One of the perks of working at Recorded Books is that employees can check out and listen to audiobooks anytime they want. When I started working here, I wasted no time in getting my hands on a copy of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I listened to it on my commute to work, and I was shocked by how much it affected me. I found myself getting sucked in by McCarthy’s spare prose and the bleak, gray landscape of his world. Tom Stechschulte’s narration is so engrossing that I found myself hanging on every short sentence, finding time to breath or think only in the pauses between them. I’ve listened to a lot of other audiobooks since then, but none of them have stuck with me quite like The Road.

Of course, the movie version of The Road goes nationwide in theaters tomorrow, and I can only hope that the filmmakers stayed true to McCarthy’s vision. Early reviews seem favorable, and I could easily see Viggo Mortensen coming out of this with an Oscar nomination. So if you’re out this holiday weekend and get a chance to see The Road, check back in and let us know what you think.

I can’t recommend enough grabbing a copy of The Road to listen to on audio. It’s not something to be undertaken lightly, but it’s truly one of those books where the audio component makes for a completely unique listening experience.

Just in time for the Holidays is John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road. Which, at its heart, is an incredibly touching story about the love between a father and son. Still, it’s incredibly depressing and should be avoided at all costs. Just kidding. Well, except for the depressing part. That’s all true.

We don’t know much about what’s happened to the world. Everything is covered in a blanket of ash. Very few people are still alive. Those who are are forced to eke out a living, scrounging for food, which sometimes includes the unlucky others they run across. In the middle of all this are a father and son who make their way across the ruined landscape, desperately searching for something better than this. Better than where they are now.

If there was ever an author who’s work lent itself to adaptation, it’s McCarthy. Whether your reading The Road or No Country for Old Men, you almost get the feeling that his novels are one giant storyboard, strung out in front of you. The hopelessness and despair are translated perfectly in The Road. Actually, it’s translated a little too well. The film’s message seems to be that love endures. But after watching Viggo Mortensen (who I think is beginning to approach that Daniel Day-Lewis level of immersing oneself in their role) and Kodi Smit-McPhee run out of a basement full of people who are being harvested as food, I ask myself, who the hell would want to endure this?

That’s the question asked by Charlize Theron, who plays Mortensen’s wife in a series of flashback sequences. I remember being annoyed by her character in the book. In the movie, I felt I understood where she was coming from. Theron is one of a very small cast. Aside from the Man and the Boy, there are only a handful of characters, none of whom spend very much time onscreen. This means that Mortensen and Smit-McPhee are carrying a lot on their shoulders, and both do it very well. Mortensen makes you believe that the only reason he’s carrying on is because of his son.

One reviewer described The Road as a story about a kid who doesn’t understand the situation he’s in. It seems like that would be obvious, considering this is the world he was born into and the only one he’s ever known. That’s exactly how Smit-McPhee plays his character. He’s sheltered but slowly coming into his own. He looks to his father as a seeing-stone, someone who can interpret the world around him and put it all into perspective. He puts forward a very good performance and I think he’s setting himself up for some good stuff in the future.

Like I said before, the issue explored in The Road is whether or not love can survive in the face of complete hopelessness. Obviously it isn’t anything that’s going to be settled anytime soon, and I’m not sure McCarthy himself feels settled on the issue. If The Road’s message is that love endures, the message of No Country for Old Men seems to be that, sometimes, evil screws you over, and that’s it. Well, food for thought.

The Road is one of the most powerful movies we’ve seen this year. It screams out, “Oscar!” but I’m worried that, in the end, it’ll be skipped over in favor of something more mainstream. You don’t see many post-apocalyptic dramas win awards these days. Then again, you don’t see many post-apocalyptic dramas with such a touching and pure story at its heart, after you’ve peeled away all the dreary scenery and special effects. A

Ever since the movie 28 Days Later, I have had an attraction to post-apocalyptic themed movies, books, etc. Recently (excluding 2012) most of the movies released with this particular feel have been zombie movies. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good zombie movie as much as the next person (check out Pontypool or Zombieland) but what I really enjoy is the story that puts human nature to the test. Most zombie movies involve some sort of accident that causes a world-wide catastrophe. I prefer the situation that we did not engineer. A situation that comes from nowhere and the characters are forced to adapt. Outstanding examples of this type of movie are Blindness or Children of Men. As a side note, out of movies in the past 10 years, Children of Men is in my opinion one of the most well-directed movies I have seen (check him out Alfonso Cuarón).

This brings me to my point, I cannot wait for The Road to come out this Wednesday! Never before have I been so captured by the gritty realism of a book. The poignant beginning, a man haunted by an untold future as he struggles with his overwhelming urge to protect his son and his dwindling concern for his own life drew me in and would not release its grip. If this movie is at all as powerful as the book, prepare to be scared, creeped out, anxious, heartbroken. In truth this book told me a lot about myself, the characters overcoming more than just physical torment.

I am very much looking forward to this movie

“Grimacing at the day. He pulled the boy closer. Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
You forget some things, don’t you?
Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”
-Cormack McCarthy 2007

The Olympian
With a few cosmetic tweaks, Mount St. Helens provided the right devastation to serve as a backdrop for scenes in John Hillcoat’s film The Road. Production crews spent a day in July 2008 filming scenes from the post-apocalypse movie on the east side of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The process began in 2007, when location scouts first visited the monument, said Rod Ludvigsen, recreation special use specialist for the monument. “The (Washington) Film Bureau took them on their first show-me trip in the fall 2007, on a really cloudy, rainy day,” Ludvigsen said. “They liked what they saw.” The crew spent a good portion of the day in that location, filming stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. In this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, Mortensen plays a father leading his young son through a landscape torn apart by some unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on Earth.

Newspaper readership has not been the most expansive area of American culture of late, even if recent reports provide some encouraging news. And why is it plummeting? Because papers like the Star make the inexplicable decision to publish a poster-sized photo of Viggo Mortensen while giving you just 409 words of article text on the front page of Sunday’s a&e section. Four. Hundred. And nine. By almost any journalistic standard, this is absurd.

Yes, the release of The Road is a worthy subject to cover. Big stars, based on a best-selling book, etc. But, with all due respect to the Star’s photo and illustration staff, what in the world could possibly inspire you to do something like this? This photo of Viggo looks like one of those Fathead posters of Peyton Manning that adolescent fanboys hang in their bedrooms. And 409 words? That means 5th-graders are writing book reports longer than the amount of text you deemed important enough to include on the first page.

Further, how about the odd decision to include Nicolai Ouroussoff’s review of Rome’s new museum of contemporary art? Do Kansas Citians have a special yearning for such things, particularly when two perfectly good stories about local arts are published just two pages later? And let’s not overlook the fact that this particular review was published in the Times on November 11 — meaning, somewhat astonishingly, that the Star saw fit to use a nearly two-week-old review as front-page arts news.

Look, we understand the pressing exigencies of the newspaper industry. In the wake of reader abandonment, you’re forced to trim costs by shedding expensive local writers and to USA Today-ify the paper: more graphics, larger photos, eye-catching design. But when you cut loose everything that makes your paper locally interesting and applicable, you give local readers no reason to read. Robert Butler is a decent movie critic, even if his reviews are just basic summaries, and his take on the adaptation of The Road is worthy of front-page publication. But the Ouroussoff review? The 11-day-old Ouroussoff review that most of us read in the Times days and days ago? What’s the justification for this?

You want to publish a product that catches people’s attention. That’s understandable. And the Mortensen picture does just that, if only because of its gargantuan size. But beyond that, what’s the point of this photo? It adds no further understanding to Butler’s fairly straightforward article. It doesn’t pique a reader’s interest about anything beyond page one. It doesn’t tell us anything new at all, in fact; it’s just a blown-up publicity still. Further, its Himalayan scale means a great many words of text are forced from the front page, or cut altogether. You can’t attract people’s eyes to a product with giant photos only to decimate the actual text of that product — otherwise, to what are our eyes being drawn? A large photo with an article-as-extended-caption format?

People need a reason to read a local paper. More and more, the local writers who used to be that reason are out the Star’s door. Replacing their work are fortnight-old architecture reviews and colossal photos, apparently. But what’s the connection between the two, Mr. Zieman? I’ll say it again: what’s the point of drawing a reader’s eyes to a product with a mammoth photo if the product itself is a) not worth reading due to reduced text space, b) wholly irrelevant to any local interest, or c) unacceptably dated? The Star is turning into a printed version of a big-budget, effects-laden thriller; but after all the explosions and CGI, what narrative is left to examine?

What’s left to read in the Star, after all the giant photos and oversized headlines are removed? In this particular case, very little. Just an old review and a milquetoast cinema profile. There’s no point in attracting eyes if those eyes are given no product to read. Imagine if KSHB did a 60-second intro to a story, complete with fancy graphics and ominous voiceovers, and then showed you a 30-second snippet of a barely relevant topic? That’s essentially what the Star did yesterday.

It’s a dangerous line to walk. All evidence is that the Star has not yet figured out how to combat the readership slide.

There are two people in our family who are just so funny that you love to be around them and often the comment is heard, “if we could get Sharon and Carol together one day, we would die from laughter.” 

Sharon lives in Indiana and Carol in Wisconsin, so it has not happened yet, but Sharon has begun blogging.  She was shamed into it really by a couple of bloggers, okay, me  and her friend.  She tried her hand, Just who are you people? « Braindebris’s Weblog, and was (as we suspected) hysterical.  She is one of ‘those’ people, who if she wrote regularly enough would be publishing a book.  She is that funny, just check out the The Immortal Rabbit « Braindebris’s Weblog if you want to split a gut.

She took a long break from blogging, much to our disgust, and is back now on a weekly blog schedule.  You would think she has a life or something!  She also mentioned it takes a good hour to put a blog post together.  Who knew!   

So, this morning, I checked how her weekend was and she brought up the often mysterious workings of the blogosphere and the people who take the time to read your blog but rarely write comments. 

My readership is not huge, it has dropped since I have gotten less regular in posting. However, in the beginning, when my readership would hit 1,000 for the month, I never had commenters, other than one.  There were 999 people out there lurking.   XUP always comments, all the way from Canada.  Aren’t you ashamed fellow Americans?  I have to get comments from Canada.  Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom often commented, but I have been really remiss commenting on their blog lately.  Don’t you love that name though!

 I have also been blogging a bit less lately myself, as I work on my eternal update to my website.  I feel like one of those people on the commercial, staring wide eyes, pupils dilated from staring at the screen, mind numb … anyway, you get the not pretty picture.  I only have one section left to go on the website and am soooo look forward to it being done.

This morning, here is a copy my monthly stats.  Notice the slow decline.

So, I checked Search terms. 

“no blood for oil Viggo” – as in Viggo Mortensen, no surprise there. Half of my readership is searching for “Viggo” -  Talk about stalkers! 

“Worms …” – EUWWW! especially when in the house. 

“actor with low ears” -  Okay, is this person casting a movie?  I have written about actors, and I have written a post due to the lovely commercial based on the old song “do your ears hang low. ” But, I have NEVER written about an actor with low ears.  I am not even sure why you would want to find an actor with low ears.

In an effort to raise my stats, I realize that I have three sure winners:

• Viggo Mortensen
• photography
• Movie reviews

Okay, Viggo Mortensen is hot and I do understand the fascination.  He keeps his private life mysterious and he’s hot and he likes dark chocolate and he’s hot.  What more could you want?  The only thing is, I do not actually know Mr. Mortensen (I love his name by the way— Viggo Mortensen—-it’s lyrical.  This is coming from someone named VanVleck.  Not so lyrical.

So, I shall now vow to make more of an effort to review movies about Viggo Mortensen and you, my kind readers (numbers 13 to 30 and occasionally 1,000) shall occasionally drop me a line to let me know what you like, or do not like, on my blog.

Oh, and I will try not to be a stalker myself.

First off, I must apologize for procrastinating on Mothpowder. You see, Mothpowder is the result of me procrastinating from essays and other school work, and I’ve been having… more than I expected. Sure, I’m comfortable writing essays, but french ones? not as much. The rules are far more complicated, and the subject isn’t one I’m familiar with, so everything’s gone all loopy with my writing. I go from formal to not, and back again. But these days, I’ve been craving some Mothpowder and I know now why I’m having so much difficulty with this.

For one, writing is not my initial medium. I’ve been taught to paint with brushes, not words. This is a challenge. I have my ideas, but when I start to write them out in order, with some kind of flow, the flow fails and I store it away to be forgotten. I suppose I admit I haven’t been confident in my writing. I’m alright with small writing, like poems, mini short stories. They’re simple and that’s my comfort zone. I don’t like complications or detail. Even in my drawings I rarely went further than sketches.  Slowly, I’m returning to the habit of writing. My mom discovered my work (onoes) and encourages me to write more, possibly scripts for films. She’s been nosy, likes to know what I’m up to. But I like my private life, too. Some time alone is always nice and rewarding.

However, I did get a little something out of this writing hiatus.  An idea for a sequel. Its title will be Tearlint. For a third, if it should happen, I have Ashenfade. Hurray! Progress. (:<

Earlier today, I was really inspired by the Behind The Scenes footage of the upcoming movie The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen. Written by the same writer/director who did No Country For Old Men. Maybe The Road will prompt me to see the latter, since I haven’t although I’ve been wanting to since its nominations at the Oscars on its release year. For those who don’t know, The Road is set in a post-apocalyptic America, about a pair of remaining survivors; a father & his son. The movie portrays the emotion the two main characters face so beautifully, and I truly admire the director, who refused to have a studio & instead shot the entire film on location. This movie comes out november 25th, so while I waited for its release, friday night, I watched the new Star Trek movie. Loved it. Highlyrecommend it. I mean, I’m no Trekkie, and I totally fell in love with Chris Pine. He’s a babe, first of all, and his friendship with Spock was so cute. <: Okay, some shots were really cheesy, but it was fun and totally worth watching with my mum!

Speaking of movies.

My own film is currently undergoing post-production. We’re working on editing and hopefully filling out as much as possible until the deadline. It’s due tomorrow, my but team & I believe he’s just bullshitting and the project is going to be pushed for later during the week. So far, it’s looking delicious. We’ve got some nice effects, ideas from everyone in the team. I loved to work on this so much more since we all got a chance to do everything. Directing, filming, editing, sound. Everyone did their part. We even got our own stunt-person.

You cannot go more legit than this.

Funny shooting moment:

we’re getting ready to shoot a scene in the woods. all of a sudden, we pause, start looking at eachother. it smelled like rotten egg.

Ally: Okay, who the hell farted.

Marie: Wasn’t me.

Me: Wasn’t me – and I would tell you if it was me.

We ignore it for a while, keep shooting. It smells like shit now.

Ally: we can’t shoot in this stink. WTF!

me: could be a bear. bears are smelly.

marie: (we were by her house in the middle of nowhere) yeah there’s supposed to be one around here.

Ally: oh great. I’m going to be some overgrown animal’s dinner!

We hear rustling in the woods. Everyone gasps.

Turns out it was a dear doing its business nearby.

I love being one with nature. Don’t you?

Hold your breath

AKA: O PÁNICO NO TÚNEL É DEIXAREM O STALLONE A SOLTA.

Eis mais uma entrega de Mr. Sylvester Stallone num Disaster Movie. Se estão a perguntar se quando falo de Disaster falo do argumento ou do filme em si, posso responder que será um pouco de ambos. Após um roubo, normal, numa noite normal da cidade de NY, os fugitivos vão de encontro a um camião que transporta residuos tóxicos e também explosivos. Visto que o camião perde o controlo, vai de encontro as paredes do túnel onde se encontrava, provocando que o mesmo desabe. É então que Kit Latura (meu deus, mas quem escolhe estes nomes), condutor de limos e ex-chefe do departamento de controlo de emergências da cidade, decide resgatar o povo qu ficou aprisionado dentro do túnel. Filme catástrofe, com final feliz. Mas nas bilheteiras não rendeu o que dele se esperava. De Rob Cohen, com Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders, Karen Young, Claire Bloom, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Renoly Santiago, Colin Fox, Danielle Harris, Trina McGee, Marcello Thedford, Sage Stallone e Jo Anderson.

Stallone de visita ao set onde se vai filmar Shark Attack 15: Ataque em Boxinos

Vale a pena deixar de ver a bola e a caneca da cerveja a aquecer para ver isto

After the Oscar-winning success of the adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, another of the author’s works arrives on screen. Viggo Mortensen stars in THE ROAD, a thriller that is set in a bare, post-apocalyptic America, where a father and son struggle to survive. Director John Hillcoat previously teamed with star Guy Pearce on the critically acclaimed Western THE PROPOSITION.

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall
Director: John Hillcoat
Screenwriter: Joe Penhall
Producer: Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz
Composer: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Studio: Weinstein Company

MOVIE TRAILER :

1999

Cast- Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber, Anna Paquin

It’s 1969 and the Kantrowitz is spending another summer away from the city.  Marty (Schreiber) and Pearl (Lane) have been parents since they were 17, and 14 years and two children later they are comfortable in the life they have made.  Well, Marty is comfortable and Pearl is restless, wondering if life has passed her by.  Enter the Blouse Man (Mortensen).  In the age of hippies, Woodstock, and men on the moon, Pearl finds her own sexual revolution.

Why I love it - I should confess that I watched this movie after I fell in love with Aragorn in Lord of the Rings and I needed to see every movie that Viggo Mortensen had been in.  Imagine my surprise when I found this gem with Diane Lane, who I also love watching onscreen.  These two have some seriously hot love scenes in this movie.  I loved the Blouse Man and was hoping for a happy ending for him, I mean, it’s Viggo, so of course I was rooting for him.  Imagine my surprise when by the end of the movie I also had a crush on Liev Schreiber. 

The acting of these three with the teenager Alison (Paquin) and Marty’s mother (Tovah Feldshuh) was top-notch.  Actually I think Feldshuh stole every scene she was in and I loved her character, caught in the middle with the knowledge of infidelity. 

Apart from the outstanding cast and excellent acting I could feel for Pearl.  I do not have children, but every woman can relate to romanticizing the road not taken.  I may not have agreed with her actions, but I understood the motivations behind them.  The choices we make at 17 will still be with us at 31 (how old I think Pearl is).

And this was a story about marriage and what makes it work or fall apart.  It’s never black or white and this movie shows all of it shades of gray.  Oh, and did I mention it was hot? 

According to IMDb Lane wanted Mortensen for this role so much that she gave up part of her salary so they could afford him.  Smart girl.  Take a look at trailer and see if this might be a movie that you’d like too.

The rest of my Top 100 List.

Lupe Fiasco & Michael Ealy

NYC Premiere Of ‘The People Speak’ backstage at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 19, 2009

The film brings together images, music and narration with re-creations of American moments of resistance. There’s the Declaration of Independence; speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.; songs by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Public Enemy; and a call to action by Cindy Sheehan among many others.

On Monday night I was lucky enough to score a plus one to the press screening of The Road, based on the incredible Cormac McCarthy book I read earlier on this year. Love having friends in high places at film magazines.

I wrote a (what I consider rather good) little review of the film and was about to hit ‘publish’ when I realised that there is probably an embargo on it and I just didn’t read the sign that said so at the screening. Damnnit.

SO… expect desperation, desolate landscapes of a seemingly dead world, a gun-toting cannibalistic underclass striving for survival in the cruelest ways imaginable and little hope or happiness (if you’ve read the book, you’ll understand).

Out on 8th January 2010 in the UK, whet your appetite with the HD trailer below:

It has been way too long since we saw a hot man bein’ hot of the day around here. Vincent Cassel, take it away!

Brilliant oddball Vincent Cassel is married to a personal heroine, Monica Bellucci — ten years in August. Impressive! He is a director, actor, writer and musician. Generally he plays maniacs and bad guys (I love crazy).

He has said of his being typecast in tough guy parts, “It’s all right. I like playing baddies.” The first role in which I ever saw him was as Gilles de Rais in Luc Besson’s 1999 film The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, which for my Catholic, action-movie-loving, Milla-Jovovich-adoring money is one of the best freakin’ movies evah.

Some fun Vincent and Monica facts from the imdb:

Some of Vincent’s english-language credits from which you might recognize him include Elizabeth, Ocean’s Twelve, Ocean’s Thirteen, Eastern Promises, and the forthcoming Darren Aronofsky picture Black Swan, which will also star Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey (freaking awesome).

A musician among his other many talents, Vincent performed the song “Step Da Step Krugom” in Eastern Promises. He also appeared as the voice of Monsieur Hood and sang the gay, snappy little Merry Men number in Shrek — you know, the scene in the wood where Princess Fiona kicks their asses all Matrix style.

Final shot featuring bonus heat from one Mister Viggo Mortensen (of course) from the set of Eastern Promises:

Watching movies is one of my favorite activities. Today I had the rare pleasure of getting to watch two (usually that only happens when I’m dog-sick and stuck in bed). They provided a bizarre counterpoint for each other.

The first was the upcoming adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Now, the last one out of the gates on this was No Country for Old Men, what I consider to be an almost pitch-perfect movie. Add to that Viggo Mortensen and Robert Duvall, two of my favorite actors, and I was pumped. The kicker: free passes for pastors, followed by a theological discussion of the movie led by a “noted theologian.” Sold!

The movie was bleak – I expected that. And that was hard to watch. But it just wasn’t that good. The Coen Brothers nailed No Country’s pacing with the painfully drawn-out vista shots and the almost wordless dialogue. Here, there was some good cinematography, but it felt like they were trying to get through it too fast. I know it’s unfair to compare relatively new-comer directors to the Coen Brothers, but this really didn’t live up to the challenge at all. For a free movie, though, intriguing.

The noted theologian was Reg Grant, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. It was not that long ago that places like Dallas would have urged faithful Christians to run the other direction from such movies, so I am encouraged to see the evangelical mainstream willing to engage secular culture, not deny it out of hand. But what followed in discussion was frustrating. The film was full of Biblical and philosophical allusions, much like No Country. However, the discussion seemed to be hell-bent (pardon the expression) on shoe-horning the film into a Christian allegory. The relationship of the Father and the Son, the pronouncement that the Son is “the one,” the only man in the film named is “Eli,” sparse conversations about God and angels, all of that adds up to a lot of fodder for conversation. But to somehow assume that McCarthy’s nihilistic worldview could be bent into a crypto-Catholic “hope in Christ” morality tale? Not quite…

I was reminded of the Ralph Wood article comparing the theologies of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, entitled Lewis & Tolkien in Tension. In it, Wood describes how Lewis’ literature has no purpose if the allegorical interpretation is not there. In other words, if you don’t get that Aslan is Jesus, then The Chronicles of Narnia aren’t going to be of much use. Tolkien, on the other hand, seemed to prefer the uniqueness of Christ and therefore refused to have any Christ-figure in his masterworks. The themes of Scripture, however, are there: betrayal, trust, faith, transcendence, temptation, humility, etc. Allegorical, no. Rich, yes.

It was reading Wood’s article that helped me understand the deep flaw I’ve never been able to articulate with dispensational readings of Revelation. A vision of the future? Yes. One in which the Whore of Babylon/seven seals/four horses means a specific person/entity/nation/enemy? Probably not.

And yet, that’s exactly what this audience was trying to do with The Road, find the Christ-figure and how to use this as a preaching tool. One audience member went so far as to say that the end offers the possibility of hope in Christ and the “new heaven and new earth.” First of all, there’s a big difference between hope and optimism; hope is a lot more than “glass half full.” You can have a bleak future and still have eschatological and soteriological hope. And second, folks, if the future looks anything like McCarthy’s vision, then there is no cause for hopetimism.

Enough about the film I didn’t enjoy. The second film was with guys who went on our OPC Men’s Retreat in October. We watched Into the Wild, the story of Chris McCandless, the Emory student whose misanthropy causes him to abandon all for the solitude of an Alaskan winter only to discover the truth that “Happiness is real only when shared.”

Sean Penn’s directorial eye was exactly what The Road needed. The drawn out shots of mountains, whether bleak or beautiful, were well-executed. And there was enough fodder for theological/philosophical discussion, albeit in non-allegorical terms: loneliness, woundedness, community, limitation, success, dependence, independence, forgiveness, enlightenment, you name it. And if that weren’t enough, there’s far more religious conversation that actually occurs within the movie. From vague discussions about God to prominent quotes from Tolstoy (himself an intriguing Christian writer), McCandless’ own search seems to have these eternal questions in mind. And the way Penn shapes the narrative only highlights these ideas.

And so for now, the balcony is closed. We’ll see you next week at the movies.

(having watched the preview again, did we get a truncated version today? ‘cuz half of the scenes in the preview were not in what we saw)

Not sure what exactly is up with the release date (this was originally scheduled for October 16) but The Road is now set to open nationwide on November 25. I, for one, will be there. And I may add, I’m not a moviegoer. I’ve maybe gone to two movies in the past seven years.

But if The Road is even 1/4 as good as Cormac McCarthy’s novel (which I absolutely consumed in less than two days) then this film may jump into my all-time Top 5. A few things:

• Viggo Mortensen is the perfect actor for the role of the unnamed father
• Regarding post-apocalyptic tales, this will be far superior than anything the movie 2012 and its special effects can offer
• Hopefully Charlize Theron’s character won’t play a substantial role and the movie will not be turned into some kind of sappy love story. The wife in the book plays a significant part, yes, but only in placing the context properly and acting as a vehicle for the husband/father’s motivation
• One of GQ Magazine’s movie critics said the film is more violent and brutal than the novel to which another of GQ’s movie critics responded saying, how can you get any more violent than the novel? It had babies roasted on a spit in one scene
• Read the novel first. Actually, read T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland first and then Ernest Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River.
• Cormac McCarthy is the author behind “No Country for Old Men” and “All the Pretty Horses”
• It has Robert Duvall. Days of Thunder. Enough said

And now for a short synopsis from the novel’s Wikipedia entry following by the movie’s trailer,

The Road follows an unnamed father and son journeying together toward the sea across a post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and almost all life on Earth. The setting is extremely bleak: the sun is obscured by a layer of ash so thick that the pair must breathe through masks, and plants do not grow. The surviving remnants of humanity have been largely reduced to thoughtless violence and cannibalism. Realizing that they will not survive another winter in their present location, the father leads them through this desolate landscape towards the sea, sustained by a vague hope of finding other “good people” like them.

Titta på den här fanvideon. Till och med vid hans ålder är han bara så snygg.

Check out this fanvid. Even at his age this guy’s so – hot.

Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris got a taste of the ol’ West on the Ranch while filming Appaloosa.   Here’s the film location website, just for kicks:  http://palovista-ranch.blogspot.com/

Application info coming soon.  Wow, this is so much more fun than working on my final papers.

It is safe to say that my anticipation for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s masterful novel The Road has reached fever pitch.  There’s absolutely no other movie left on the 2009 Calendar that I’m looking forward to more.

The movie was supposed to come out over a year ago and though I usually hate delays, this time around I’m very glad it was postponed, as it gave me time to read the novel, which is amazing and heartbreaking.  With just a little over a week to go before it’s release, here’s the extended trailer which shows you just a bit more and reasures that it all points out to be as faithful an adaptation as fans of the novel were meant to have.

The most startling and mind blowing aspect of The Road is without a doubt the characters. Drawing from the foundation Cormac McCarthy provided, screenwriter Joe Penhall and the cast created vivid performances and lifelike characters. Here is a look at three of the characters:

The Man (played by Viggo Mortensen):

It is an archetype seen often on the silverscreen: a father protecting his loved ones. What is different about this father? The difference lies in the man behind the character. Viggo Mortensen’s emotionally driven performance is the best of his career and the best of the year. The Road’s central characters, The Man and The Boy, are on a journey to an unknown place specified as the coast. The Man repeatedly proves his love for his son, despite the adverse circumstances. Many of the conversations in the story are real life conversations Cormac McCarthy had with his son.

The secret to Viggo’s moving performance is his eyes. His eyes communicate everything the audience (and his son) need to know. Everything one feels in this film, is because of Viggo’s eyes. He will do whatever it takes to protect and prepare his son to “carry the fire.”

The Boy (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee):

What would it be like to be born into a post-apocalyptic world? With innocence and his childhood lost, The Boy is lost, and Smit-McPhee behaves just so. Smit-McPhee’s performance was good (not great), but his chemistry with Mortensen is what is extraordinary. They were truly a father and son. The Boy’s arc from innocent and afraid to carrier of “the fire” is a direct reflection of Mortensen and Smit-McPhee’s relationship.

The Earth:

Wait. Can the earth ACTUALLY be a character? Yes. Much like the deterioration of our protagonist father and son, the earth is also deteriorated. It is empty, void, and gruesome. Just like the main characters, at times, the earth’s disgusting underbelly is revealed. The sky, is gray and dark, a mirroring of the character’s faces and emotions. As they reach the coast, a place that should be a place of refuge, peace, and tranquility, they witness more of the same. The deteriorating earth is every bit as large of a character as The Man and The Boy.

Further evidence of the fantastic characters is Robert Duvall’s short, but Oscar worthy performance as an old man along the road.

Carry the fire,

- Nolan Wilson Goff

P.S. Next up: The Visuals of The Road