The Road (2009)

Directed by: John Hillcoat | 112 minutes | adventure, drama, thriller | Actors: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Garret Dillahunt, Michael K. Williams, Bob Jennings, Nick Pasqual, David August Lindauer, Jack Erdie, Jeremy Ambler, Mark Tierno, Aaron Bernard, Matt Reese, Jared Pfennigwerth, Amy Caroline, Kyle Quinn, Kacey Byrne-Houser, Cerise Weidner, Shawn Rolly

One of the best parts of ‘The Road’ is when the father (Viggo Mortensen) finds a can of Coke in a soda machine in an abandoned hall and gives it to his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The boy knows no Coke – raised in a half-decayed world in which survival is paramount, Coke is an unprecedented luxury – and is as happy as any child when he takes the first sip. The sparkling sound after opening and the taste of the stuff are a surprise, but the best part is that you have to burp. And what do you do with an empty can? You give it a kick and you shoot away like a football. This recognizable scene, after all, the emotion of drinking Coke is universal, shows an important layer of ‘The Road’ and that is that there is hope.

Producer Nick Wechsler missed out on buying the film rights to ‘No Country for Old Men’ but had better luck with ‘The Road’, also from Cormac McCarthy. According to him, this book was too dark in the eyes of most producers and studios, who were unsure how to make it into a movie. That gave him the opportunity he had been waiting for. In his eyes, when he read the book, he could already envision the film. The story about the father and son, the journey they make and the passing of the fire – or the passing on of the idea of ​​humanity – left a strong emotional impression. In addition, he especially attracted the tension of surviving in an extremely hostile world.

After seeing John Hillcoat’s ‘The Proposition’ he knew the director would be the man for ‘The Road’. He was intrigued by what Hillcoat had done to the landscape and how the characters seemed to have emerged from it. The combination of the amalgamation of the characters and the landscape, and the emotional story of a father and son who have to survive in the gray post-apocalyptic world, makes you get sucked into the film and even forget that there is acting. This is largely due to Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s understated play that naturally portrays the bond between father and son that you would almost think that in reality they are father and son too. In the book they are called each the other’s world entire and Mortensen and Smit-McPhee personalize the characters from the book. A sentence such as “If I were God I would create everything the same so that I have you” sums up how close the bond is.

Mortensen is known for being deeply immersed in the roles he plays, even wearing the same clothes day and night during the filming of ‘The Road’ for four days in a row. Smit-McPhee, whose father is an actor who is his acting coach, was extremely concentrated during the shooting. The film crew did not miss it and they were left alone on the set, there was little talk. The story of father and son is intimate and dominating in this bizarre but not inconceivable future cold world. The fear of losing each other dominates when there is nothing else. The mother is gone and there is no home anymore, but especially the lack of food and fuel and therefore heat makes your world very small. In addition to the fear, there is always hope. And without hope there is no future. As the father says after his son has a nightmare: “Bad dreaming is a good sign. It means you fight. If you have good dreams, you have given up.”

In addition to the human aspect of ‘The Road’, it is somehow also a bit moralistic. Shouldn’t we take better care of our planet? And with each other? Fortunately, this is not overpowering and does not distract from the story. It just adds tension because how does a person actually survive in such an environment? It is all the more convincing. In addition, the landscapes – filming was done at real disaster locations such as New Orleans – make the story visually grander. There are no more animals, the trees are dead, everywhere it is dark, gray and dirty. It is cold and it is raining, sometimes even ashes. Only the flashbacks to life before the (unknown) disaster are warm in colour. And the campfire where the memories often surface, gives a faint warm glow. The moody music, composed by Nick Cave and film music partner Warren Ellis (‘The Proposition’), unconsciously gives you an ominous feeling. And the great thing is, there’s that hope again. Even if you haven’t read the bestseller, ‘The Road’ is a film that moves you from the start. And those who have read it will be surprised by this un-Hollywood film adaptation.