The Road a review

The book by Cormac Mcarthy worked. This film didn't. Some stories just don't lend themselves to screen plays. Way to many questions left unanswered that set the stage for the entire movie. Continuity and logic were thrown out the window for cinematic expedience. The acting, direction, cinematography, sets etc. were all good but the treatment/editing imo fell short. There were some stark, graphic images but I felt as if they were just thrown in for shock value like in some cheesy horror film.

I'm sure a lot the survivalists here at ATS will go see this film. I would be interested in their take on the actual nuts and bolts of survival in relation to this film.

I should have waited a couple of weeks to go see a movie after "Sherlock Holmes."

and I'm being generous here for "The Road".....

[edit on 1-1-2010 by whaaa]

Hard for me to imagine the film being as pointless as the book. I thought the writing was cohesive and richly descriptive, well written, just............ pointless -- everything sucks, there is no hope, there is no creativity nor adaption, just plodding one foot in front of the other, the wasteland extending beyond the horizon, flat, colorless, humorless, without wonder, depressingly homogenous in the consistency of the application of the lowest common denominator impulses of those that once were human. Nothing to live for. O joy.

Were you entertained by the film and/or did you discover anything of merit or education in it? Just curious.

reply to post by argentus

Were you entertained by the film and/or did you discover anything of merit or education in it? Just curious.

I guess I was entertained. I wasn't bored but after about the first few minutes I began to pick it apart looking for flaws, inconsistency's and lapses in script supervision. Nah, I didn't learn anything about surviving a shtf situation. I guess I don't have the "fire"

It's not out here in the UK until the 8th.. And while I'm pretty excited by the fact, there's always the hesitation that it won't live up to the book...

Out of all the books I read last year, The Road was easily at the top of the list. Yes it was bleak, left you feeling helpless, but I found it incredibly powerful. Maybe that's just McCarthy's style (loved the Border Trilogy too)..

Guess I'll have to wait and see!

reply to post by purehughness


I looked forward to "The Road" because "No Country for Old Men" was one very powerful, story and film.

Even with the post apocalyptic imagery "The Road" film didn't have the characterization that made "No Country" what I consider a contemporary classic.

Please give us some feed back after you see it.

reply to post by whaaa


Will do, my good man.

Must say I loved 'No Country..', like most Coen Bros films.
But I guess The Road isn't something I could picture them ever doing.
Dunno, I just hope it isn't too Hollywood..

Working in a bookshop is great though, I can foist the book onto anyone!

Ok cheers Whaaa...

I thought the book was ok.
Not amazing, not bad.... just OK.

And i like bleak, hopeless and weirdly uplifting books


But yeah... may not bother with The Road.



I didn't think it would be that good... that's why i asked on the other thread.

I read the book a few months ago and that pretty much set my mind to not seeing the movie in theaters, but rather waiting for the dvd release since I can rent stuff on the cheap. I kind of figured they would botch the film as is often the case, as for the survivalist aspects of it I figure they are going to take a back seat to the struggle of the story since it pretty much seems like its no about surviving so much as deciding when is enough and taking the alternate option to traveling The Road.

I really thought this movie lacked. Throughout the entire thing I kept hoping it would somehow get better, or at least be a little bit different then the first five minutes.

The only thing in the entire movie that was worth a damn was the very last scene when the boy encountered the loving family that was also wandering, and after the loving 'mother' lulled the kid into thinking he was safe, the others came down on him in a cannibalistic rage. Now that's good cinema.

BUT - I felt forced to make the last part up in order to attempt to make it possibly interesting. This movie was the most uninvested, uninteresting, piece of depression from boredom without climax that I have truly seen in I don't know when.

DO THIS - Take a video camera, set it to gray scale, and walk through the woods and on the beach crying. Then call it a movie.

WHAT a piece of crap. If your choice is to shoot yourself in the head, or waste two hours of your life watching this movie - shoot yourself in the head.

They should have a 12 step group connected to this poison so that the people who saw it would at least have the possibility of recovery.


[edit on 9-1-2010 by factbeforefiction]