Carrying the fire.
Well, since the novel was one of the best I've read, I figured it would make sense to say a little about the film adaptation of "The Road"
What I dread is the fact that there are going to be so many dickholes trying to compare the two mediums like one has to be exactly like the other. There will also be those who just won't even give it a chance because all movies based off of a book must suck, right?
The simple version of my review of The Road would read like this:
"It is a great film version of an incredible novel"
Simple as that.
Based on some of the trailers it looked like they were trying to make this feel like an epic action disaster movie, and I had lowered my expectations because of it. Turns out the trailers are just trying to sell people on the film (which is why they are made) but it bothers me because the film is much more than that.
So anyone who has read the book and was turned off by the previews needs to give it a go. Same for anyone who doesn't know shit about it.
The fact is, this is a movie that could never compare to the novel. That is a ridiculous task to try and accomplish, but somehow what I watched last night comes closer than I ever thought possible.
I'm not talking about word for word parts or anything like that. I mean the overall feel of needing to survive at all costs and never giving up.
I'm talking about the relationship between the boy and the father. That's what it is all about.
I'm also talking about how bleak and depressing feeling it is. I love how dark the film was. Visually. It really was dark, like the contrast was fucked with or the film was bleached causing all the colours to dull significantly. This is exactly how I imagined the world would look as it was described in the book.
I was really impressed with that part of it.
Forget all the mongoloids who feel they are above watching a movie based on a book they love because it will "ruin" it. They'll dump all over this for years to come without even understanding why.
This movie was fantastic in pretty much every area. Viggo Mortensen is a great actor and showed that this movie was perfectly cast.
One of the best films I've seen all year.
posted by D. at 12:01 p.m.
4 Comments:
I never read the book but really enjoyed the movie. I wasn't expecting much but that movie was great...in so many ways.
I just caught the movie tonight. It was pretty hard to watch at times, especially later in the movie when things were becoming pretty dire (which is to say, more dire, because the whole movie, if anything, is dire.)
It was touching the watch the guy and his boy, but at the same time, it was a portrayal of a world without hope. A world that's dying, and where humanity and decency were the first victims. The ending felt a bit... out of place, though I suppose you can't really make such a heavy movie and not have some kind of light at the end of the tunnel.
I love it for how depressing and unrelenting hopeless and bleak it feels.
That's fucking awesome storytelling and exactly how it should feel to go on surviving in a world like that.
I think the whole point of the ending is that yes, the world and humanity itself are over, but they were the ones unwilling to change and give up, even until the very very end, and that it was all for something.
Though, I could have easily taken a more depressing ending and liked it just as much.
I just think 90% of viewers/readers probably would have slit their wrists at that point, though.
Sidenote: I was arguing with one of my co-workers who saw the film about whether or not people would actually turn to cannibalism after such an event.
He thought the idea completely absurd...That anyone starving (including himself, were he in that situation) would just kill themselves.
I thought him slightly silly to not realize human beings aren't far off from eating each other as we exist now...nevermind years and years without civilization.
I'd say your co-worker is stupid or maybe just naive to think many humans wouldn't turn to cannibalism.
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