5.15.2009

the road

Right after reading the book last spring, I told myself I wasn't ever going to see a film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Actually seeing the devastated landscapes of barren wasteland, and actually assigning a visual to the man's face from that of Viggo Mortensen instead of gleaning it all from McCarthy's stunning poetry was something I was not willing to put myself through. But that all changed the second I found out that they were actually attempting a film version. I want to see this so much.

I guess this is the Catch-22 that readers often find themselves in when a film is made based on a beloved work of literature. It's just that I rarely find myself reading the kind of novels that screenwriters often adapt. I don't really get into all those fantasy series - Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc... or all those superhero comics - Batman, Spiderman, the Watchmen, etc... so I really couldn't care less about how well the film adaptation holds up to the original work because I never really enjoyed the original work. But this is different:

(If you haven't read the book, I recommend not watching this trailer and reading it first.)


I will not like seeing the world destroyed via television news coverage. I will not like seeing any more of the woman's face than I have already seen in this trailer. I may even cry myself to sleep for a week afterward, but I will see this movie nonetheless.

Life is so hard.

4 comments:

grantly said...

This is going to be tough to watch. The book was heartbreaking enough - but so, so good. I'll still see the movie, though.

max said...

i'm only halfway through the book... i'm tempted to watch the trailer.... stop me.

benjamin said...

adam, please don't.

heartbreaking is the perfect word for all this. heartbreaking.

ck said...

i hope they don't play the mom up so much that it weakens the father/son story. hopefully the trailer used up most of her flashback footage.

also, it they don't try to at least try to portray knoxville as the city at the beginning, i'll be angry.