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posts about #viggomortenson more →
"The Road" Leads to a Sentimental Post-Apocalypse
First Script Review of "The Road"
| posts about #viggomortenson more → |
"The Road" Leads to a Sentimental Post-Apocalypse |
First Script Review of "The Road" |
11/29/09
2) Also upon further reflection, I think Riddley Walker shouldn't be translated into a visual medium. It work best as a radio play, or (if you have to do it visually) an opera.
11/27/09
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11/25/09
Happy shopping everybody!
11/25/09
I haven't seen the movie - and may not - but I did read the book in the last year on the recommendation of a new coworker. I think that many of the problems you pose with the movie are also issues with the book and I think the underlying problem is that this IS THE MOST DEPRESSING. BOOK. EVER. Actually I might well be wrong about that and io9 might consider a poll about which books folks have read that are even more depressing and hopeless.
The story's telling in either medium is so unrelentingly dark that it's difficult to portray the nuances you're looking for. The slightest dim ray of - not hope, because that train's left the station - but any slightly positive plot turn or modest humanity shown by a character is totally overshadowed by the weight of the plot's underlying reality. The theme of living to retain moral values and the dedication of a father to his son must constantly struggle against the story's clear message that there isn't going to be a "secret formula" or a "sanctuary" found in the last ten minutes.
I thought that the weakness of the book was that McCarthy seemed insistent that hope was pretty much not an option yet it's not clear, from a science perspective, that the it shouldn't be so. The sun wasn't totally blocked. Yes, production would suffer greatly but not eliminated completely. He could have retained his primary themes without abandoning hope. He could actually have made things worse: Damn! They got killed just before they found the entrance to the secret underground, nuclear fusion-powered city where the elite have found refuge.
Now the cast of Zombieland; they're really screwed. Thanks for the usual thoughtful critique, AN.
11/27/09
POTENTIAL SPOILERS
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From page one, McCarthy takes great pains to make it obvious that there's no hope at all to be found in "The Road," yet in the end there is hope for the boy. In "No Country," there's no real reason to think that Llewelyn and Carla won't make it through to proverbial daylight, and I found it devastating when McCarthy tore that hope right out from under my feet. Not only that, but the book is far more explicit about Carla's fate than the movie, which left it somewhat up to viewer interpretation. The message I got from "No Country" is that evil's winning, and there's nothing good people can do about it. "The Road" at least gives us a little bit of sunshine, no matter how gray and cold it might be.
11/25/09
I also don't see much problem from a realism standpoint of the kid being overly reliant on his father; it seems to me that especially in a crisis of this magnitude most kids would do the same. Challenging your parent's moral decisions when your life is constantly in danger seems like something most kids would have sense enough not to do. It might not make for good storytelling, but that's how it would be.
But the notion of kid who is by turns whiny and cutesy is just an extension of Hollywood's overly simplistic understanding of kids, as I said earlier. Like I said, if they'd put this in the hands of a European director like, say, Lasse Hallstrom, who did an excellent job with The Cider-House Rules, it likely would've been a much better film.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/26/09
(I know the novel doesn't have much to do with the comic, but the father-son relationship, during all TWD is extremely similar)
#calendar
11/27/09
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11/25/09
SPOILER: if the boy didn't have faith in the goodness of the man he meets at the very end, then there was no future for the human race. His father dodged everyone but the boy has to reach out in order to survive.
By the way Annalee, I found the kid to be annoying in the book too.
11/25/09
11/25/09
And the notion that a European director would somehow be superior by dint of his/her ancestry is undone by the firey garbage truck that is Uwe Boll.
11/27/09
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11/25/09
(unless you earn bastard-who-took-me-to-watch-a-horrible-movie points)
11/25/09
11/25/09
#calendar
11/25/09
"The Road" is not date material unless she really wants to see it and picks it herself.
11/25/09
11/25/09
the movie may suck but let it suck for a bad adaption or bad acting, not for bringing to life the very essence of the book.
did newtiz read the book? coz it doesnt sounds like she did.
hope someone else feels the same way about this review as i do.
11/27/09
11/25/09
I dread to think what the reviewer feels about children and family right now, with no apocalypse.