Author Topic: Anyone read 'The Road'?  (Read 14348 times)

gregery

  • friend
  • New Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 14
Anyone read 'The Road'?
« on: August 28, 2008, 06:27:41 PM »
So, I saw that they are making a movie based on the book 'The Road', by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote 'No Country for Old Men.' 

The movie is supposed to be a post-appocolyptic tale, very grey and dark.  I got interested because Viggo Mortenson is staring in it, and I just dig him in most of his roles.

Anyway, I wanted to read the book prior to seeing the movie.  I got it from the library, and I have made it about 25 pages into the book and, well...it just might be the most depressing thing I have ever read in my life.  Worse even than the end of 'On the Beach.'  Just nothing but grey drab setting and sad paragraph after sad paragraph.  It seems very interesting, but I am a pretty down person most of the time all by myself, so I am not sure I can keep reading a book that starts out this sad.

greg

mfree

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,637
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2008, 03:24:32 AM »
Er, this would be a prime example of making a movie based on name alone... sure NCFOM was good, but just because Cormac wrote "The Road" doesn't mean it would make a good movie.

There could be promise if certain plot points were emphasized and others minimized, but to explain further would be to spoil the book.

MrRezister

  • I resist. It's what I do.
  • friend
  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 373
  • Shank, shank, shank mommy's ankles!
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2008, 04:17:34 AM »

Anyway, I wanted to read the book prior to seeing the movie.  I got it from the library, and I have made it about 25 pages into the book and, well...it just might be the most depressing thing I have ever read in my life. 


Man, I've got that book, and I'm in the same boat.  I try to read it, and it's just page after page of this dude and his boy trudging through nothingness with a wheelbarrow, being hungry and not talking.  It's a tough read, that's for sure!
He never brought you an unbalanced budget, which is a perennial joke. He never voted himself a wage increase and, to this day, gives back part of his salary every year. He has always voted to preserve the Constitution, cut government spending, lower healthcare costs, end the war on drugs, secure our borders with immigration reform and protect our civil liberties.

AJ Dual

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 16,162
  • Shoe Ballistics Inc.
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2008, 05:20:28 AM »


Ugh...

This book if given a true adaptation is going to be about as uplifting as "Beloved" set during an Asteroid/Comet/Supervolcanisim-winter...  rolleyes

Maybe they'll pull it off, but IMO, they're really going to have to mess with this book badly to bring it to film. You can have an absolutely depressing nihilistic story like this in print, because an author can play with style, or third-person omniscient to find pathos and interest in internal thoughts of the characters etc. In literature, there's ways beyond plot to give value to the reader in other forms. You try to do it in film, and you wind up with the 80s version of "Dune"...

You can also play with privation, suffering, and depravity in literature to make artistic points that you can't in film without an NC-17 rating that will kill the movie's profitability.

IMO they're going to have to "lighten" the story a lot to make it watchable, or get all "art film" on it, or something to bring it to film.
I promise not to duck.

Dntsycnt

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 539
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2008, 06:51:14 AM »
Fantastic book.  Beautifully bleak.  The characters are amazing.

The stills I've seen look just about as perfect as you could get in presenting the tone of the book visually.  I read some reviews on the script, and it seems it's supposed to have captured "every single thing from the book," and this was an independent script review.

I am very excited about it, and very hopeful.

griz

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,030
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2008, 08:00:09 AM »
I read it, but my reaction was the opposite of Dntsycnt"s.  I agree that it is bleak, indeed it's dreary from front to back.  I just didn't see the point.
Sent from a stone age computer via an ordinary keyboard.

AJ Dual

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 16,162
  • Shoe Ballistics Inc.
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2008, 09:04:39 AM »
I dug up some production stills.

I guess they're going for it. (shrug)

Honestly, I say I'll go see it just because it's NOT yet another CGI/superhero/romantic comedy. Damn few things that aren't one of those three come out, and they should be rewarded just for that.
I promise not to duck.

Tallpine

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 23,172
  • Grumpy Old Grandpa
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2008, 11:22:34 AM »
Quote
Viggo Mortenson is staring in it, and I just dig him in most of his roles.

I prefer girls, myself Tongue
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

MillCreek

  • Skippy The Wonder Dog
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,964
  • APS Risk Manager
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2008, 11:45:57 AM »
I recently read an article in the local paper about this film.  Parts of it were filmed in the Pacific NW.  It is apparently pretty true to the book and the producer is calling it 'bleak'.  Consequently, they suspect it will not be making a lot of money.  I did like the book, although parts of it were pretty "Lord of the Flies", I thought.
_____________
Regards,
MillCreek
Snohomish County, WA  USA


Quote from: Angel Eyes on August 09, 2018, 01:56:15 AM
You are one lousy risk manager.

Perd Hapley

  • Superstar of the Internet
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 61,333
  • My prepositions are on/in
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2008, 12:31:27 PM »
trudging through nothingness with a wheelbarrow


Sounds like someone we know...
"Doggies are angel babies!" -- my wife

gregery

  • friend
  • New Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 14
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #10 on: August 29, 2008, 05:24:22 PM »
Quote
Viggo Mortenson is staring in it, and I just dig him in most of his roles.


I prefer girls, myself

Well, Tallpine...I prefer girls myself, but, I am secure enough in my manhood(and ocasionally drunk enough) to admit to three 'man-crushes'.  Viggo is one of them, with Mike Rowe and Tom Brady being the other two.

And now, I'll go dip my brain in a vat of hydrogen peroxide, and establish some plausible deniability from my last statement.

greg

RevDisk

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 12,633
    • RevDisk.net
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2010, 11:22:48 PM »
Well.  The movie has finally come out.  Yee friggin gods is it is a depressing movie.  

I enjoy a good post-apocalyptic movie.  This movie is about the random unnamed, unskilled and uninteresting wandering survivors that the heroes of an actual post-apocalyptic movie see in passing.

This was ALL grey and depressing, bloody little else.  There was no progress towards "something".  Just a friggin journey that ends nowhere.  Yes, I get the whole literary "deepness" of the movie.  I have walked part of the scenery used in the movie, it's south of Pittsburgh on the abandoned stretch of the Turnpike.   I couldn't stop thinking of what I could theoretically do with the place.  This was just walking to stay warm.  Gah!



Spoilers beyond here!

Why do they ONLY run into cannibals 99% of the time?  Not one shred of civilization, good or bad?

Why are they always wet?  Do these people not know how to make a poncho?

Why is the kid such a whining idiot?  You'd THINK growing up surrounded by cannibals, starvation and the end of the world, the kid would grow a spine.  He's always pissed that his dad is keeping him alive and making hard decisions.  Every time someone is trying to kill them, it's always "Papa, no!" when the guy saves their bacon.  I'm guessing that's the moral of the story?  Kill yourself, be a defenseless sheep, or be a cannibal if SHTF.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2010, 11:31:15 PM by RevDisk »
"Rev, your picture is in my King James Bible, where Paul talks about "inventors of evil."  Yes, I know you'll take that as a compliment."  - Fistful, possibly highest compliment I've ever received.

MicroBalrog

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 14,505
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #12 on: June 27, 2010, 11:27:00 PM »
A lot of 'mainstream' post-apocalyptic fiction is like that: "If SHTF, we are all screwed, please lie down and die slowly."
Destroy The Enemy in Hand-to-Hand Combat.

"...tradition and custom becomes intertwined and are a strong coercion which directs the society upon fixed lines, and strangles liberty. " ~ William Graham Sumner

RevDisk

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 12,633
    • RevDisk.net
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #13 on: June 27, 2010, 11:41:41 PM »
A lot of 'mainstream' post-apocalyptic fiction is like that: "If SHTF, we are all screwed, please lie down and die slowly."

#&(%(@) that!

I need to write a post apocalyptic fiction film about a proper American's response to SHTF.  It involves the main character sticking his head out the side of the lead helicopter waving a bottle of moonshine screaming "WHOOO!", then taking a leak on the emo Hollywood types huddling wet and shivering in their postmodern bleakness 2000 ft AGL below, on the way back from swiping supplies to set up greenhouses and other critical infrastructure.


"Rev, your picture is in my King James Bible, where Paul talks about "inventors of evil."  Yes, I know you'll take that as a compliment."  - Fistful, possibly highest compliment I've ever received.

Viking

  • ❤︎ Fuck around & find out ❤︎
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 7,207
  • Carnist Bloodmouth
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #14 on: June 28, 2010, 01:25:09 AM »
Anyone got any idea exactly what had caused apocalypse of the book?
Also, I agree that the kid is a whiny idiot. Probably the father's fault, who apparently enjoys raising him to become nothing more than a snack.
Also, not having seen the movie, what the hell is with this "only a revolver and 2 rounds of ammo"? There's hundreds of millions of firearms in the US, there's probably a bazillion rounds in private hands at any given moment, yet all he carries is a damned .38 with two shots and nothing more?
“The modern world will not be punished. It is the punishment.” — Nicolás Gómez Dávila

mtnbkr

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 15,388
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #15 on: June 28, 2010, 06:05:37 AM »
What I took away from the book was that something had caused a "nuclear winter" (asteroid strike, actual nukes, dunno) and there wasn't enough light and heat to grow anything.  By the time the story takes place, just about anything that could be used had been used up, which is why people were resorting to cannibalism and why the man's gun had 2 rounds instead of being full with a box or 20 in reserve.

The flashbacks in the movie depict a slow decline over the lifespan of the boy.  He's about 10, so that's plenty of time for all available resources to be used up.

Notice there are few, if any, animals in that world.  The one dog at the end is the only non-human creature I can recall.

Chris

Devonai

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,642
  • Panic Mode Activated
    • Kyrie Devonai Publishing
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #16 on: June 28, 2010, 07:10:56 AM »
During one flashback, the wife says of the revolver, "only two shots left?"  So, I figured he started with more and used 'em up defending his home.
My writing blog: Kyrie Devonai Publishing

When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!

mtnbkr

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 15,388
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #17 on: June 28, 2010, 07:12:41 AM »
During one flashback, the wife says of the revolver, "only two shots left?"  So, I figured he started with more and used 'em up defending his home.

IIRC, one flashback showed more ammo, maybe multiple boxes.  It was fairly early in the movie.

Chris

myrockfight

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 257
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #18 on: June 28, 2010, 01:48:43 PM »
It is definitely reasonable to think there would be very little resources "left" to take advantage of. For some reason, I've been thinking about the staggering amount of resources it takes to sustain even one city. It certainly looks like it would be a certain impossibility to just feed people in the event our infrastructure fails.

Hell. If it even hiccups people start keeling over for lack of water. *thinking of Katrina  Not only do people have no idea how to fend for themselves, even if they did - where are almost half-a-billion people going to find enough meat and potatoes to sustain themselves in our country. Even if there isn't an enviromental disruption to screw up the ability to produce enough food, actually producing and then delivering it is an entirely separate act within itself. It hurts my brain to even think about it.   =|

Just think about how hard it would be to feed the people in your own town. A small town could hunt down every living animal within shooting distance and run out of food within what...weeks?

The movie was very depressing though. I watched it at the completely wrong time too.  ;/ Then I just got freaked out thinking about the logistics of how we live.

Viking

  • ❤︎ Fuck around & find out ❤︎
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 7,207
  • Carnist Bloodmouth
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2010, 05:48:39 PM »
Which animals could possibly survive (provided that they didn't run into hungry humans)?
I'm thinking pigs, dogs, goats (who supposedly eat everything), possibly cats? Would there be any chance of any wildlife surviving in the less populated parts of the continent? For all we know from the book, the crappy sunless sky could be something regional for the East Coast of the US due to freak atmospheric conditions and whatnot. Besides, life survived worse things in the past than what could possibly have happened in the book...
“The modern world will not be punished. It is the punishment.” — Nicolás Gómez Dávila

Cromlech

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,402
  • English bloke
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2010, 07:45:02 PM »
During one flashback, the wife says of the revolver, "only two shots left?"  So, I figured he started with more and used 'em up defending his home.
That reminds me of Max Max 2: The Road Warrior, where The Humungus has only a handful of rounds for his scoped revolver, and he carefully loads each one.
When in deadly danger, when beset by doubt, run in little circles, wave your arms and shout!

dm1333

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,875
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #21 on: June 28, 2010, 10:54:09 PM »
Heh.  I thought you were an Elton John fan.

I didn't really like the book.  Too grim. I'm reading "The Warded Man" by Peter V. Brett.  Pretty good.  And rereading all my S.M. Stirling.  Gotta like a guy who sends the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle back in time.

RocketMan

  • Mad Rocket Scientist
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,578
  • Semper Fidelis
Re: Anyone read 'The Road'?
« Reply #22 on: June 29, 2010, 12:16:33 AM »
Heh.  I thought you were an Elton John fan.

He's okay.  Have a couple of his albums.  I think he wrote a song 'bout a guy what pilots a rocketship...
« Last Edit: June 29, 2010, 12:25:08 AM by RocketMan »
If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.