Cormac McCarthy's The Road (spoilers) and it's movie adaptation

[Charlie Delta]

First, the trailer:

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(Looks like they gave atleast the trailer the "Hollywood" treatment...)

However, Esquire saw a preview of the whole movie and spoke highly of it.

And finally, some style frames can be seen here.

[femelle]

knocked out The Road on a plane journey the other day

there were times I couldn't stop reading and others I had to because of how involved I felt

dubious about a filmed version as It is so vividly imagined in my own mind

be curious to see though

Took the words out of my mouth

[seksu!]

bump

read the book in two sittings, thought it was great.

saw the trailer for the movie and it seems that they are going to suggest that global warming is the cause of the post-apocalyptic setting? i really hope not, cos i really think it would detract from the message of the book that we can cause our own demise etc.

btw, heres 5 clips from the upcoming movie: http://www.traileraddict.com/tags/the-road

just judging by these, i am really hating the actor playing the Boy. especially his acting at the coca-cola part ugh. hope he doesnt ruin the entire movie

[chchchip]

i'll be interested to see how they bring his wife into the story because she's in the book for like 5 pages. judging by the trailer it looks like they incorporated her more in the movie than the book.

[NESK]

whats everyone saying now that the movies out? they changed very little and actually nailed the bleakness of the novel which i thought would be difficult. only thing they added that burned me was the conversation after the dad drinks the jack and smokes the cigarette. too literal. and the guy at the end which they should have went the novels conclusion, instead of adding optimism to it. i guess it makes it an easier film to stomach if the ending is less ambiguous but it irked me a little.

[mpcec]

Haven't read 'The Road' but I have question. Started reading Suttree and I'm like 150 pages in and I just can't seem to get into it. McCarthy writes really beautifully but there is just way too much detail to the point of absurdity, where I completely forget what is being described and it just feels way too self indulgent to me. My friend says it's his writing that a lot of people find compelling as actions that push the plot are few and far between. I get the idea of that, there are certain writers whose style I really enjoy but it just isn't clicking for me with McCarthy.

Did I just start with the wrong book, should I just tough it out and finish the thing or should I just revisit him later on?

[NESK]

i havnt read that one, but ive encountered that with other writers. sometimes you just cant read someone even when you want to.

[beast]

This is a bit out of topic. But can anyone explain to me what is Cormac's point in his ending of No Country for Old men about?

I mean Javier Badem's character gets into a car accident, he fixed his busted arm and hobble off. So what is this suppose to mean?

You cant stop an evil guy?

BTW Road is a much superior book to Old Men, although Cormac's narrative style may be a bit difficult to accept in the beginning.

[Charlie Delta]

Mind the spoilers now that the movie has come out for the US, I still have to wait till the 4th of Feb, ridiculous!

At least I have Fallout3 Game of the Year edition to keep me sane while waiting...

[Sayword]

so you don't want me to give you a spoiler by spoiler run down?

[gramps]

Haven't read 'The Road' but I have question. Started reading Suttree and I'm like 150 pages in and I just can't seem to get into it. McCarthy writes really beautifully but there is just way too much detail to the point of absurdity, where I completely forget what is being described and it just feels way too self indulgent to me. My friend says it's his writing that a lot of people find compelling as actions that push the plot are few and far between. I get the idea of that, there are certain writers whose style I really enjoy but it just isn't clicking for me with McCarthy.

Did I just start with the wrong book, should I just tough it out and finish the thing or should I just revisit him later on?

Suttree is the odd man out from his body of work, I'd say. It was an attempt to do a more classic early American picaresque and while I think it succeeds like you I wasn't really mesmerized by it. Now, I personally think the Road and No Country For Old Men are among his weaker works as well, at least compared to Blood Meridian. I think they're engrossing and his style is always fantastic but once you read Blood Meridian you realize that this is artistic statement that just dwarfs them and they seem like pulp comparatively. At least that's my impression, and let it be known that I am someone who is put off by the neo-noir post-Frontier American existentialist novel that I think the Road and No Country are in close company of.

This is just one man's opinion, obviously.

[NESK]

This is a bit out of topic. But can anyone explain to me what is Cormac's point in his ending of No Country for Old men about?

I mean Javier Badem's character gets into a car accident, he fixed his busted arm and hobble off. So what is this suppose to mean?

You cant stop an evil guy?

BTW Road is a much superior book to Old Men, although Cormac's narrative style may be a bit difficult to accept in the beginning.

in the opening scene of the film, tommy lee jones tells you hes gonna tell a story thats so brutal, any sane person would not want to understand it. in his last speech he tells his friend that he had a dream about his father that he didnt understand.

the films three main characters consist of two classic american archetypes (lone hunter/gatherer and ol boy sherrif) and a new american phenomenon, a villain so ruthless that hes impossible to predict or comprehend.

neither of the classic american heroes ever comes face to face with the villain, one dies, the other gives up. everything you know about male role models is obsolete because theres a new breed of evil that defies conventional wisdom and cannot be brought to justice simply because he rejects the terms of everything that comes before him.

so this being of pure evil who follows a code of honor so sick and demented follows through with his pact to kill the wife of the man he was hunting and then disappears into thin air. and you have to accept that just like the sherrif and the dead husband, because even if you dont, evil doesnt give a fuck what you think.

[mpcec]

Appreciate the input Gramps and NESK, I'll check out Blood Meridian sometime soon.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Nice interpretation NESK.

I was struck by how the film version ends differently to the book. Not majorly, but in some subtle way. Saw and read them, respectively, quite some time ago so this is from memory.

At the time I remember thinking the ending was to emphasise the expression of one of the Coen bros' favourite characters (rather than McCarthy's); unstoppable evil.

The "unstoppable" evil theme is represented in most (if not all of their works) in some form. Even the comedies. I can cite examples but just go watch any (and all) of their films, more entertaining that way

[RandR]

whats everyone saying now that the movies out? they changed very little and actually nailed the bleakness of the novel which i thought would be difficult. only thing they added that burned me was the conversation after the dad drinks the jack and smokes the cigarette. too literal. and the guy at the end which they should have went the novels conclusion, instead of adding optimism to it. i guess it makes it an easier film to stomach if the ending is less ambiguous but it irked me a little.

I actually thought the ending of the book was very optimistic. Compared to other works, like most Camus(The stranger and The Fall come to mind), or Knut Hamsun, or anything in a kafkian mode, The Road ends with the faintest glimmer of hope.

Note the Christian parallels. The world is created through the son, by the father. The line about "he was the boy's whole world, and the boy was his" is pretty clear here. The father dies - a witness to the hubris of man, or in this case, the original sin. The woman kills herself, unwilling to carry on the true import of humanity. The son remains and as long as he does, as long as the "light never goes out", humanity exists. Even in the face of ultimate sorrow and after the apotheosis of sin, humanity survives.

As a counterpoint, the people the child meets at the end are not the same as his father or himself. Their dedication to survival only stresses the urgency of life. His dedication to survival is because life was beautiful once and perfect, and a bit of that perfection remains in him through the love of his father.

It reminds me of Steinbeck's "winter of our discontent". If you haven't read that and you like the themes presented in this book, then I suggest doing so. Marcuse briefly touches on the same ideas, Borges, Kafka, Camus, etc all do the same with a much more pessimistic streak.

Basically the Christian symbolism is so thick in this book that you could cut it with a King James Bible, and the resolution implies hope.

[american_hearts]

You can't call it 'Christian symbolism' when one of the story's repetitive themes is that there is no god in the Christian sense. The man finds hope from somewhere, but it's not from any god of the Bible. When he cries out, it's evident he's calling out to nothing and no one.

[NESK]

yeah im not feeling that interpretation at all. you back it up well, but i think youre missing the point.

[Charlie Delta]

"There is no God and we are his prophets."

[mpcec]

Thought I'd give this a bump, just saw The Road the other day, and now that the release is a little wider I figure more people have opinions.

I really loved the cinematography and the encounters that the father and son had with other people were very intense/terrifying.... definitely the highlight of the film for me. I thought the movie was really lacking outside of that though, for whatever reason I just wasn't emotionally invested in the characters and the dialogue/flashbacks along the way just really didn't amount to much for me.

****SPOILERS****For example when the wife committed suicide, or the father died, I really just felt nothing... which is definitely unusual for me.****END SPOILERS****

So I was curious if any of you guys felt the same way, and I would just like to hear more opinions from people who aren't critics.

[madapaka]

i'm definitely not a critic and i have not read the book, but just wanted to add my thoughts to this thread.

i personally really enjoyed the movie. the characters were played very, very well but i was busy focusing on how well the crew on this film captured the post-apocalyptic feeling. i left the movie with a very grim freeling, but it was worth the ticket.

[choice]

Thought I'd give this a bump, just saw The Road the other day, and now that the release is a little wider I figure more people have opinions.

I really loved the cinematography and the encounters that the father and son had with other people were very intense/terrifying.... definitely the highlight of the film for me. I thought the movie was really lacking outside of that though, for whatever reason I just wasn't emotionally invested in the characters and the dialogue/flashbacks along the way just really didn't amount to much for me.

****SPOILERS****For example when the wife committed suicide, or the father died, I really just felt nothing... which is definitely unusual for me.****END SPOILERS****

So I was curious if any of you guys felt the same way, and I would just like to hear more opinions from people who aren't critics.

I havn't seen the movie, but in all of Cormac McCarthy's books death is dealt with really casually. There's no dramatic build up or anything, maybe that's what they were trying to capture with the movie?

Anyone ever read Child of God? <spoilers!>

They talk about the characters death, his brain dissection, and his burial in about three sentences. It's all really brisk.