*Watch the trailer here.
“The Road” opens tomorrow, and if I can convince my in-laws to babysit, (which shouldn’t be too hard) maybe my husband and I can sneak out to see it during the Thanksgiving hiatus. The movie is based on Cormac McCarthy’s book by the same name. It’s a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son trying to get to the coast and survive by any means possible.
If you’ve read McCarthy, you already know most of his novels are not exactly feel-good stories. His last book to be made into a movie was “No Country For Old Men,” released in 2007, and supposedly, the script follows the book almost exactly.
My husband and I both read “The Road,” and although it is upsetting and sometimes disturbing, it generated interesting conversations and prompted us to think, “what would we do?” On the other hand, I have a friend who, after reading it, said it made her want to slit her wrists. It’s that dreadful at times.
I read it rather quickly because I wanted to find out how it ended, and I was ready to be rid of the knot in my stomach that seemed to arise every time I picked up the book. I think the movie may evoke the same feelings, but from the preview, I think they significantly Hollywood-ized it. McCarthy is a sparse writer – few words, big impact.
McCarthy gave his first television interview with Oprah a couple of years ago. If you go here, you can see the interview in a series of separate videos. He explains how he got the idea for the story, among other things, which I found really interesting … because I’m a nerd like that.
Tags: movie
Kristen, you should tag this with ‘Books On Film’.
The book is definitely one written to read in one sitting if possible. I too felt that anxious stomach feeling and couldn’t put it down thinking, How can this possibly have a happy ending? The book is amazing and McCormick’s vocabulary is impressive. He is obviously influenced by Faulkner. It’s hard to imagine how it will be turned into a movie. I wonder if you saw it yet or not. If not, it will be out on DVD soon. The Road was inspired by his son, who was seven years old when he wrote the book, and the challenges of raising a young child as his age. (75 at the time.)
I highly recommend that you read Blood Meridian by him if you haven’t already.
Thanks, Damon. I went back and tagged this post with “Books on Film.” Sometimes I get in a hurry and forget to tag posts. I hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned it, but I agree, McCarthy is influenced by Faulkner. Good observation. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I plan to as soon as it comes out on DVD. Have you? If so, what was your impression? Everything I read about the movie said it was better than expected. As for “Blood Meridian,” I don’t know … my husband has read it and said it’s McCarthy to the “nth” degree, meaning even more graphic violence. I’ll be honest; sometimes that’s hard for me to stomach.