The Road

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The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 1:02am

I had wanted to see this AVITAR everyone keeps talking about but I forgot five million tourists are in town this week and are just dying to spend $13 to see this movie (because God knows it's not playing in Idaho for $6 when they get back) so they were all sold out for the night. I realized I hadn't seen this film I heard was quite good called THE ROAD. 2 hours later, I left the theater more depressed and upset than I've been since SOPHIE'S CHOICE.

It's not a movie I'm sure I'll ever want to watch again but it will definitely go at the very top of my Best of '09 list.

I'm curious what others here have thought of it, though...

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 1:20am

Is it a good movie though? I can deal with the fact it can be depressing and bleak, I mean, you mentioned SOPHIE'S CHOICE and that is probably one of my top 5 or 10 favorite movies (surely my favorite female performance committed to film), but I was concerned that this wasn't only depressing but that it wasn't a good movie to begin with. I am interested in seeing Viggo Mortensen in it, would you mind expanding on what you thought of the film?

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 1:26am

The film itself is extremely good. It's so bleak and tragic that it's tough to say that's it's "good" but it is. Mortensen, as a father of a young boy trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world is really heartbreaking. There are scenes that I can't even describe how I felt watching because being put into the situations these characters were in is so far from anything I can imagine. I hope people don't think I'm comparing this film to Sophie's Choice because I'm not it was just my feelings in watching them.
*SPOILER*
Everytime he would talk to his son about killing himself and even putting the gun to his head ready to pull the trigger, my heart just stopped. Making that kind of decision to "save" your child is unthinkable. It's just such a depressing film and when it was over myself and everyone else there just sort of picked up our things and dragged out feet out of the theater.

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 7:31am

I haven't seen the movie, but I read the book. It was the most depressing thing I've ever read.

KFTC!!!!!

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 11:40am

ˆRead the book and loved it. It is depressing but there is a glimmer of hope that burns under all the ashes in the story. The father stays alive to keep the child alive and the child's hope to find good in the world. I am looking forward to seeing the movie.

Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 12:03pm

I'll be seeing it as well

"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." Conan O'Brien

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 1:08pm

SNAFU, I agree that it was a good book. It just left me drained.

KFTC!!!!!

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 1:38pm

I have never had a book hit me as hard as this one did when the Father took that thief's clothes. Talk about dissolution!
That plea of the thief and the final image of him haunted me for days after reading it.
I think the book hit me really hard because it sort of reminded me of my walk from my apartment in the Financial District to the shop in Brooklyn on the morning of 9/11. I was perhaps one of the last people to leave after lower Manhattan was closed down. There was 6 inches of ash and dust covering everything. I was the only one walking down the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. It was strewn with grey dust and papers. Truly the most surreal thing I have ever experienced.

Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!

Updated On: 12/31/09 at 01:38 PM

re: The Road

Posted: 12/31/09 at 1:42pm

Snafu, I've never read the book but if that scene is half as upsetting there as it was in the film, I think I'll skip it.

#10

re: The Road

Posted: 1/1/10 at 1:14am

I want to see it too but am having no luck finding it at the closest theaters. John Hillcoat's previous feature The Proposition was not only praised as an ode to Leone and Peckinpah but also supposedly had tie-ins to, or rather similarities, to McCarthy's other novel Blood Meridian. I haven't read McCarthy but The Proposition was an incredible film and incredibly violent. It is just so well-made and well-done but even as somebody who is sanitized to violence in films, I won't go out of my way to see it again.

Updated On: 1/1/10 at 01:14 AM

#11

re: The Road

Posted: 1/1/10 at 2:54pm

The Road is one of my favorite books, haunting and so beautifully written. It's bleak, but it's an incredible love story between a father and his son. After I finished the book, I immediately passed it on to my dad.

I can't recommend the book enough. McCarthy's prose is just stunning. It's destined to be regarded as one of the great American novels of our time.

"I seem to have wandered into the BRAIN load-out thread... "
-best12bars

"Sorry I am a Theatre major not a English Major"
-skibumb5290

#12

re: The Road

Posted: 1/1/10 at 2:58pm

Ugh Actr, I guess now I'll have to read the book. lol
The movie was just so depressing, I wasn't sure if I could handle reading it. But if you say it's THAT good, I'll give it a go.

#13

re: The Road

Posted: 1/1/10 at 3:04pm

I literally could not put the book down. I ended up reading it in one sitting. It is one of my favorite books I have read in a very long time.

Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!

#14

re: The Road

Posted: 1/1/10 at 8:27pm

The Road is one of my favorite books ever. I've been somewhat hesitant to see the movie having heard mixed reviews. I think the fundamental struggle for me is that most of the beauty of the book lies in McCarthy's language, and I worry that the atmosphere he creates can't be translated to the screen. I could easily see it devolving into yet another version of The Stand. It's heartening to see some positive reviews here (and love for the book!). Maybe I will check it out if it ever gets here.

I can't say enough about how much I adore the book, though.

#15

re: re: The Road

Posted: 1/2/10 at 5:37am

I'll see this when it comes on DVD. I loved the book. I've read it a few times.

I tried reading the ROAD screenplay and couldn't get through it.

"I want a lap dance from an octopus."

-JG2

#16

re: re: re: The Road

Posted: 1/2/10 at 8:20am

Looks like it's worth watching then. If the movie is able to bring out any deep feeling, it means it's a good movie. The worst movies are the ones that you forget as soon as you watch or when you see that people are actually acting and you don't get involved in the storyline.

#17

re: re: re: re: The Road

Posted: 1/2/10 at 10:36am

I'm so glad you compared THE ROAD to THE PROPOSAL, not many people see the similarities. I think Viggo Mortensen's character is so similar to Sandra Bullocks in that they are both fighting to survive in a world that doesn't want them in it. Him with humanity destroyed and her with her immigration status. If anything the two are completely interchangeable and are almost one in their journeys of hope, survival and ultimate redemption.

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