As I made my morning rounds today, going from website to website, seeing what the news was so far today, I saw that everybody has posted about the first trailer for The Road, John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's haunting book, and basically everybody had mentioned the same thing - that, if the film remains mostly true to the book, the trailer has to be a manipulative edit, selling the film as a big apocalyptic thrill-ride when it's really played much closer to the vest than that. And too much Charlize! (Her character is barely in the book.)
I'm not gonna argue with either point; I just think we can agree that's the practical route to go when you're selling a film as magnificently bleak as this one. But I went into watching the trailer with these voices in my head, expecting to be sort of annoyed, and instead what I found was this horror, this recognition, seeping into my bones. I've made no secret of the fact that McCarthy's book fucked me up pretty bad, as it has many people I've talked to, and there are moments in this trailer that brought all that stuff back. This movie's... well this movie's gonna fuck me up pretty bad, I think.
I'm not gonna argue with either point; I just think we can agree that's the practical route to go when you're selling a film as magnificently bleak as this one. But I went into watching the trailer with these voices in my head, expecting to be sort of annoyed, and instead what I found was this horror, this recognition, seeping into my bones. I've made no secret of the fact that McCarthy's book fucked me up pretty bad, as it has many people I've talked to, and there are moments in this trailer that brought all that stuff back. This movie's... well this movie's gonna fuck me up pretty bad, I think.
Anyway, I did my usual and took too many screen-caps.
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3 comments:
regardless, visually stunning in every frame these are.
I read this book several years ago, and was very moved by it. That said, I do not think I will be seeing the film. The images in my head will never, ever match what it is shown on the screen.
So it appears that the film is being sold as ACTION ACTION ACTION, which means that either:
a) the film is ACTION ACTION ACTION, which isn't what the book was about to me AT ALL
or
b) the film keeps true to the book and the trailer is appealing to a bunch of people who will be very disappointed when they see the film.
I will still see the film, mainly because I believe the book would be incredibly hard to adapt and I wish to see whether or not they succeed. Plus, there are numerous Aussies involved (John Hillcot, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Guy Pearce).
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