Movie: The Road

The writings of Cormac McCarthy are just amazing - dark, raw, and intensly rugged focusing around a spartan endurement in a world of hardship. Those who have seen the movie interruptation of his No Country for Old Men have idea of McCarthy's worlds. The men are heros of modest aspiration and yet extraordinary under the circumstances. The desire elevate their families and themselves out of current toil and harsh lives to slightly improved state of modest comfort and peace is not uncommon to us all, but, when you consider the trials these men face, these dreams become terrifyingly fantasitc and unattainable. The level of unapologetic violence and complete disregard for humanity is staggering.

The idea of this post-apocalyptic journey to utopia is not new to our culture: Mad Max, Waterworld, I Am Legend. This is different though. There is pragmatism to it. A harsh reality that is unavoidable and a horrifying look at the ease at which man turns to violence and completely abandons all sense of morality. There are no CG mutants or ridiculous outfit and mohawk combinations. The people are completely normal. This realness of the situation adds to the drama of the film and the audiences horror.