The Road

J: Well, in the past two weeks I have seen the spectacular Apocalypse in “2012” and now the very bleak Apocalypse in “The Road”. I can certainly tell you which one I would most like to be involved in but the brutal reality is that The Road is far closer to the truth.

The cataclysm that reduces the Earth and civilization to ash is never clearly defined, leading us students of Apocalypse to speculate a life-ending meteor. The Man as Viggo Mortensen’s character is known, wakes up in the middle of the night to see far off flames engulfing the countryside outside of the home he shares with his pregnant wife, The Woman, played by Charlize Theron. After this flashback, we catch up with The Man and his son, The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) many years later as they travel weak and starving down The Road, which they hope will lead them to the coast and “other good people” like themselves. The flashbacks continue during the first part of the movie and we learn that The Boy was born in the darkness of the post-Apocalyptic world. We also learn that The Woman is no longer in the picture because she has given up hope for the family and also apparently bears guilt for allowing the boy to be born at all. She simply takes off most of her clothes and walks out of the house into the nuclear winter to die.

The Man will not accept defeat so easily. It is his mission to save his child, find those other good people, and “carry the fire” presumably of civilization. This is no easy task because, after what seems to be about 10 years judging from the boy’s age, food is scarce and those not able to find food have turned to cannibalism to survive. Well, of course they would and probably pretty quickly too. The Man carries a pistol with two bullets in it – not so much for defense as for ending both of their lives and he takes great pains to instruct his son in the importance and necessity of suicide if things go REALLY bad, although I can’t really imagine how much worse it could get! As they travel, they do meet some survivors, the cannibals, those just trying to survive and the dead and dying. We soon realize, however, that The Man is so intent on his mission that he forgets his humanity. The Boy is the one who wants to trust and help, and goads his father into helping even when The Man tries to refuse. After stumbling into a large abandoned home, they discover that cannibals have taken up residence in the house and are hording a group of starving and dead humans in the basement, some of whom have had limbs removed while alive – stew for dinner? Once again, they manage to escape and soon find another empty house (they all seem to be empty and we are never sure what happens to those former residents) but this one has a treasure. They find a bunker stocked with food, water and beds. They find sanctuary for a time but the sound of an animal’s footsteps (almost all animals have died by this time) spooks The Man and, despite his son’s protests, they pack what they can and flee. But we are starting to see another problem as The Man starts each day coughing up blood – we know instinctively that The Man is going to die, as does he.

They finally do reach the coast of the Atlantic Ocean but there are no good people and the same gray desolation blankets the beach – not the blue their tattered map teases The Boy with. And so it is here that The Man lies down to die. But, as The Boy grieves, a man approaches him and, after saying all the things The Man would expect him to, The Boy finally knows he has found the good people they were looking for in the family this new man is also protecting. Could mankind actually prevail? Boy, I sure hope so because this is truly the bleakest movie I have seen in a very long time. But, as I said, this is the scenario that is most close to the truth of what would happen in a post-Apocalyptic world. And as frightening as this movie is, the most horrifying part is that profiling is alive and well in this devastated world. The gun toting rednecks are going strong by eating their fellow human beings and the one person that is "accused" of a crime is black. I don't know about you, but I don't hold out much hope for civilization if we have to rely on such a shallow gene pool. So, which Apocalypse do I want? Well, truth be told, I would much rather float around in an arc with very rich, smart people and John Cusack. But, as I consider the possibility of the end of the world (who isn’t these days?), I know in my gut that Viggo Mortensen (vestigial tail and all) is who I want running around my home filling bathtubs with water as the nuclear winter sets in.

Now some may think that I have seen the perfect movie in The Road - but, you would be wrong. It's the timeline I have a problem with. Presumably, this is a natural disaster such as a meteor or super volcano eruption followed by a nuclear winter. But The Boy looks to be in his early teens and two things would have happened by this time; either the Earth would begin to rebound and the global temperature would moderate or everyone would be dead of starvation, no matter how many cannibals survived. Yeah, you're right. I've given this far too much thought. Maybe I should just relax and see a Disney movie. Ha - that really would herald the end of the world!

K: First let me point out to my PIC that Viggo no longer has the vestigial tail, just a scar where it once was. And don't worry fellow movie goers, you have two chances to see it.

As grim as this movie is, it's incredibly well made and well acted. As my PIC stated, the point of this movie is about keeping your humanity. The father loses sight of his along his journey. He knows he's dying and his determination to do everything he can to ensure his son's survival is the only thing he can focus on. The son, even after seeing all the same horrors as his father, has kept an open heart and continuously fights with his father to do the right thing instead of the thing that will only benefit themselves. Always there is hope in the next generation, and hope is the theme of this movie. Definitely see this movie, but brace yourself for a bumpy ride.