The Road
Short description
Based on Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road is set in a United States reduced to a gray, ash-covered wasteland after an unexplained catastrophe. A father and his young son travel toward the warmer south and the coast, pushing a shopping cart that holds their few remaining possessions and hoping to find something more habitable. They must avoid roving bands of survivors who have turned to violence and cannibalism, and the father carries a pistol with which he intends to protect his son from a worse fate. Along the way they encounter other refugees, some hostile and some merely desperate.
John Hillcoat directed the film, his second feature after The Proposition and the second in the chronological run of his features that continues with Lawless and Triple 9. Joe Penhall wrote the screenplay, and Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee play the father and the boy, with Charlize Theron as the mother, Robert Duvall as an old man they meet, Guy Pearce as a veteran, and Molly Parker as a friendly woman.
The film was released in November 2009 and runs 111 minutes. Made for about 25 million dollars, it returned roughly 28 million at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from around 270,000 votes, on TMDB 7 out of 10 from more than 4,400 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.4 from 216 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Charlize Theron, who played the role of the protagonist's wife, admitted in an interview that she agreed to star in the film largely because she really liked Cormac McCarthy's book.
- Most of the film's scenes were shot in Pennsylvania. Filming also took place in Louisiana and Oregon.
- Initially, Brad Pitt was considered for the role of the boy's father, but the actor declined the offer. The role went to Viggo Mortensen.
- This film greatly inspired Naughty Dog in the development of the game The Last of Us.
- The director insisted on removing from the film an episode where cannibals roast a decapitated child's body on a spit.
- At the 92nd minute, it is visible that a father and son are walking along the coast, with the sea on their right. However, according to the main character's map, to walk south the sea should be on their left.
- The film is based on Cormac McCarthy's novel 'The Road' (2006), which earned its author the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
