The Road
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, CharlizeTheron, and KodiSmit-McPhee
The Road is a movie that is the embodiment of what is both beautiful and savage. The story demonstrates the deepest kind of love: the love a father has for his child, but in order for the essence of that love to survive in a world ravaged by death and despair, the father must cast aside everything that defines him as human and embrace the animalistic psyche within him in order to survive and protect his child.
The question that one must consider when watching a story as powerful as The Road is how can one be exposed to such complete and utter destruction and not only survive, but also keep the essence of what defines them as human, intact? One answer that is conveyed quite beautifully in the film is the metaphor of symbolic fire. For the Man and the Boy, who in the wake of cataclysmic disaster find themselves in a world torn apart, fire is a critical tool that they must cling to in order to survive. Along the path of their journey, however, the Man (Viggo Mortensen) speaks of another fire – the fire inside you. I believe this fire that the man is referring to is hope, and finding joy amid such extraordinary pain, and finding the resolve to live, even when the circumstances are so dire that death would be the easier option.
There is a powerful theme in this movie which separates the sparse population of a severely decimated world into two groups: the “good guys”, those who have held onto their humanity and the hope that they will survive, and the “bad guys”, those who have surrendered their humanity and in its place know only savagery and darkness. The father and his son appear to be the only two people who have been spared from the darkness which shrouds the “bad guys”. In a sense, the father and his child must rely on one another to protect the “fire” which is the essence of their humanity. The Man expresses this by doing everything in his powerto protect his son. The Boy, in return, acts almost as a living conscience, reminding the man to hold on to the “fire” when in his desperation to keep his son alive, the man himself forgets to live.
I bought this movie on a whim, and watched it late at night during a thunderstorm. As I sat alone in the darkness watching the journey of the father and his son, I was completely unprepared for how powerful the story was, or how the characters genuine appreciation for things I consider being inconsequential would be conveyed so remarkably. When the story ended, I looked up and caught my reflection in the mirror across from my bed. To my shock, I was crying. This movie, and particularly powerful bond of love between The Man and his child, left a deep impact on my heart that I can still clearly identify and caused me to appreciate what I had until then taken for granted. I have only seen this movie once, but even after one viewing, it is a movie I would highly recommend.
© 2013 – 2016 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, CharlizeTheron, and KodiSmit-McPhee
The Road is a movie that is the embodiment of what is both beautiful and savage. The story demonstrates the deepest kind of love: the love a father has for his child, but in order for the essence of that love to survive in a world ravaged by death and despair, the father must cast aside everything that defines him as human and embrace the animalistic psyche within him in order to survive and protect his child.
The question that one must consider when watching a story as powerful as The Road is how can one be exposed to such complete and utter destruction and not only survive, but also keep the essence of what defines them as human, intact? One answer that is conveyed quite beautifully in the film is the metaphor of symbolic fire. For the Man and the Boy, who in the wake of cataclysmic disaster find themselves in a world torn apart, fire is a critical tool that they must cling to in order to survive. Along the path of their journey, however, the Man (Viggo Mortensen) speaks of another fire – the fire inside you. I believe this fire that the man is referring to is hope, and finding joy amid such extraordinary pain, and finding the resolve to live, even when the circumstances are so dire that death would be the easier option.
There is a powerful theme in this movie which separates the sparse population of a severely decimated world into two groups: the “good guys”, those who have held onto their humanity and the hope that they will survive, and the “bad guys”, those who have surrendered their humanity and in its place know only savagery and darkness. The father and his son appear to be the only two people who have been spared from the darkness which shrouds the “bad guys”. In a sense, the father and his child must rely on one another to protect the “fire” which is the essence of their humanity. The Man expresses this by doing everything in his powerto protect his son. The Boy, in return, acts almost as a living conscience, reminding the man to hold on to the “fire” when in his desperation to keep his son alive, the man himself forgets to live.
I bought this movie on a whim, and watched it late at night during a thunderstorm. As I sat alone in the darkness watching the journey of the father and his son, I was completely unprepared for how powerful the story was, or how the characters genuine appreciation for things I consider being inconsequential would be conveyed so remarkably. When the story ended, I looked up and caught my reflection in the mirror across from my bed. To my shock, I was crying. This movie, and particularly powerful bond of love between The Man and his child, left a deep impact on my heart that I can still clearly identify and caused me to appreciate what I had until then taken for granted. I have only seen this movie once, but even after one viewing, it is a movie I would highly recommend.
© 2013 – 2016 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.