Sunday, July 28, 2013

The depressing, yet inspiring Road


We all swooned and fell in love with Viggo Mortenson in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but you’ve never seen him like this.   In The Road, Viggo plays a wilted father who travels to the coast in the south with his son in 2929, after some kind of end-of-the-world event happens.  We never quite know exactly what happened, but it has devastated the United States at least, and killed most humans, plants, and animals.

I was reading some emergency preparedness articles the other day about how to survive an apocalyptic event that some predict is coming to the earth soon.  There was mention of the movie The Road, and since I had never seen it when it came out in theaters, I finally watched a PG-13 version of this 2009 haunting movie on my computer.

My son had read Cormac McCarthy’s book of the same name and confirmed that the movie is very similar to what’s on the pages, and the depressing grey tones in every frame are true to the dark feeling the author tried to create. 
While the film is certainly depressing, the father and son’s journey is really one of hope.  When everything around you falls apart, the human soul’s natural desire is to hope that it will get better.  Some how.  Some day.  The story is painfully bleak, yet inspiring.

The beloved Robert Duvall makes a brief appearance, as does character actor, turned action hero, Guy Pearce, but it’s Viggo Mortenson’s powerful performance that truly carries the film.  His son is played excellently by Kodi Smit-McPhee and his wife is portrayed by the beautiful Charlize Theron. 

As a Christian, I’m confident the world isn’t going to end any time soon; however, I also believe it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.  Being prepared for any kind of emergency, whether it’s a natural disaster, terrorism, job loss, or city riots is crucial to feeling peace in a world gone crazy.

If you’re into the whole Doomsday Prepper stuff, check out my other son’s new web site where you can build your own custom-made 72 hour kit for bugging out at: www.emergencykitbuild.com

Rated R for disturbing images and horrific content.  You see the rear of Viggo a couple of times as he’s heading into a lake and the ocean, but his son remains modestly covered.  

Grade = A-

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