2009 November, 21st

Phil Butler

On November 25th the much anticipated film The Road will premier. This film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning novel promises to transport audiences into a stark and surreal apocalyptic America, reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath. Starring Viggo Mortensen as the central figure of a father leading his son trough day to day survival, The Road is a powerful window into the fearsome world of basic human instinct. Mortensen is actually quite brilliant, in a role that seems to have been made for him.

The Road is a brilliantly directed (John Hillcoat) spectacle of humanity lost. As one reviewer put it; “a delicate and anachronistically loving look at the immodest and brutish end of us all.” The film also stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, as the son, led precariously by his father through a wasteland of human misery. Supported by stars like Robert Duval, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, and others, Mortensen carries the epic as the central tragic figure in what is somehow an uplifting movie experience, in the midst of a depressing emotional one. Maybe the father son relationship, traversing the gray landscape of hopelessness, offers up an all to familiar hopefulness buried deep within us all. The gripping reality of extinction is something which can transport us all as it turns out.

Survival at all cost - father and son

Regardless of any metaphoric and ethereal psychology, the story is at the core of this type of intellectual entertainment, and Mortensen is the perfect conduit through which McCarthy’s wonderful story can be told. It is also important to note that The Road might be compared to Mel Gibson’s Road Warrior in theory, but in fact the latter is really really the antithesis of Mortensen’s journey. The Apocalypse, put in perspective, will like lead down The Road, rather than allowing anyone to be a Road Warrior. The Road as a film is very far past Thunderdome, a must see.

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About the Author

Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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