Directed by John Hillcoat and based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road is a bleak, post-apocalyptic film that follows a father and his young son as they struggle to survive in a dying world. The Road is not your typical post-apocalyptic experience where you watch the world end and it becomes an action-filled adventure. It is a more realistic view into a post-apocalyptic setting where all vegetation and animal life have been wiped out, and humans are left picking up the pieces.
The main characters are The Man (Viggo Mortensen) and The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who are never named and it follows them through their travels. Along the way The Man tries his best to raise a child through this apocalypse. But society has collapsed, and the remaining human survivors are mostly scavenging, looting and plundering, and in some cases roaming as packs of cannibals. The Man and The Boy do their best to avoid any other people as they make their way toward the southern coast, pushing a shopping cart filled with their meager belongings. The Man believes the coast might offer a warmer climate or a community of survivors. The Man’s wife (Charlize Theron) lost all hope years earlier and walked out into the cold to die, leaving him alone to protect their son.
The film does a great job of mixing in just enough flashbacks to give you an understanding of the characters and what got them to this point without doing too much character development. This is something a lot of films seem to miss and have trouble keeping the film in current state. The Road also is paced well, and is beautifully shot. The drab situation they find themselves in is the backdrop for the entire film and sets a tone of hopelessness that immerses you in the bleak world that they are building. The Man has a pistol with two bullets and shows The Boy what is to be done when things get too desperate.
As the film progresses, The Man and The Boy meet several different characters, some who are friendly, and some who are definitely not. Vetting people would be something that would be a crucial skill in this environment, and the film emphasizes this, as trust can be just as important as finding food or shelter. The Road was said to be a large influence on the video game DayZ, which does share a lot of similarities when it comes to survival and trust.
Overall, we would definitely recommend The Road to fans of Slow Burn or Post Apocalyptic scenarios. It is one of the best to pull both off with such precision, and is one of the more realistic examples of how things would be if we are unfortunate enough to be put into that situation.
