"The Road" (Viggo Mortensen) - Discussion and Grading

[Daneel]

Well, The Road has made a little more than $2 million at the box office thus far. Considering it's only playing at 111 locations, that's pretty good. In fact, its per theatre average for the weekend was $13,721, which was the highest of all the major releases -- the only films that had higher averages were The Princess and the Frog, Broken Embraces, (both of which were showing on 2 screens) and Me and Orson Welles (which was showing on 4).

And according to Bob Weinstein, The Road will indeed expand into more locations throughout December and January, so maybe they know what they're doing with this film after all. I suppose stranger things have happened.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Why is it such a limited release? I wanted to see it but no theaters nearby where showing it.

 

[Harvey]

Limited release so Academy voters can see it, but for others, to let word of mouth build up for when it is eventually released in the next two months.

 

[Reverend]

I imagine it's the sort of film that will do better on DVD.

As to the author's alleged beliefs and supposedly favoured literary themes I say; So what?
Speaking as an agnostic atheist with an interest in science who read the book, I don't care that it's never really specified what exactly happened. That's not what the book was about. It was (to my eyes at least) about the survival of humanity and by that I'm not talking about the humanity that is a bunch of argumentative bald primates with digital watches and striped toothpase. I'm talking about the humanity that won't crack someone over the head to steal their food and will show respect and compassion where most would show only appathy. As someone posted earlier, the Boy embodies everything that humanity in general, and the Man in particular has to loose.

As for the charge that the story lacks emotion, I'd point out that despair, sorrow and grief are emotions too.

 

[Daneel]

I'm bumping this because The Road is expanding today to 396 locations. That still may not sound like much, but it's 261 more than it had last week, so one could almost call it a wide release now.

Hopefully this means more people will get the chance to see it, although I question the wisdom of expanding its theatre count on the same day that Avatar is opening. Maybe the studio is hoping that moviegoers who can't get into the sold-out Avatar screenings will decide to check this out instead. Not that the two films are anything alike, but... eh, it could happen.

At any rate, if you haven't seen this yet, go and do so! I command you!

 

[Gaith]

As to the author's alleged beliefs and supposedly favoured literary themes I say; So what?
Speaking as an agnostic atheist with an interest in science who read the book, I don't care that it's never really specified what exactly happened. That's not what the book was about. It was (to my eyes at least) about the survival of humanity and by that I'm not talking about the humanity that is a bunch of argumentative bald primates with digital watches and striped toothpase. I'm talking about the humanity that won't crack someone over the head to steal their food and will show respect and compassion where most would show only appathy. As someone posted earlier, the Boy embodies everything that humanity in general, and the Man in particular has to loose.

As for the charge that the story lacks emotion, I'd point out that despair, sorrow and grief are emotions too.

Literary themes, "so what"? And I for one never claimed that the story lacks emotion. Yes, despair, sorrow and grief are emotions. But from what I've heard, this movie sounds far better suited to a running length of an hour or so than nearly two.

At any rate, if you haven't seen this yet, go and do so! I command you!

No!

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I saw this movie tonight (on xmas eve with the family). It was very good. Very emotional, very dramatic, really solid direction, and incredibly tense (like when they find the cellar of cannibal-victims).

I thought the last scene was kind of stupid. They were following them the whole time?? Why? Why not help? Why wait for Viggo to kick the bucket? That was so weird, i feel like the movie was missing a scene or dialog.

 

[Ryan]

The previews give the impression that the film actually shows the disaster that destroyed the environment. Does it? If so, what is it? Nuclear war? Terrorist attack?

In a nutshell... right-wing Christianity.

McCarthy is a politically conservative American Christian, and while I don't know much about his personal views, I do know that his theological milieu (quite understandably) interprets the Book of Genesis as saying Earth and everything on it was pretty much created entirely for humans. (And in the End Times as described by Revelation, the planet as we know it is pretty well blown up, also.)

The Road is about the decline and near-death of humanity as a species, ergo, McCarthy has nature mirror its decay.

Where did you get all that from? The only thing I've ever heard McCarthy say were along the lines of "humans are so short-sighted our extinction is inevitable." I've never heard him ever drag religion into the equation.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Saw it the afternoon of December 26. I wanted to like it, but somehow it utterly failed to engage me.

It was well put together, and all the performances were good -- with the exception of the boy, who I think got cast entirely on the basis of his resemblance to Charlize Theron. He was too whiny and too cute. He should've looked like hell. Instead the director chose to externalize his father's comment that he was his "god," and made the boy glow like an angel throughout the bleak landscape of the film. A little too on-the-nose for my taste.

It just never caught fire for me, which could be my own fault. But it could also be the fault of a film I found remote and detached.

 

[Ryan]

I finally had the opportunity to see it. I've never seen a movie follow a book so closely. I was skeptical when I heard Mortensen was in the lead but that disappeared instantly. I'm not sure how they did it but the man looked every bit as dirty, starved, and completely beat down as I imagined. More so even.

But it could also be the fault of a film I found remote and detached.

Have you read the book, by chance? It was a bit difficult for me to gauge the drama and tension knowing exactly what's going to happen but I thought the father's struggle throughout the film whether to kill his son or not was very immediate.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I think I mirror others who could not get engaged by The Road. It had great performances, some fantastic looking landscapes and production design, and it was overall a well-made film, but something was lacking in my opinion. I think it tried a bit too hard in some places, and this actually reminds me of the contrived nature of another recent adaptation, The Lovely Bones.

Which is a shame because I love both books and I was looking forward to both adaptations very eagerly. I might need to give both films another chance, and for some reason I feel like I need to see The Road again even though it is very oppressively bleak. On first viewing though it was slightly disappointing.

 

[Daneel]

Nice to see that a few more people have gotten the chance to see it. It's a shame that some apparently couldn't quite connect with the film, but I think I understand where you're coming from; I can kind of agree with the complaint that it "tried to hard" at times (in fact, I put a similar criticism in my review), but overall, I still felt that the movie was quite solid. Oh well, to each their own.

BTW, if you've seen it, don't forget to grade it in the poll!

 

[Starbreaker]

I just finished the book this morning and am probably going to go see the movie tomorrow night. I'm a little worried that the film is going to be "Hollywoodized", but I see it's at least getting good reviews.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I gave the film a solid B. I might grade it higher when/if I see it again.

 

[Ryan]

I'm a little worried that the film is going to be "Hollywoodized"

It's not.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I saw this movie tonight (on xmas eve with the family). It was very good. Very emotional, very dramatic, really solid direction, and incredibly tense (like when they find the cellar of cannibal-victims).

I thought the last scene was kind of stupid. They were following them the whole time?? Why? Why not help? Why wait for Viggo to kick the bucket? That was so weird, i feel like the movie was missing a scene or dialog.

I doubt the family could have got anywhere near the boy while the father was still alive and the family probably realised that while watching. The father was totally distrustful of other people even the ones who were as good as he and his son. Even when he knew he was dying the father was unable to reach out to anyone.

In the end the son had to take a chance and trust other people, something he could never do with his father around.

I give the movie an A. I thought it was one of the best in its genre.