The Road preview

The first preview for the much-anticipated film The Road was released this week. It is “much-anticipated” for a few reasons:

1. Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy, the man who wrote No Country For Old Men.

2. Directed by Australian John Hillcoat, whose previous films include the bleakly awesome The Proposition and Ghosts… of the Civil Dead.


3. The book, a story of a man and boy trying to survive after an unnamed cataclysm has turned their world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, is truly awesome. It won the Pulitzer Prize and really deserves to be made into a good film.

After watching the preview, however, I am getting the sense that Hillcoat is not making this film as closely to the book as I would like. I don’t think that this automatically means the film will be bad, but it is jarring none-the-less.

The book is an endearing study of the relationship between a father and son. The post-apocalyptic setting is used to distil this theme. The whole point is it’s just them – father and son – walking along the road and trying to stay alive. They are the only family they have. However, in the preview it is evident that the role of Charlize Theron as the mother is much (much!) more substantial than the book. In the book she is only ever mentioned in conversation, and even then barely at all. I just hope that they don’t throw away too much man/boy time in order to concentrate on Theron’s character.

The book’s cataclysm is never made known. This ambiguity is spread throughout the book. Characters backgrounds are never given, disturbing events are never explained, there is very little that is certain in the world of The Road. The fact that we are given no information only adds the sense of dread and horror that builds up over the course of the book. However, the preview suggests that the filmmakers have decided to blame the cataclysm on global warming. This kind of ruins the tension a bit.

Now that the gripes have been voiced, the preview has me excited for the film. Being able to see McCarthy’s masterpiece on the big screen will be a great experience. The awesome cast that Hillcoat has pulled together (Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duval, Charlize Theron, Guy Pierce) is really promising. The film looks great with a bleak palette and some harrowed looking actors. And Hillcoat’s pedigree speaks for itself.

In the end, even if the differences between the book and the film become jarring, I have to promise myself to keep an open mind and try to see the film as it is rather than how I wish it were. I just have to figure out a way to pass the time from now until October.