Interview John Hillcoat (‘The Road’)

Amsterdam, Hotel The Dylan, Tuesday 26 January 2010

In his thick bomber jacket, director John Hillcoat braved the icy Dutch cold on January 26 to speak to journalists in the hotel The Dylan about his post-apocalyptic film ‘The Road’, an adaptation of a book by Cormac McCarthy, known for the book by De Coen. brothers edited “No Country for Old Men.” Still, this must have been a piece of cake compared to the shooting conditions of the film.

“Don’t let the sun shine”

“That was much worse,” Hillcoat says immediately. “Although the worst days were days like this. Because of the sun.” It was absolutely not allowed to be sunny, given the dark, grim character and appearance of the past world in the film. “When the sun came out, we had to shield it,” explains Hillcoat. “Then my Spanish DoP (Director of Photography) would swear in Spanish. But most days were cloudy, and eighty percent of the film was outdoors. And Pennsylvania in the winter is certainly no fun. “Of course you can’t control the weather, and you can’t wait for days until the desired weather has arrived. So as a filmmaker you just have to be a little creative. Hillcoat explains: “We created a world without sun, so with low contrast (values). That’s why we had to make sure there were no harsh shadows. Then we only did the close-ups, shielding the sun with giant screens, then saving the wide shots for the end of the day, at sunset. And sometimes later, in post-production, we had to replace the sky with CGI images, by taking out the blue, or jet streams, or birds; those kind of things.”

Father and son

Although the book contains some heavy material and could have been made into a movie full of action and horror, Hillcoat had a clear goal in mind. “In editing it was mainly about finding the balance. Because how many cannibal scenes and action moments are needed? The key has always been the relationship between father and son. This was the story we always had to protect and put first. Nor is it a difficult story or a large ensemble work. It’s really about the changes and the nuances of that in the two central characters,” said Hillcoat.

No Mad Max on the road

Cormac McCarthy’s book features cannibals slightly more often than the film version, but Hillcoat and his team didn’t want to use this type of material too much because of certain cinematic associations. “In the book there’s a whole army of cannibals, with chains, and fire, and the reason we didn’t film this was because we wanted to exclude any hint of ‘Mad Max’ in the film. In the book it was horrifying and worked great, but when you visualize it for a movie it’s a different story. ‘Mad Max’ was great at the time, of course, but there were so many imitators and clichés after that, that similar images have become problematic. And for the same reason, we didn’t want too much urban iconography. We wanted to keep it as fresh and realistic as possible. With post-apocalyptic films you often have those big action scenes and we wanted to avoid that.”

lived actors

The main actors – father and son – in the film are ‘Lord of the Rings’ star Viggo Mortensen and the young discovery Kodi Smit-McPhee, both of whom had their own ways of empathizing with their roles and situations. Of course, the motivation of the characters was discussed at length first. Hillcoat: “We had a long rehearsal period, during which the screenwriter talked about what it means for the characters when everything they have is taken from them or disappears. In fact, it’s about their emotional relationship, how the boy got into this world and copes with it. What does he know and understand, and what does he not? And the same goes for the father. In that respect, it was not really a typical film.”

Smit-McPhee sometimes used useful associations to make things emotionally recognizable. For example, he compared vagrant Robert Duvall with a stray dog ​​in order to better place his character. Also very important was the fact that the actors did not have to imagine anything on a set. “We went outside, to the real location(s), where really harsh weather conditions prevailed. The actors responded well to that and it brought them closer together,” says the director. “It made what they were doing a lot more real and real.”

The question is, of course, how far you should go in this realism, in the actor’s experience. This is how they have to appear starving, but of course this cannot be at the expense of everything. Christian Bale, for example, looked almost dangerously thin in “The Machinist.” Hillcoat: “We were lucky with Kodi that he has no weight problem and is already a bit thin by nature. But he actually ate huge meals and had loads of energy. Viggo was really starving himself and had an insane diet of chocolate and red meat. Not recommended. But we did talk about it and didn’t want to go too far into this. I don’t think it should look so bad or sickly that you as a viewer are pulled out of the story.”

Two walking people

However successful and respected McCarthy’s book may be, it must have been a challenge to present a story that basically continuously follows two walking people in a compelling way in a movie. “Cormac sometimes gets a little annoyed with the high brow approaches that are sometimes used,” says the filmmaker. “For him it is self-evident that poetry in language belongs to literature. That film has its own language. But that is of course no reason not to edit something.”

“The dialogue from the book is just in the movie,” Hillcoat continues. That dialogue is also incredible. So scarce, so effective. It’s a great love story when they never say “I love you” to each other.” Also the main obstacles, the gangs and cannibals they encounter, and the old man they come into contact with are taken directly from the book. Those are essential points. These are all steps in which the man loses his humanity because of the great fear and protective instinct. In this way it is mainly about the consequences of fear. And the boy is confronted with this and manages to restore some of humanity to his father. Cormac described the story to me as a story of the goodness of man. That is, in fact, what it is about.”

Fascination with apocalypse

There seems to be a lot of interest in apocalyptic stories and movies these days. Hillcoat agrees, who has his own explanations for this: “It’s always about fear in those kinds of films. It used to be about drought and hunger. The fear of death and the disappearance of civilizations. The apocalypse is an extension of that fear. And a lot has happened to us in the last ten years. Terrorism, climate change, increase in natural disasters, dwindling natural resources. So then the interest in those kinds of stories also increases.”

No country for the Weinsteins

Recently, of course, another film adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy book, ‘No Country for Old Men’, has been extremely well received. Did this mean anything for the filming of ‘The Road’? “It helped in the sense that we could always stay as true to the book as possible,” says Hillcoat. “If it had been an original script by an unknown person – without all the attention around it – I don’t think we could have made the film this way. Then there would have been more pressure to make it into some sort of genre movie, a horror/thriller movie, or something like ‘2012’. So the respect for the book also protected the film.”

However, the honest way in which the film was made does not mean that producers market it in that way. The Weinsteins had chosen to give the trailer of the film the appearance of a thriller/action spectacle. Much to the director’s dismay. “My argument was that the book touched so many people, and they really invested in it. Presenting the film in this way is counterproductive. On the one hand, the fans of the book think that the film is a misfire and that “their” story has been violated. So they won’t watch the movie. And on the other, others think they will be presented with an action spectacle à la ‘2012’, only to be confronted with a psychological drama. They’re like, “What’s this?”. So you lose on both counts.”

“But at the same time I also have to be honest,” Hillcoat finally puts into perspective. “I understand what their starting point was. It’s a very difficult time to market a movie in America right now. Americans expect certain conventions. They are very conservative when it comes to film. They don’t care about culture. Although, I take that back, because the 1970s was a great period. The great thing about that time, especially in America, was that there was no such thing as arthouse or mainstream, but film was just film. That is beautiful.” And so it must be. Perhaps an apocalyptic turn in film policy is needed. First break down the current rigid attitude, in order to then be able to build an open, free film sector. A beautiful hope for the future.