Talk us through itFollowing an unnamed mass extinction event a Man and his Son are trudging down the highway toward the Ocean and points south. Humanity is pretty much non-existent, there are no animals, and the plant life has been eradicated with more conviction than a Liberal Party environment policy could achieve. There is no food, very little water, and the temperature is dropping to about the level of the reaction amongst Opera fans to a new Danni Minoque single. If the environmental problems aren't enough to deal with, our nuclear family also have to scavenge for food and avoid the roving bands of cannibals after easier sustenance. Of course there are also thieves ready to take advantage of the unwary, but on the bright side there's zero threat of CGI wolves. Ready to see what might await us at the end of the road?
Review"Everything depends on reaching the coast. I told you I would do whatever it takes" - Man.Welcome to the first horror movie of 2010 to hit cinemas Down Under, we like to call a spade a spade in these here parts. No matter how you want to gloss this one over by not mentioning the "H" word you are still stuck with quite a lot of horror content, including one scene that takes place in a cellar that I'm sure George A. Romero would have been proud to have shot. When the major threat to life and limb is cannibals, and if you want to replace the "c" word with "zombie" then be my guest, then you are well into horror country, you have crossed the border baby regardless of Oscar buzz. Horror can be deep and meaningful and can come on as being all dramatic, haven't you been keeping up with developments? ScaryMinds is of course covering The Road due to heavy Aussie involvement. Director John Hillcoat was the man behind the cult classic Aussie prison outing Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead (1988), Guy Pearce who gets what amounts to a cameo is one of the few ex Aussie soap stars who can actual act, and composers Nick Cave and Warren Ellis were heavily involved in local band "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds". The Road is one of those movies that is so utterly devoid of anything approaching the word "uplifting" that it will leave you depressed and somewhat morass as the end credits role. There is no ray of sunshine in this one it's all pretty bleak and depressing. Naturally that's got everyone talking Oscar, but hey we just know Jimmy C is going to clean that one out this year as his flick is big and shiny and doesn't make you think in the way the dastardly The Road does. Yes Hillcoat's movie is allegoric in nature, it has something to say, and ultimate for those that want to see it there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm simply going to argue that The Road is a modern day interpretation of The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan 1687) and has a fair degree of synergy going down that drives over and through the almost glacial flow of the plot.
There's a couple of places where The Road detours from what we would expect to see in a Hollywood Studio movie. Firstly we don't get the all out attempt to knock us on our arses via a pyrotechnic display of the actual cataclysmic event that has befallen the planet. In fact we never learn what happened besides the Man declaring that there was a flash of light and some after tremors. That's going to be pretty disappointing to the average teen who wants things exploding in awesome 2012 fashion. Well folks I've come up with three possible explanations for the event. A nuclear explosion could have gone down but I'm thinking there's not enough plutonium to take out the biosphere here on planet earth. Even in the case of an all out knock out match between the U.S and the former Soviet Union the environment wouldn't have been as badly affected as that shown in The Road. A more plausible explanation is that Yellowstone has gone up in the mother of all eruptions. If you take into account ash fallout over a prolonged period and the whole winter of our discontent thing, then this is more likely to have occurred than a nuclear meltdown. However the most plausible cause is probably a large meteorite hit, that can be pretty devastating, just ask the Dinosaurs. Of course The Road isn't about nuclear meltdowns, Yellowstone going supernova, or Bruce Willis being called into action. The other area where The Road goes off the straight and narrow of Hollywood conventions is with there being no love angle; no one gets the girl, romance in the form of sparkling emo vampires is not forthcoming. This might explain the disappointing Box Office figures. In a series of flashbacks we learn The Man had a pretty good lifestyle before things went to hell in a hand basket. It also allows Director Hillcoat the chance to inject some light into the overall drab landscape of his movie, and I'm not discounting Charlize Theron as the wife. So Man had wife, unnamed extinction event went down, wife gave birth, and then wife walked off to her death rather than face the rigours and increasing dangers of modern living. How was your week? The important points here are the Man's lose, hence his single minded determination to do the best he can by his son, and the fact that his son was born after the world shattered making even the most mundane things we take for granted new and exotic to the boy. But of course The Road isn't about love among the ashes or the comparison of a bye gone happier time to that facing the remnants of humanity currently. Some major spoilers coming up kids, if you haven't seen The Road yet then shame on you and skip a couple of paragraphs. What is The Road about then? Basically it's the relationship between a father hoping for the best for his son in a world gone to crap and a son who remains surprisingly naive and who holds the last spark of humanity in him. The Son is the last best chance for humanity and The Father is his protector and guide. Of course the "road" itself is one heck of a big metaphor for any number of things. The Son's journey to what might be salvation; a single surviving beetle might be a sign that the ecosystem while fatally wounded may come back. The Man's journey towards his own eventual death and passing of the baton to the next generation of good guys who hold the flame. Pick your own metaphor there's ample room for argument about just what this movie may mean. Earlier in this review I mentioned John Bunyan's didactic The Pilgrim's Progress, don't worry I'll take Milton out for a spin in a future review, and how The Road is a modern equivalent, time to butter that slice of toast up. The Man and The Boy are headed down a seemingly never ending road but are tempted along the way to step off that road and take a break from their less than busy schedule. Firstly the Man is offered a false promise of food by a roving band of cannibals, the closest Hillcoat gets to Mad Max territory. This is a pretty easy offer to refuse, just as Bunyan's Pilgrim isn't overly troubled by his first temptations. Our duo are next faced with a false sanctuary in Hillcoat's most obvious horror sequence. They are saved, just barely, and escape back to the "road" with a few lessons learnt. Next we are in the land of plenty and the Man and the Boy take time out of their journey to enjoy a new found abundance. Naturally the real world intervenes and the Man is reminded of their quest. There are a number of other obvious sequences we could chow down on but let's not beat this particular dead equine any further. Throughout the trials and tribulations the "road" presents, the Man is constantly reminding the Boy that they have an easy way out via a handgun if things get desperate. In essence the last light of humanity is being tested via a series of trials and moral dilemmas.
End of day you take what you want from The Road make your own mind up about the ending, is your glass half full or half empty, and exit the cinema in the knowledge that Hollywood just maybe keeping their own flame alive. Director John Hillcoat gets the chance to visualise a post apocalyptic world and doesn't constrain himself in any fashion. Things are universally gray and bleak, the only colour going down is when a ridge line explodes into fire, and the debris of civilisation is scattered around the place like a kids left over Lego project. There's a number of money shots coming at you with the Director prepared to risk going over the top with the visuals. He doesn't and the movie is simply stunning in a sort of Dante's fifth circle way. Hillcoat manages to keep tension to the fore with every encounter with another human being or surviving structure being a potential fatal attraction for The Man and The Boy. It's wonderful stuff with Hillcoat not feeling the need to speed things up for a low attention span audience, something we should cherish in the modern fast food world. Viggo Mortenson (The Man) held this movie together in one of the great modern performances. The dude totally got into character and must have been on some sort of forced march diet to get out of shape. Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Son) was all bright eyed and bushy tailed, as the role demanded, and certainly held his own. A strong support cast with some notable firepower helped the leads in sterling fashion. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis handled the score duty and hit all the right notes for me. At times there is an almost haunting quality to the sound and Director Hillcoat has it working for his visuals.
Summary Execution Firstly I would like to thank the Australian Horror Writers Association and in particularly Dave Carroll for the tickets to The Road, well appreciated and there certainly are benefits to membership. I sat through the movie with my son, who was absolutely mesmerised by it, and didn't note the slow pacing going down. It's intense, makes you think, and doesn't overburden you with the messages. John Hillcoat has made a classic that deserves the Oscar recognition that in all reality it probably won't get. One of those movies where you walk out of the cinema speechless as you try and comprehend what you have just seen. The Road has opened Down Under with Distributor Icon being unsure of the market. They are probably correct as the results achieved thus far aren't exactly setting the house on fire. Unfortunately I'm not seeing the figures holding up during the week either which probably means word of mouth isn't happening. This is a real shame as The Road is going to be one of the better movies released locally in 2010. After praising the heck out of The Road I'm going to give it a guarded recommendation. The film is unapologetically glacial slow and keeps the action to a bare minimum as it pursues its themes. In this bleak journey into the twilight of humanity there are horror elements that will put some potential viewers off, with Hillcoat implying some pretty gross stuff. The Road is an absorbing movie that deserves all the recognition it can get at the box office. Quality Hollywood cinema isn't dead folks, the flame is still being carried. ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... John Hillcoat delivers a masterpeice that will becoma a cult classic over time.
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