the lack of caution in the father and son a bit curious too, whilst Viggo's character showed some, the boy showed little and kids pick stuff up pretty quick at that age... see City of God for example.

For me the pair especially the kid would be getting pretty feral and the acts of humanity would have made their survival thus far improbable. I would have perferred to have seen a subtler depiction of acts of kindness, absence of malice or concessionary perhaps . I think it would have fit better, especially as these two had survived a number of years it seemed which I think might have required more wits and a harder edge.

Overall the movie showed despair but triumph through retention of what makes us human and dogged survival of the spirit to keep fighting.... I felt only that it could have been a bit more brutal to have been a really good depiction.
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lorin
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Post by lorin »

Well, I finally read the book and saw the movie. To me there was no comparison. It was a good movie but completely lost the power of McCarthy's amazing writing.

He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone.
how do you translate these words to film?
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Holsety
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Post by Holsety »

Hmm. I'm trying to decide if I should buy it. The book I liked a lot, not one of my absolute all time favorites but I admit it was extremely well crafted. Seems like you guys think it's good enough to be worth the consideration, even if it's not perfect, right?
lorin
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Post by lorin »

I think the movie was good but not great. IMO it lost a lot in translation to film. I think that is the problem with McCarthy's work. It is such powerful writing that it is difficult to convey in film. No Country for Old Men also lost something in film.

Can you rent it instead of purchasing it?
The loudest truth I ever heard was the softest sound.
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