Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic thriller finally arrives in theatres this November.
A father and son walk across a blighted America after an unspecified catastrophe has destroyed civilization. The father is dying, and the air itself is toxic, yet the two hope to reach the coast where they can find others who share their now-antiquated values. Along the way they see the best and worst of humanity among their fellow survivors, including acts of staggering evil and deprivation.
Such grim subject matter forms the basis for The Road, the long-awaited, long-delayed film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Viggo Mortensen plays the unnamed father, Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the son, while Charlize Theron appears in flashback as their deceased wife and mother. Theron’s role is actually amplified from the novel, establishing a richer backstory and providing context to the journey the father and boy eventually undertake.
The film is directed by John Hillcoat, who was hired largely because of his bleak 2005 Australia-set Western The Proposition. Producers reportedly felt that that earlier work, with its harsh exteriors and sense of man’s isolation among desolate outdoor settings, lent itself naturally to the post-apocalypse of the book’s setting. In keeping with a sense of realism, the film was shot in parts of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina, along stretches of the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike, and in deserted areas of Pittsburgh. Hillcoat has said the production shot on location whenever possible in order to minimize the need for CGI alteration.
At the time of its 2006 release the novel was something of a sensation, largely because of the brutality described within the narrative. Cannibalism and other acts of savagery are commonplace in its harsh new world, with cruelty and inhumanity the rule rather than the exception. McCarthy’s books are often fantastically violent – No Country For Old Men, to name just one example - and here the ferocity seems to place it in the tradition of similarly dystopian road movies including Damnation Alley and of course the Mad Max trilogy. Such stories were something of a rage in the Nuclear War-paranoid 1970s and 80s, though in recent years have grown more sporadic, the most visible exception probably being 2005’s Children of Men. In each case, oddly, the violence within each film took on a life of its own, sometimes overshadowing the premises’ less visually arresting potential.
The difference here, we hope and imagine, will lie in translating McCarthy’s masterful characterization and nuance of description to the screen. That’s not an easy task: despite its critical accolades the Coen Brother’s No Country For Old Men adaptation was a mixed success at best, as was Billy Bob Thornton’s version of All The Pretty Horses. McCarthy’s prose, rich in language yet exacting in detail and resonance, is often cited as an example of the dangers inherent in hewing successful films from successful novels, and why the two media are often so incompatible. Still, early word on the film has generally been positive, with several glowing reviews already emerging from its film festival screenings.
The cast is worth discussion all by itself. Mortensen has spent much of the last decade becoming the thinking man’s movie star, and Theron is a too-little-seen screen presence. Finally, Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall also appear in important roles.
The Road opens nationwide November 25. Watch the trailer on YouTube here. (Trailer includes the previous relase date.)
- Michael Kabel
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