For those of you who have read this marvelous book and are fans of Cormac McCarthy, the answer to your question is YES, Hollywood DID IT AGAIN. They did what they do to great books, they made it completely accessible to the American IDOL crowd who only read books found on the grocery store checkout aisle.
Those who keep talking about this movie as "intellectual" clearly aren't themselves. Plain and simple. The problem here is that this movie wasn't "boring" or "slow" ENOUGH. There's never a real moment of sincere tension fraught with a feeling of hopelessness and the dark void within. Instead, it's just choppy moments and explosions.
With all that manipulative music and distracting melodrama in every moment of cloying acting, this one feels like a soap opera made by Roland Emmerich. Ironic that 2012 has also just come out with a similar story... Frankly, I continually felt Emmerich's hand in this one throughout.
That they would give such an important and beloved novel to a relative novice filmmaker is beyond me and probably will be beyond you too after watching about five minutes of this made-for-TV trash. And no kudos even for the effects and background panoramas that were just as unrealistic as the tepid bond between the two main characters.
What made the book--and most of McCarthy's oeuvre--so astounding and gripping is the very sparse and simple, nearly nihilistic approach the author takes in his prose. This was translated perfectly into NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (an example of what happens when the urtext is put in the hands of professionals). That movie is as deftly stark--even in the moments of great humor--as the book on which it is based. THE ROAD is, again, simply less-than-mediocre prime time television.
The true shame is that a movie as "simple" and as earnest as the book COULD have easily been made and still would have been "accessible" and buzz-worthy even for the Academy Award crazed masses. Look at David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY, for example.
Or, for that matter, if you're truly interested in seeing what would happen if THE ROAD were adapted WELL to the big screen, check out Michael Haneke's epochal and beautifully funereal TIME OF THE WOLF (in fact, while reading THE ROAD originally, all I could think about was this fantastic movie from a true artist).
Again, TIME OF THE WOLF.
Forget wasting your money and time on THE ROAD. Hit the video store or your NetFlix cue tonight for Haneke instead!!
Those who keep talking about this movie as "intellectual" clearly aren't themselves. Plain and simple. The problem here is that this movie wasn't "boring" or "slow" ENOUGH. There's never a real moment of sincere tension fraught with a feeling of hopelessness and the dark void within. Instead, it's just choppy moments and explosions.
With all that manipulative music and distracting melodrama in every moment of cloying acting, this one feels like a soap opera made by Roland Emmerich. Ironic that 2012 has also just come out with a similar story... Frankly, I continually felt Emmerich's hand in this one throughout.
That they would give such an important and beloved novel to a relative novice filmmaker is beyond me and probably will be beyond you too after watching about five minutes of this made-for-TV trash. And no kudos even for the effects and background panoramas that were just as unrealistic as the tepid bond between the two main characters.
What made the book--and most of McCarthy's oeuvre--so astounding and gripping is the very sparse and simple, nearly nihilistic approach the author takes in his prose. This was translated perfectly into NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (an example of what happens when the urtext is put in the hands of professionals). That movie is as deftly stark--even in the moments of great humor--as the book on which it is based. THE ROAD is, again, simply less-than-mediocre prime time television.
The true shame is that a movie as "simple" and as earnest as the book COULD have easily been made and still would have been "accessible" and buzz-worthy even for the Academy Award crazed masses. Look at David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY, for example.
Or, for that matter, if you're truly interested in seeing what would happen if THE ROAD were adapted WELL to the big screen, check out Michael Haneke's epochal and beautifully funereal TIME OF THE WOLF (in fact, while reading THE ROAD originally, all I could think about was this fantastic movie from a true artist).
Again, TIME OF THE WOLF.
Forget wasting your money and time on THE ROAD. Hit the video store or your NetFlix cue tonight for Haneke instead!!