GaryDThe Road (2009)
April 6th 2010 01:28
Cormack McCarthy’s disquieting and visionary novel The Road has been turned into a poignant and visceral film. The story’s transformation into film is wrapped so tight in McCarthy darkness that the ash permeates the entire film, almost suffocating the viewer. The strength of Hillcoat’s film is his refraining from using clichéd pop-apocalyptic imagery to bring to life the hard-core misery of The Road. The movie drags the onlooker through a quagmire of distressing and merciless events, which succeeds in demonstrating the universal idea of extinction. The paucity of hope, nastiness and desolation of humanity does not in any way overwhelm the experience of this first-rate movie. If anything, these descriptors are the elements that make this movie so extraordinary. Hillcoat translates McCarthy’s novel into a superb visual narrative driven by drama and action.
The film taps into the unconscious and reveals the collective nightmare of the looming doomsday to come. The End of World genre has a strong presence in movie history; yet, Hillcoat (through McCarthy’s vision) foregoes the ubiquitous crazed zombies, buff action heroes or lunatic soothsayers. Hillcoat grasps the ‘end of the days’ theme through an authentic imaginative journey that questions the value, if any, of survival in dire circumstances. The film flows because of its restrained dialogue, a functional approach to story telling and a creative feel for character. The Road engages and communicates directly to the filmgoer at the gut level and Hillcoat drives the emotional intensity directly at the viewer. Some responses to Hillcoat’s film have been critiqued as bleak, dark, morbid, disgusting and horrific. Yet, these descriptions fall short of insight, as the intensity in this exceptional, exhaustive but simple narrative is bang on target.
The story is told through the journey of a father and son. The film exposes the myth of the inherent goodness in humanity. Calamity has reduced the billions to scattered mobs of filthy, brutish bands driven by need to cannibalism. Nevertheless, Hillcoat never allows the extremes of his creative exaggeration to get the better of him. His vision is direct and to the point. We see human beings in minute detail compromised by their total and utter wretchedness drained of hope. Visual vignettes form a collage of suffering and demonstrates the absolute exhaustion and despair at surviving the end. The Road is an inferno and in a paradox of understatement explores the consequences in a straightforward manner. By using techniques of time, memories and short dialogue with an eye for witness the characters in The Road amble in their tormented journey of acquiescence.
I watched The Road as a thesis on extinction and concluded that any ideas of the inherent streaks of goodness existing in humanity is obliterated by the viciousness of humans and the pointlessness of survival for survival’s sake. The story whittles away humanity a slice at a time. Civilisation has fallen apart in lumps, shards and chunks. Hillcoat intuitively captures this hazy earthly atmosphere and the vacuum of civilisation where morality, civilisation and progress are redundant.
Review by Gary Daly (I paid to see this movie)
The film taps into the unconscious and reveals the collective nightmare of the looming doomsday to come. The End of World genre has a strong presence in movie history; yet, Hillcoat (through McCarthy’s vision) foregoes the ubiquitous crazed zombies, buff action heroes or lunatic soothsayers. Hillcoat grasps the ‘end of the days’ theme through an authentic imaginative journey that questions the value, if any, of survival in dire circumstances. The film flows because of its restrained dialogue, a functional approach to story telling and a creative feel for character. The Road engages and communicates directly to the filmgoer at the gut level and Hillcoat drives the emotional intensity directly at the viewer. Some responses to Hillcoat’s film have been critiqued as bleak, dark, morbid, disgusting and horrific. Yet, these descriptions fall short of insight, as the intensity in this exceptional, exhaustive but simple narrative is bang on target.
The story is told through the journey of a father and son. The film exposes the myth of the inherent goodness in humanity. Calamity has reduced the billions to scattered mobs of filthy, brutish bands driven by need to cannibalism. Nevertheless, Hillcoat never allows the extremes of his creative exaggeration to get the better of him. His vision is direct and to the point. We see human beings in minute detail compromised by their total and utter wretchedness drained of hope. Visual vignettes form a collage of suffering and demonstrates the absolute exhaustion and despair at surviving the end. The Road is an inferno and in a paradox of understatement explores the consequences in a straightforward manner. By using techniques of time, memories and short dialogue with an eye for witness the characters in The Road amble in their tormented journey of acquiescence.
I watched The Road as a thesis on extinction and concluded that any ideas of the inherent streaks of goodness existing in humanity is obliterated by the viciousness of humans and the pointlessness of survival for survival’s sake. The story whittles away humanity a slice at a time. Civilisation has fallen apart in lumps, shards and chunks. Hillcoat intuitively captures this hazy earthly atmosphere and the vacuum of civilisation where morality, civilisation and progress are redundant.
Review by Gary Daly (I paid to see this movie)
| 36 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
