"The Road" Grade: B+
There’s nothing wrong with a little spectacle. Watching computer-generated images of mythical creatures and apocalyptic natural disasters can offer some thrills and make for something easy to stare at. The incredible scale possible with modern movie graphics is highly realistic, but it is clear that disaster movies like “2012” are all show and pretty fluff.
“There seems to be a zeitgeist for vampires and the apocalypse,” director John Hillcoat said in an interview with The Eagle. “The apocalypse is a projection of humanity’s worst fears, which is why the apocalypse has, throughout history, been of interest.”
But as shown in Hillcoat’s new film “The Road,” a movie based on the post-apocalyptic novel by consummate author Cormac McCarthy, movies can still embrace the fantastic ideas that capture mass interest and still have real artistic substance, swapping big-budget effects for genuine insight into the human condition.
The apocalypse of “The Road” is never described; all that matters is the remnants of humanity left after.
“It lets people off the hook if you go one way or another,” Hillcoat said. “It’s all about fear and how we relate to fear.” Any details of how the world became a perpetually gray place where the rivers run with ash are left up to the imagination of the viewer.
The real story of “The Road” is one of immense love and great hatred. Years after mankind has brought about this apocalypse, a boy and his father journey south towards the coast to avoid freezing in the approaching winter. They travel through a destroyed America, encountering few people besides marauders and cannibals who are surviving by any means necessary. There is no more wildlife; dead trees crumble and fall, towns and cities have been ravaged and abandoned and the rivers run black with ash. One could hardly paint a more depressing vision of the future of our world than McCarthy’s, brilliantly realized by Hillcoat.
“The Road” was filmed at various American locations that closely resembled the decay described in the novel, including an abandoned interstate highway next to New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina.
“The goal was to get it in-camera [without CGI],” Hillcoat said. “The locals thought we were insane because whenever there were clear skies we’d be miserable and in beautiful sunshine we’d just be despairing and frustrated ... whereas if it was overcast and raining sideways we’d have big smiles.” As a result, the long shots of various post-apocalyptic locations, from dying forests to decimated towns, are so fascinatingly real audiences will probably wish there were more of them.
“When you’re in elements like that, you can see the world you’re trying to create,” Hillcoat said. “It’s a lot easier to be cold than act cold.”
Nevertheless, the film shines with the beauty of the relationship between father and son. Readily admitting he has nothing else to live for, the father (Viggo Mortensen) works not just to protect his son, but also to train him to be able to survive in a world where innocence means death. Kodi Smit-McPhee, playing the son, amazingly matches Mortensen’s performance with all measures of fear, anger and love; if there are any Oscars to be given here, it’s hard to say which of them is more deserving.
“He’s just a total natural, and he was incredibly professional,” Hillcoat said of Smit-McPhee. “When a kid’s a total natural, his instincts are just so fresh and so natural that, for other actors, that’s what you’re always trying to get back to ... everyone said to us, ‘where did you get the kid?’”
While “The Road” easily matches the novel in terms of entertainment, it doesn’t quite match its grandness of vision. A fair amount of the story has been played with to give it a more Hollywood feel. Flashbacks to the father’s life with his wife (Charlize Theron) occur far more frequently than in the novel (alongside a rather uninspired visual motif). The soundtrack goes back and forth between generic horror and excitement to emotional. While these by no means ruin the movie, one cannot help but remember “No Country for Old Men,” a film that also stayed faithful to McCarthy’s novel but managed to created a starkly original vision of its own, rather than sticking to convention as “The Road” often does.
“What I love about McCarthy is that he doesn’t shy away from the best in people but he also doesn’t shy away from the worst,” Hillcoat said. “I know it’s upsetting to some people, but I think it’s worth it in the end ... we didn’t want to shy away from any of it.”
The final product is a film of duality, containing both great horror and a powerfully emotional tale. Though occasionally playing a little too safe, “The Road” is a provocative work that will satisfy those who want a different kind of spectacle and those interested in its story of father and son against all odds.
You can reach this staff writer at mconte@theeagleonline.com.
