There are black-and-white films. There are color films. This is a gray film. The color gray is so pervasive throughout this movie that it’s almost like a character in its own right. Both in mood and plot, as well as symbolism, the visceral grayness hangs like a grim specter over the lugubrious scenario.
The post-apocalyptic genre has had its successes (Planet of the Apes; the Mad Max series) and its failures (The Postman), each putting its own spin on the end-of-civilization concept. Director John Hillcoat’s The Road, which is based on an award-winning novel, avoids the usual action sequences (such as we see in The Road Warrior or Cyborg) and focuses on the day-to-day details of our two characters' survival after an unspecified cataclysm.
Our main characters are unnamed, referred to in the credits simply as “the Man” and “the Son”. The story takes place 10 years after the mysterious disaster that brought down society has left the survivors struggling to find food and supplies. Dark clouds dim the sunlight and gray ash is piled up like snow. The Man (Viggo Mortensen) lived through the first few years of the tragedy with his wife (Charlize Theron) and infant son in their well stocked house, but after the mother wandered off to die in the cold, the Man takes his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a trek south, hoping to find a warmer climate and maybe some “good guys” who they can co-exist with.
The “good guys” are hard to find in this barren landscape. With most of the animals and crops dead, people have turned to cannibalism. Flesh-eating, human-hunting gangs roam the roadways and even the woodlands, chasing down anyone they find to make their next meal. The sight of another survivor is viewed with alarm, rather than relief, because anyone could be a cannibal. The color gray becomes a metaphor for the fact that there is no more black-and-white morality in the world. The definitions of “good and evil” have become obscured in a world where the only thing that matters is surviving until the next meal can be found. Even though the Man constantly assures his son that they are “good guys”, the Man’s actions often contradict societal norms of goodness.
Unlike most films of this genre, there is no overarching plot holding the movie together. The Road plays out like a series of scenes, rather than a linear narrative. Every segment is merely another day-in-the-life of these two apocalypse survivors. We follow their peripatetic journey, as they push their supermarket shopping cart full of provisions across the former USA. They flee flesh eaters, scavenge for food, and look for a safe place to sleep. There’s no plot maguffin like in The Book of Eli to fight over. There’s no objective here except to live another day.
Suicide becomes a leitmotif in The Road, always hovering as the only alternative to their characters' pitiful existences. The Man, for example, has a gun with a bullet saved for his son should the cannibals capture them. At one point, trapped in the upstairs bathroom of a house where flesh eating gangs are downstairs, the Man puts the gun to his son’s head, planning to spare the boy the horror of being eaten alive.
The Man becomes increasingly paranoid as the movie goes on, making many unwise choices in his efforts to protect himself and his child. He crosses the line to the point where even his own son can’t tell if they are the good guys any more. As the film progresses, it’s the 11-year-old boy who becomes the conscience of the traveling twosome. The Son finds himself acting as the moral guardian of the once civilized pair.
During their trek, they cross paths with a few non-hostile survivors. The great Robert Duvall portrays “the Old Man” who briefly joins them in their travels south. And Michael K. Williams plays a thief who has an unpleasant encounter with the duo. Guy Pearce has a cameo as another survivor.
The Road is not so much about the end of civilization, but rather is about the effects the situation has on the people who survived it. Everyone left alive after the unknown apocalypse lives in their own desperate moral wasteland which matches the physical one they all roam through. They are all shades of gray, and it’s up to the interpretation of the viewer as to what makes a “good guy” in a hellish fight for survival like this one.
DVD Bonus Features
There are three extras on The Road DVD. There’s a director’s commentary; deleted and extended scenes; and finally, a “Making of the Road” segment.
"The Road" is on sale May 25, 2010 and is rated R. Drama, Sci-Fi. Directed by John Hillcoat. Written by Joe Penhall. Starring Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Kodi Smit McPhee, Michael K Williams, Robert Duvall, Viggo Mortensen.
