Anyone catch the movie 'The Road'?

[0roo0roo]

I couldn't even finish the movie. I think I would have enjoyed watching a grey screen for two hours. Which is essentially what the movie is.

yea showing unrelenting misery isn't a film, it isn't a story, you have to have a little more than that. i just pretty much tuned out half way through when I figured out they didnt have anything to say.

 

[Icepick]

The main thing that pissed me off (about the movie, haven't read the book) was an overwhelming brutality for brutality's sake. ie: The cannibalism portrayed wasn't survival cannibalism, it was just evil, gory brutality for it's own sake.

Spoiler

So there's this scene where the two main characters are sneaking into/stealing from a house of cannibals, and while exploring the basement they discover a human larder. The cannibals have captured humans, stripped them naked, and shoved them into a dark, moist environment with no sanitation for storage. Later, when the main characters barely escape, you hear them scream as the cannibals cut them open alive.

This makes no sense. Storing people that way would just make them diseased and thin, ruining any meat you might get. Preparing them alive also makes no sense, when the cannibals clearly had knives and guns available. Even if you want to conserve ammo, at least cut their throats and give them a quick death before skinning them.

There is no reason to show such brutality. It's not like Saving Private Ryan where it's an accurate depiction of what happened, it's just evil from the twisted mind of the director and possibly author.

Spoiler

The cannibals didn't do these things for brutal or evil reasons. They did it for survival. The basement was the only place they could keep them where they would be reasonably certain that escape would be impossible. They chopped off a few limbs at a time because they had no preservatives (salt, spices, etc...) They kept them alive as long as possible to keep the meat fresh.

You see, the cannibals no longer saw other humans as humans. They reduced them to the same status as animals. They lost all sense of compassion and, thus, transformed into a type of non-human animal themselves.

 

[Icepick]

I agree that this is one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen. For this reason I think it's a good movie. In the sense that the director did a superb job of creating an atmosphere of pure desolation and hopelessness. The entire movie was shot in gray and earth tones. It's a masterpiece of hopelessness. When a film generates an emotional response from a great number of people (even if it's a feeling of depression) then it succeeded in it's goal.

However, I think that from a lot of the posts here, some valid points have been missed.

Spoiler

There are two scenes that actually emote some optimism and a reason for hope. The scene near the end of the movie where they were in the seaside town and a beetle arose from the ground and flew away. They kind of stared at it in a trance because they had not seen another living non-human being. This was evidence that all life had not perished as they had believed and that perhaps nature was poised for a rebound. This was an inspiring scene, although short-lived.

The second scene was at the end when the kid met the family who welcomed him in. Here we have a young family who managed to survive all these years without losing their compassion or the ability to care for others. They had no need of resorting to cannibalism for their survival. Here was proof that humanity could possibly survive such a scenario and that perhaps there were other survivors like them out there. Taking these two brief encounters into account, the movie was actually hopeful.

 

[irishScott]

Spoiler

The cannibals didn't do these things for brutal or evil reasons. They did it for survival. The basement was the only place they could keep them where they would be reasonably certain that escape would be impossible. They chopped off a few limbs at a time because they had no preservatives (salt, spices, etc...) They kept them alive as long as possible to keep the meat fresh.

You see, the cannibals no longer saw other humans as humans. They reduced them to the same status as animals. They lost all sense of compassion and, thus, transformed into a type of non-human animal themselves.

Sorry, but no. I hate to be captain obvious, but chopping off limbs without any medical treatment has the effect of killing people. How's your meat going to do in a rotting corpse? Chopping off one limb at a time to "preserve meat" is about as unfathomably stupid as survival strategies get. You kill the person, butcher them, and preserve the meat itself via smoking/salting/whatever.

Likewise keeping your "livestock" in a dark, damp, basement with no sanitation, medical treatment or food is a good way to get your meat diseased. Which can kill you. As I've already explained. Those cannibals would have been dead from their own stupidity long before Viggo and son encountered them (judging by the amount of shit they'd taken off their prey).

That wasn't survival cannibalism, it was stupid cannibalism that they threw in there for shock value. Of no higher quality than that fake (but realistic) Internet video of a guy taking a hatchet to his balls.

 

[BudAshes]

It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I would say that it will be difficult to prove "it's retardation" based solely on the opinions of ATOT members.

Al gore won the nobel peace prize.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I watched it. Tough movie for me to get through. I think the actors did a fantastic job. I was just like WTF for most of the movie...

 

[darkxshade]

Omar lives!


edit: The one thing that I wondered about is the cannibalism... If people can survive an apocalypse, surely fish can as well so I would expect there to be at least some people smart enough to fish for food and that there would be a good amount of people living by the shore for that reason. /shrug

 

[irishScott]

Omar lives!


edit: The one thing that I wondered about is the cannibalism... If people can survive an apocalypse, surely fish can as well so I would expect there to be at least some people smart enough to fish for food and that there would be a good amount of people living by the shore for that reason. /shrug

The theory as I understand it is impact event = dust cloud = reduced sunlight = fucked up food chain all around. That would affect fish populations as well. Humans have been going off residual food supplies, said supplies dwindling = cannibalism.

Frankly I wouldn't mind cannibalism in the movie if it were portrayed realistically, but they just make the cannibals so savagely brutal and actually quite stupid at plying their own trade (see my previous comments about sanitation, diseased meat, and pointless shock-value brutality) that it takes out any value or realism.

 

[darkxshade]

Food chain disruption I understand but the oceans are vast. So much so that I would think it wouldn't be that hard(at the least a better alternative) to harvest fish and breed them.

 

[irishScott]

Food chain disruption I understand but the oceans are vast. So much so that I would think it wouldn't be that hard(at the least a better alternative) to harvest fish and breed them.

And how would you feed the fish?

Generally speaking, fish feed on animal plankton, animal plankton feed on plant plankton, plant plankton feed on sunlight. Kill the plants with reduced sunlight and you kill the fish, and fish don't live that long.

 

[chowderhead]

And how would you feed the fish?

Generally speaking, fish feed on animal plankton, animal plankton feed on plant plankton, plant plankton feed on sunlight. Kill the plants with reduced sunlight and you kill the fish, and fish don't live that long.

the last paragraph in the book

Spoiler

talks about trout in a stream. It could be argued that there is hope in the world and life and humanity is not lost.

Sorry, but no. I hate to be captain obvious, but chopping off limbs without any medical treatment has the effect of killing people. How's your meat going to do in a rotting corpse? Chopping off one limb at a time to "preserve meat" is about as unfathomably stupid as survival strategies get. You kill the person, butcher them, and preserve the meat itself via smoking/salting/whatever.

Likewise keeping your "livestock" in a dark, damp, basement with no sanitation, medical treatment or food is a good way to get your meat diseased. Which can kill you. As I've already explained. Those cannibals would have been dead from their own stupidity long before Viggo and son encountered them (judging by the amount of shit they'd taken off their prey).

That wasn't survival cannibalism, it was stupid cannibalism that they threw in there for shock value. Of no higher quality than that fake (but realistic) Internet video of a guy taking a hatchet to his balls.

they were smoking the bodies I think in the smoke houses in the back. Maybe they chopped off some limbs from the ones that tried to escape or fight back. It's one way to keep others in control. Keeping them in the basement is just as logical when everything is cold/bleak/wet and dying.

 

[qliveur]

OK, I'm going to have to watch this.

The more depressing the movie, the better my life looks.

 

[irishScott]

the last paragraph in the book

Spoiler

talks about trout in a stream. It could be argued that there is hope in the world and life and humanity is not lost.

they were smoking the bodies I think in the smoke houses in the back. Maybe they chopped off some limbs from the ones that tried to escape or fight back. It's one way to keep others in control. Keeping them in the basement is just as logical when everything is cold/bleak/wet and dying.

It's also a good way to ruin your meat. Is keeping others in control worth sacrificing an entire body's worth of sustenance? There are plenty of other ways to do that.

And keeping them in the basement is fine, at least give them a fire and a hole to shit in. Cold, damp and malnourished in close quarters = disease. Disease = ruined or eat-at-your-own-risk meat. Why do you think modern slaughterhouses pump the animals full of antibiotics?

 

[nick1985]

And keeping them in the basement is fine, at least give them a fire and a hole to shit in.

lol