Fabulous Find For A Friday-----The Road

Two years ago, my favorite book was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It was horrific, but so real, that it was genuinely disturbing and scary, but the writing was amazing, so I couldn't put it down.

Last weekend, I saw the movie.

Now, may I say that I went-----expecting to be disappointed, as most of the time my most favorite books are not represented very well when moved to the big screen. But, much to my dismay, I loved ita

Of course, it helped that the lead was played by Viggio Mortensen, one of my favorite actors. He did an amazing job, playing "The Man" who lives and is trying to survive in a world post apocalyptic-----its a dreary world, one where no nature nor insect nor animal lives. It is a world that is only inhabited by pitiful humans----a handful of them, scrounging off the land and in the trash for food of any kind.

Then there is "the boy", his son. A child that has grown up in this horrific world, has lost his mother (she decides to give up and 'leave' her family) and has managed to maintain a goodness and innocence despite it all. The actor that played this part was really believable and pretty amazing.


The director, John Hillcoat, and the person that wrote the screenplay, Joe Penhall, did a splendid job recreating the book---staying pretty true to the original story. The production was very well done, and I thought that even the computer generated graphics were even well done. After all, it isn't easy to make the entire world look devoid of trees unless they are burnt out and dead looking. And even though I knew what was going to happen, the movie still kept me on the edge of my seat, as I lived through each tragic moment.

And the best part of all-----it is a love story. Not between a woman and a man---even though the love of the boys mother and his father is brought up through flashbacks-----it is the love that is never ending between the man and his boy. One that we know this father has for his son, as he would even sacrifice his own child rather than leave him for torture and an ultimate grisly death at the hands of cannabalistic humans. And it is a story of good. Yes, good.


My favorite part of the book and then, the movie, is when the young boy keeps asking his father, "We are the good guys, right? No matter what-----we will always be the good guys, right?"


It makes me tear up just thinking about it. It really makes one realize that in the world where there is so much evil, the good will always be there.


Somewhere.

The good will always prevail.