Movies | September 08, 2009 | 1 comment

A Long and Dreary Path: John Hillcoat’s “The Road”

source: http://www.indiewire.com/article/a_long_and_dready_path_john_hillcoats_the_road/pem

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"With its drearily brief paragraphs and poetic emphasis on imagery over dialogue, Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 post-apocalyptic novel “The Road” practically reads like a screenplay. Not unreasonably, John Hillcoat’s tense, discomfiting big screen adaptation remains almost entirely faithful to the book’s distinctive pace and tone. The maintenance of this restrained progression is key to the movie’s chilly effect, but the subtle ingredients behind such morbidity—dreary-eyed performances, an enigmatic score, visual suggestions of death and decay in nearly every frame—turn Hillcoat’s version of “The Road” into a uniquely cinematic portrait of pessimism.

Like Joel and Ethan Coens’s eerily soft-spoken version of McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men,” much of the movie unfolds with grimly fleeting dialogue that sticks to the ground like lead. The conversations rarely move the plot forward. Instead, they reflect the dour environment. What “The Road” lacks in joy, however, it mostly regains in character depth. Although set in an undefined near future, it has a narrow, minimalist premise that’s easily interpretable, loosely constructed and intentionally vague. A man (Viggo Mortensen) and his boy (newcomer Kodi Smith-McPhee) wander across the desolate landscape of a charred America in the wake of some unclassified catastrophe. The boy’s mother (Charlize Theron, seen only in flashbacks) abandoned them in anguish long ago. The remaining family unit wanders south along a strip of woodsy terrain, making a desperate attempt to survive the winter and avoid hostile drifters. Their world has turned against them. Cannibals lurk in the forest and occupy homes in the countryside. Survivors travel in small groups and trust no one." more @ link
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1 comment // A Long and Dreary Path: John Hillcoat’s “The Road”

  • drunkenhopfrog
    • 0
      drunkenhopfrog  

    • JFC, really? I wonder if folks read a McCarthy novel and then see a movie and suddenly forget it's McCarthy's work - or if the novel is even read and film adaptations are all one is familiar with? Yes, his style is mostly visual and atmospheric. In some way like Poe he does not rely on dialogue but on situations and character interaction. And much like Hemmingway he skims the surface of the story's ostensible meaning with the real meaning or conflict being in the broad depth. He is not the same caliber of writer of either of those two, but his break from traditional styling and the way dialog is part of the narrative instead of a narrative force "IS THE POINT," he said emphatically

    • 2 years ago
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