What to Expect from McCarthy's The Road as a Movie

Based on the book by: Cormac McCarthy

Adapted for the screen by: Joe Penhall

Actors:
Viggo Mortensen- "The man"
Charlize Theron- The man's "wife"
Kodi Smit-McPhee- "The boy"
Guy pearce- "The veteran"
Robert Duvall- "Old man"

Most people would be right in saying that Cormac McCarthy is getting Oscar-greedy. With No Country for Old Men, his second novel to become a big-screen adaptation (the first being All the Pretty Horses with Matt Damon), winning the best picture for the 2008 Oscars, it is very possible that his Pulitzer Prize winning The Road is looking for something just as good. The movie was set to be released in mid-November 2008, but was later pushed back to March. However, the mysterious movie has been pushed back to November of 2009. It is hard to say that McCarthy and Penhall didn't have Oscar in their cross-hairs when they pushed back the March date being that it would be a whole year until the 2010 ceremony thus putting the movie out of the "academy's" memory. Inevitably, though, the pictures of Mortensen clad in his derelicte outfit along with shots of the infidels scouring the streets. The book is now adorned with a screenshot from the movie as its new cover.

Speaking of the book, it is well-equipped with McCarthy's relaxed drawl and miniscule mechanics with the paradox being that this novel is anything but relaxed. The Road creates a complex story with a background that creates many unasnwered questions. McCarthy creates a barren landscape that provides no sustenance and an arid landscape much to the likes of a Russian tundra. The two main characters remain nameless throughout the story, save the ambiguous titles of "the man" and "the boy." The thing that should be considered about The Road is that it's not a story about the impending doom of the world, and one might argue that it's not even about the struggle to survive during a post-apacolyptic depression, but instead it is the story of a gritty relationship between father and son. Throughout the novel the reader will find his or herself at the edge of the seat for the subtlest episodes such as finding food, water, or hiding from a group of infidels who play a large part of the book, yet are characters who add to the questions of the background. So far the screenshots are showing promising by focusing on the decadence of the Midwest. The road leads the two men through this midwest toward the southeast where they are looking for warmth and water- which in this case means refuge.

The most heartwrenching part of the novel is the father explaining to the son how to load the gun and shoot it at his head in case something were to happen. The gritty mortality of the book is what caused it to win "The Morning News Tournament of Books" and later the "Pulitzer Prize." It is definitely a novel that mixes post-modernism with a sense of naturalism, and with a cast of characters that seems even too large for the novel, this movie will go far and will definitely be a contender for the "Best Picture" award.