The Road (2009)

Director:

John Hillcoat

Writers:

Cormac McCarthy (novel)
Joe Penhall (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

2 December 2009 (France)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

In a moment the world changed forever.

Plot:

A post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible.

Plot Keywords:

Pistol | Post Apocalyptic | Shopping Cart | Snow | Locked In Basement

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Viggo Mortensen	...	Man
Kodi Smit-McPhee	...	Boy
Robert Duvall	...	Old Man
Guy Pearce	...	Veteran
Molly Parker	...	Motherly Woman
Michael K. Williams	...	The Thief (as Michael Kenneth Williams)
Garret Dillahunt	...	Gang Member
Charlize Theron	...	Woman
Bob Jennings	...	Bearded Man
Agnes Herrmann	...	Archer's Woman
Buddy Sosthand	...	Archer
Kirk Brown	...	Bearded Face
Jack Erdie	...	Bearded Man #2
David August Lindauer	...	Man On Mattress
Gina Preciado	...	Well Fed Woman

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence, disturbing images and language.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS | Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44940) | Finland:K-15 | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Abandoned Turnpike Tunnels, Breezewood, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

An apparent CGI aerial shot in this movie, also used in the trailer, is a digital rendering of a scene of actual destruction from Hurricane Katrina in Empire, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The shot shows large twin boats washed up onto a highway in front of a bridge over the Empire Lock on LA state highway 23. In the movie rendering, a large city skyline is added on the horizon, whereas in the normal view, there would only be the rural peninsula of Plaquemines Parish.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
The Man: You have to keep carrying the fire.
The Boy: What fire?
The Man: The fire inside you.

A Near Flawless Adaptation

John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarty's Pulitzer prize-winning novel "The Road" is every bit the uncompromising, bleak, and gritty masterpiece I hoped for.

Mortensen and McPhee deliver Oscar-caliber performances. Hillcoat's direction is deft and patient. The hollow visuals are stunning. The cinematography and art direction are near perfect. The score is beautifully haunting. The imagery is horrific yet strangely beautiful.

McCarthy's prose is unyielding from start to heartbreaking finish. Yet Hillcoat is equal to the task; he follows up McCarthy's literary masterpiece with a motion picture near-masterpiece of his own.

The most engaging part of "The Road" is that it is unrelenting in challenging our ideas about what humanity and civility stand for, and what it would mean for those principles to suddenly leave us.

"The Road" is one of the best films of 2009. No hyperbole.