DVD REVIEW: THE ROAD

I dunno, man, I know plenty of kids, and I think they'd be more inclined to "man up" than the Boy is in this movie. Especially after some of the horrible shit they've witnessed. The kid, along with the repetition of the story, kind of sank the movie for me, which is a shame because I was pretty much in love with the first half. The house/basement scene in this movie is one of the most horrifying things ever.
Good review Justin. The flick certainly isn't for everyone. It's up there with Blindness as far as recent bleak films go.
See also Children of Men
"Half-Life 2: We Couldn't Afford the Aliens Edition"

This is absolutely one of the most powerful films I've ever seen, and I want to thank you for your fine work in this review. Your thoughts here are much more closely aligned with my own than the Devin Review was. I think it's a harrowing, important film that packs a sickening punch. It deflates over the last half hour, but it almost doesn't matter. I felt shell shocked by the first half, and the gloom of the world it created still has not been banished from my mind in the months since I first saw the film. I've seen it like 10 times all the way through now, and the opening 20 minutes even more times than that

This, to me, perfectly sums up the movie:
and I hope you do more writing and reviewing for CHUD in the future


I will now comment on a few things in your review, and I will start by stating my firm disagreement over your statement that Viggo primarily remembers his wife for her sexuality. On what do you base that statement? The scene in the theater? Every other pre-event flashback or shot that featured her had nothing to do with sex. For me, the scene in the theater is about intimacy, and the connection he shared with her. They're having a private moment in a room full of people, and that's what he misses (IMHO). Many reviews and people disparage Theron's work in the film, but to me it's very human and believable. If the entire world was dead and there was no future or hope of any kind*, I'd want to check out too

I have to disagree about the realism of Smitty's performance, though. His entire life has taken place in the world of the ROAD, and so his wide eyed naivety ETC is just not believable in any way. I know that he's supposed the represent the essential spark of good that can exist within each of us, I don't take issue with him not being a jerk, I take issue with his willful endangerment of his father.

My family had money troubles growing up, and even by age five I knew not to ask for the most expensive Polly Pocket playset. Smitty has been on the run from cannibals and rapists for his entire life, and yet he still seems poised at every turn to invite destruction upon his pitiful family unit through his unceasing whining and selfishness. The character didn't feel whiny in the book, but often times that's how Smit came off.

PS Do you really think the Lightning Victim should have been left on the cutting room floor? I'm not so sure. The first 16 minutes of the film, with it's sad, worn out hopeless score are visual poetry, like you said. It's perfect, and chilling. The fact that lightning attacks are common place in the future feels like important info, but at the same time it might have felt shoe horned in to try to add that sequence into the first 16 minutes. Maybe with the score over it and proper color timing it could fit though


*which is the case in the movie.. I don't understand how Viggo's quest is supposed to be uplifting. Even if the kid survives with Guy Pearce for a while, heck, even he lives long enough to father a second generation of post event humans, humans WILL die out in the near future. There are no more animals or plants. Those take millions of years to evolve, and unless The Kid's decedents are going to be cannibals who raise humans for meat, the human race is unquestionably doomed

EDIT: PS This is my favorite poster for the ROAD, I think it would have made better cover art for the DVD. My understanding is that this poster was only for the international release. It conveys the mood of the film much better than the faux brightness and light of the domestic poster

I didn't have an issue with the Boy's realism. The Man, while trying to prepare the Boy to survive in the post-apocalypse, has also been careful as to not turn him into an unfeeling-survival-zombie. He reads to him, treats him to a Coke and generally lets the kid be a kid - And in the end, that's what saves him. A pure survivor wouldn't have trusted Pearce at the end; it's because the Boy still has faith in humanity, is still able to trust, and yes, is a little bit naive, that he is able to survive.

I have no real issue those things. That describes his character in the book. I guess I shouldn't have complained about naivety earlier, because my real problem isn't with the character on the page, but the actor on the screen. It
s tough to criticize a child actor, and Smit did pretty good in a few scenes (especially the final show down with Exley). My real problem is that Smit was quite simply frequently annoying. He was, largely, unlikable IMHO. We should have been on Viggo's side, and felt the importance of the mission to save his son. To some degree it worked, but I still spent most of the time on THE ROAD resenting one of my two travel companions. Smit's fits seemed like they were the product of brattiness and not moral virtue. I didn't like watching him sulk and resent his father (especially during the scene where The Man battled Omar). Perhaps it had to do with the accent problem, because Smit seemed frequently on the verge of losing control of his. He switches between sounding southern and californian in the span of a single shot at times.


BTW, here is the ROAD POST RELEASE THREAD, which you couldn't locate


PS I am of the opinion that humans are not responsible for the disaster in the ROAD, which changes the message somewhat. There is literally but one possible cause for "the event", and it's pretty clear in the text but especially in hte film (due to one shot they add)

There is a story about the filming of the scene after The Man shoots the guy holding The Boy. When Viggo is washing him in the river Smit is actually crying from the cold. His father who was on set watching knew he was actually distressed and wanted to get him out, but eventually allowed the filming to continue. It's interesting watching it back.

If this site was ever going to publish a positive notice for this movie I kind of wish it had arrived back when the movie was limping its way into the cinemas. The movie isn't perfect but the site kind of threw it under a bus on first release, and it deserved better than that.

Anyway I read the book last week and saw the movie last night. Not sure that was a great idea as inevitably a large part of the viewing became about assessing how well it managed to 'do' The Road.

I had my issues with it, especially at the beginning. Even though it's bleak and almost literally aimless, the book keeps you enthralled by the atmosphere of the dying world and the way its horrors are gradually unfurled, and by getting you drawn into the tension of their everyday struggles to stay alive. The movie makes a pretty questionable move right off the bat by having Viggo just tell us what the world is like instead of letting us feel it, and to add insult to injury spoils one of the standout reveals by basically saying "by the way, there's loads of cannibals!". It starts off choppily jumping from event to event without letting either the characters or the world itself breathe, like it's more afraid of being boring than creating atmosphere. This is a particular shame as so many of the visuals are incredibly evocative.

Another problem is that their situation rarely feels as desperate as it does in the book. They say they're starving, but they barely show it and I never felt it, and so their discovery of food never feels like the victory it should. The kind of small details that are needed to bring a slight story like this to life get overlooked in the eagerness to get to the next event. I wasn't bored, but I wasn't particularly moved.

But in the end I liked it, and as I get further away I get from it I find its strengths stick in my mind more than its weaknesses. It's beautifully made and looks gorgeous and haunting. The performances are strong across the board - Viggo is reliable as always, the boy is solid and often more than solid and the supporting cast all do fine jobs with their near-cameo roles. There are things to appreciate from start to finish. But the overall effect of the book had an impact that the movie can't approach on its own. A possibly major book turned into a nice, but relatively minor movie.

I think the narration from Viggo that opens the film is nearly the best part of the whole thing. The exhausted, hopelessness in his voice is heart breaking. He's recounting unimaginable horrors and hardships, and he sounds like he's been so worn down he can't even summon the energy to feel sad about it anymore

I think you also need to tell people right away that the only remaining food source for the most part is human flesh. That man, formally the apex predator, is now the only surviving edible organism on the planet is probably the single most important fact about the world of THE ROAD. It establishes the threat posed by other people on The Road in a very efficient manner

The movie has very little going on, plot wise, so you need to feel the danger of the road, not just the desolation, from moment one. The way it's worded, 'Cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear" is especially chilling. If the great fear of the age is cannibalism, truly the world has been turned on it's head.

I feel that the movie flows extraordinarily well up until Duvall leaves. Then it really does start to feel like you're watching the film makers tick off a check list of other events they had to cover before the movie could conclude (even if some of those scenes, like The Omar Tussle, are great)

I also have to completely disagree with your statement that the audience was never made to feel the hunger and the ever present danger of starvation. The scene in the barn, where the kid says there might be corn or something, and the father just shakes his head "no", tells you all you need to hear. The family that lived there hung themselves: food was gone. Viggo and the kid were rail thin and constantly talking about food, I'm not sure what more you needed. The scene with Garret Dillahunt puts the situation into stark relief: He invites them back to the truck "to get something to eat", and Viggo sneers "You don't have any food", as if the very suggestion was absurd, an insult to his intelligence. The way Dillahunt's face falls and his eyes get beady perfectly conveys the desperate situation humanity finds itself in

EDIT: BTW, seek out the post release thread for an explanation of this view, but I found the film to be much more powerful than the book. I saw the film first, as well.