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It seems like adventures on post-apocalyptic Earth are all the rage these days. Movies, books and video games have addressed the subject often. The public is exposed to several scenarios for what brings about the end of the world: the planet’s proverbial time has run out, most of the population has been infected with an incurable debilitating virus, or ironically enough, the very cure itself has come as a pox for most. But in many cases, the true nature of a post-apocalyptic struggle is never fully realized on the big screen.
Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” has now been adapted into a film, and its very content separates it from the normal content audiences are inundated with. In this scenario, a man and his son venture east towards the sea in an attempt to escape the anarchical conditions that have become more commonplace. In this environment thoughtless violence and cannibalism have become the norm.
While the man’s name and that of his son’s are never introduced, the connection to the protagonist and his child is still powerfully formed. With danger at every turn, the resolve to see the protagonist through the end remains strong.
The cause for the apocalypse is never explained, but the aftermath is all too apparent; earthquakes are of a regular occurrence, dying and dead trees collapse in the forest, the sun never comes out and the world is steadily growing colder. Truly, this is a wasteland.
Many other entries in the genre detach themselves from the audience by wrongly establishing the post-apocalyptic lifestyle. Many iterations portray the world as full of good natured people and devoid of the need for self-preservation. Things become humorous, and the main characters never seem to fully fathom the lasting ramifications of the predicament they are in. The lines between good and bad are only crossed to establish archetype villain and the path to redemption for certain characters.
“The Road” is different in its presentation as it rarely seeks to establish such asylum. The world the man and his son belong to is one few individuals would want to inhabit.
On a couple occasions, the father is fully willing to leave others with nothing, if it means providing more for his son. The son remains idealistic, never having known a life outside of the wasteland.The father’s hardened persona occasionally clashes with the boy’s belief in the common good.
You may never laugh throughout the course of “The Road.” You may hold back tears at what the man and the boy must do and see on their way to the coast. Their trials and tribulations prove to be a most daunting task and everything concludes rather nicely when it is done. For a movie that generates a sense of hopelessness, the ending encourages the audience to believe that everything will be alright.
This movie wasn’t created in an attempt to yield more money from the license, but to bring the plight from the book to the big screen.
