The Road

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

That family he meets at the end, right?

Spoiler alert

Are they going to welcome him in as part of their extended family network, or are they just going to devour the little cunt when they get hungry?

[close]

alright cheers bye

[13 schoolyards]

A little from column A, a little from column B

[Minami Minegishi]

It's an interesting adaptation because the Director made the incredibly brutal Ghosts of the Civil Dead, but in The Road he softens some of the threat and some of the specificity of the violence. So tonally, I would say it feels at the end of the film that this is ambiguous. The casting of trustable every-people seems to indicate that they are good people. But professional, smart hunter cannibals would seem trustworthy, right?

In the novel, tonally it just seems to have a far less ambiguous ending. For me at least. Whereas the film could be a metaphor for origin myth, maybe we are seeing the start of a new civilisation. In the novel you feel like they are going to eat him at the first available moment.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

It could also possibly be

Spoiler alert

a grief-fuelled delusion? I think there's a theory to that effect, isn't the Boy convinced there's a dog following them at certain points which the Man is insistent isn't real, and lo and behold the family who turn up at the end have a dog, like it's his perfect fantasy come true.

But then again that seems to go against the broader theme of trust, i.e. the Boy is only permitted to trust his father and no-one else while he is alive, and only the Man's death allows him to drop his guard and put his trust in strangers. Obviously the film leaves it very ambiguous as to what the consequences of that will be.

[close]

[Minami Minegishi]

One theory is that the Father is intelligent and highly protective and suspicious but he doesn't quite realise that other intelligent people are following them carefully like vultures.

They are waiting for him to die so that they can either take on the boy without having to deal with him, or they are just biding their time, as they have done before, to get some grub. They admit they have been tracking them.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

One thing I like about the film, which is something that few post apocalyptic media get right, is that everyone has manky teeth, is covered in dirt and very likely smells of shit. You watch the Walking Dead or The Last of Us and everyone looks like they have daily access to hot water and a hair stylist, and woke up and selected "Survival Outfit #4" from their wardrobe.

Westerns never get the teeth right either. It's a bunch of farm hands in the middle of fucking nowhere, who's going to have pearly white teeth?

[Icehaven]

One thing I like about the film, which is something that few post apocalyptic media get right, is that everyone has manky teeth, is covered in dirt and very likely smells of shit. You watch the Walking Dead or The Last of Us and everyone looks like they have daily access to hot water and a hair stylist, and woke up and selected "Survival Outfit #4" from their wardrobe.

And access to decent razors, as at least some of the men are always clean shaven.

Re: The Road, I've seen the film and read the book and I don't remember thinking the family were going to eat him but in hindsight that's probably my naivety and of course they are.

Also I know it's part of the point but the cause of the apocalypse never being revealed is frustrating, I mean it's supposed to be man-made, probably either environmental disaster or nuclear war, so take heed humans and all that but it still seemed a bit contrived.

[Dex Sawash]

Also I know it's part of the point but the cause of the apocalypse never being revealed is frustrating, I mean it's supposed to be man-made, probably either environmental disaster or nuclear war, so take heed humans and all that but it still seemed a bit contrived.

Just seemed lazy to me, could've just said it was Clowne and left it at that.

[tourism]

tbh I liked that it didn't get into all that, but wasn't it implied in the book to be a nuclear winter thing, what with the ash sky and lack of birds, or am I remembering it wrong?

[13 schoolyards]

I think it was heavily implied somewhere (possibly even in an interview with McCarthy) that it was a meteor strike.

[markburgle]

Thought the whole point was the Dad's mistrust has gone too far, there's no hope for humanity unless people learn to trust again.

The family having a dog proves they care about more than just eating everything that moves. There's little hints of the world coming back to life - insects, falling rain etc

[kalowski]

I'm going to have to read this again, aren't I?

[Ferris]

I thought it was explicitly positive.

They haven't even eaten the dog, so presumably the kids are safe. The bloke can reload his shotgun cartridges so they are more easily defensible (no he can't, that's not how they work but we'll go with it) and he isn't as snookered as Viggo's 2 bullet revolver, and they are more or less uniformly kind to the kid in a world where every survivor is quite direct. Yes, I will eat you or stab you or whatever. There's even a mum character!

I mention all this only because I had the same question at the end of the film.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Happy meat is tastier meat.