The Road Review

The road is a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Viggo Montensen. It follows himself and young Kodi Smit-McPhee – the two main protagonists as they endeavour to survive in a remote and harsh post-apocalyptic world. Characters remain un-named throughout the film, the man and his son are simply referred to as ‘Boy’ and ‘Man’ or as ‘Papa’ by the boy himself.

The film is filled with detailed, darkened scenes that are very powerful towards the viewer. All colours have been removed from the film to give the viewer an understanding of the harsh atmosphere that the two characters are experiencing. It is not just a visual effect however, when the man and his son (Montensen and Smit-McPhee) stumble upon a waterfall, the boy sees a rainbow and is shocked by such vivid colours showing that what the viewer is seeing is what the main characters will be seeing through their eyes. It is very effective as it allows the viewer to really connect with characters and understand how hard it must be for them to cope in such an environment.

The props used in the film are very effective. The Man carries around many items within him throughout the film, one of which being his ex-partners engagement ring and her comb. It really shows to the viewer that even in such a harsh, post-apocalyptic environment that people get comfort from possessing what may seem to the audience to be very ordinary items. Most of the men in the film have bearded faces. This is a very accurate representation of what it would be like to live in a post-apocalyptic world – there are no luxuries so nobody will be able to able to shave. Characters all wear very old and damaged clothing too, unless they get very lucky the characters never have an opportunity to change what they wearing. These details for me were very key; they really made an impression upon me whilst I was watching the film as it showed to me how hard it must be to live in such a world.

The boy has never known another world, he was born in his home and ever since he was a young boy has been travelling with his father. His mother abandoned the man and the boy. Although the reason is never explained to the audience, it appears that the harshness of the world was too much for her to handle and she lost her mind. She could no longer find happiness and one night walked off into the darkness, she was never heard from again. This is something that not all people think about when they think about what the world might be like after the end of the world. Even though she was in relatively good health, she could not emotionally handle living anymore. It could also be viewed differently though. It can be viewed as that she saved the man and the boy, with her travelling with her there would have been another mouth to feed and they all surely would have died.

There are a lot of difficult decisions made by characters in The Road, whether it be the woman walking into the darkness for unexplained reasons or the man killing another man, a cannibal, for the first time. An example of this is when the man and the boy are trapped inside of the gangs’ houses. The man holds a gun to the boy’s head and almost pulls the trigger. He was doing this to save his son from being killed by the cannibals and eaten; he was saving him the pain and suffering by giving him a quick easy death.

The use of flashbacks and voice overs throughout the film are also very effective. The flashbacks allow people to see what life was like for the main protagonists before the world ‘ended’. They can easily tell what a flashback is and what isn’t by the quality of the clothing that the characters are wearing, the scene surrounding them and the vivid colours in the scenes. Voice overs are also used throughout and explain to the audience what is going on in the storyline when it may not always be very clear. Both are used very effectively and are very though provoking towards the audience, it allows them to see how different live actually is in this post-apocalyptic world.

Overall I think that The Road is a very successful film. All elements included in the film are to a very high standard and have a very precise attention to detail making the storyline truly thought provoking causing the audience to develop an emotional attachment to the main characters and feel the emotions that they are feeling. It will one of the films I take most inspiration from when planning my short film as it is the post-apocalyptic thriller that I view to be most like what I will be trying to achieve.