‘The Road’: Bleak and Unforgettable
by Carl KozlowskiIt’s the end of the world – and I feel haunted
Imagine that the entire world as you’ve known it has come to an end right before your eyes. Almost everyone has died, or gone crazy scavenging for food, even becoming cannibals in the name of survival. Your beautiful wife, who was the light of your life, left you to wander off in the night and die rather than endure another terrifying day of huddling from the elements and hiding from the human monsters that most everyone else has become.
And now all that’s left is you – and the ten-year-old son whose care has become your entire purpose of your existence. You had a good life once – until just a decade before – with a dignified career, nights at the opera, and joy emanating from every pore of your beautiful spouse. But now it’s all a memory, and a fading one at that. You haven’t been called by your own name in so long that you and your son are only known as Man and Boy.
What then, the universe asks? Do you keep a faith in God, or curse the hopelessness around you? Do you try to maintain the fire of a good soul and pass moral values to your son, or do you let your morals and humanity eventually slip away? If your morals slip away in the middle of nowhere, does anyone notice?
Those are the questions that lie at the root of director John Hillcoat’s profoundly moving adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Road.” Starring Viggo Mortensen in an alternately feral and saintly performance of shattering emotional depth – his are the most haunted eyes I’ve ever seen sustained in a film performance – it is a film that doesn’t shy from some of the most disturbing questions of human existence, yet also guides viewers gently through to a sense of grace and hope that will move, for even days afterward, those brave enough to take the journey.
The film takes place against some of the most shockingly bleak landscapes (actually Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Oregon, and Mt. St. Helens in Washington) one could ever imagine in America, with millions of rotting trees that have collapsed and cities that have been laid to utter waste. The film never explains whether the destruction was wrought by man-made actions such as nuclear warfare (which appears to be the case, due to the fact that Mortensen’s voiceover says that “all the clocks stopped at 1:17 a.m.” and in a flashback to that moment, he sees walls of flame reflecting off the glass of his home) or an environmental catastrophe (a theory bolstered by the fact that at least one more major tree-felling earthquake takes place in the course of the film). No blame is placed on mankind in either case for the moment of destruction; it is left a disturbing mystery, nagging at the back of viewers’ minds but in a way that expands the sense of dislocation and uncertainty.
Following the course taken by many other films about desperate journeys, the Man and Boy are heading in the vaguely defined direction of the ocean. The hope is that there, where the land ends, so does the destruction – that beauty will take over, and the opportunity to float away to a better life in an unravaged corner of the world. Yet this vague sense of hope is also often overwhelmed by the sense of constant fear and isolation they have to contend with along the way, never quite knowing who to trust.
At one moment, they may be running for their lives from a roving band of cannibals that still look like normal, civilized humans. At another, they’re dodging a nasty rainstorm through a shivering night. Yet moments of grace and joy come as well, as when they discover an underground nuclear shelter packed with edible food and warm beds and are able to have a semblance of their former lives for a few days – and yet even then they know it can never last for long.
There are brief, powerful cameos throughout the film, highlighted by Robert Duvall as a man whose eyes are blinded by cataracts and soul is shattered by the loss of his own son, and Charlize Theron as the wife who gradually loses all hope amid a series of flashbacks. They are among the better people that Man and Boy encounter, but the lesser-known Michael K. Williams also has a pivotal role as The Thief, a man who robs Man and Boy and then forms the ultimate ethical challenge for Man in whether to extract revenge or forgive him for his desperate act.
In the end, “The Road” is a modern-day parable about the need to maintain morals even when all sense of morality seems lost. It is about maintaining a fire of righteousness even when surrounded by those who have gone wrong. And it is a film that once seen, will be hard to ever forget.
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162 Comments
"Michael K. Williams also has a pivotal role as The Thief, a man who robs Man and Boy and then forms the ultimate ethical challenge for Man in whether to extract revenge or forgive him for his desperate act."
Or, a third, more practical choice: kill the Theif (or whoever) just because he is a hazard that has to be removed.
Do what needs to be done and move on.
Yet another movie by the vast right conspiracy in support of the Second Amendment . (sarc)
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I have read the book three times and it never fails to move me. The Boy plays a pivotal role in keeping the Man's morals grounded. It is a beautiful and moving story. Looking forward to seeing the movie.
This was one of the best books I've ever read, but it was probably the hardest one to get through. There's a very thin line between civilization and barbarism, and this book shows the most likely outcome of that line being erased.
I'd recommend the book to anyone, but be forewarned that it's emotionally draining. I imagine the film will be the same.
the need to maintain morals even when all sense of morality seems lost.
Yes, I do wonder how many hungry people a decent, loving man will kill to defend his family's larder. I mean, I get it in the imaginary reinforcement of my psyche against such dire decisions, that a man would kill all comers and no one would fault him. Twilight Zone episodes notwithstanding.
Or could one imagine that a man opens his storage to his neighbors that all may share to the last, having a far better, if briefer respite from the Death that finds us all?
On another note, I love me some Viggo, but Humphrey Bogart lived a lifetime of haunted eyes.
I agree. Having read the book (which seems to indicate, but never outright states, that the catastrophe was a nuclear war), I'm curious to see how it has been adapted to film. I just don't know if I want to put myself back in that mindset, though. Yes, there is hope among the ruins (the man and boy are carrying the fire), but the ruins, it must be said, are particularly awful.
It definitely created one of those "haunting moments" that Flannery O'Connor said should be the primary goal of good art.
Disaster, death, secondary kill, struggle to survive. A formula that is followed in life and calamity, the morality kept in reality the death as shown by reality and movies. The passion play of survivial shows not a thin line to those confronted with being lost, but a magnificent mosaic which is given meaning for dead is dead in this realm.
considering the future possibilities one might look at this as a 'training exercise'…
Left unsaid- and perhaps not on the author's radar at the time- not nuclear war but a CME. That's short for Coronal Mass Ejection. Sounds bad, doesn't it?
It is…
Sunspot activity in the years of- yes, you guessed it- 2011-2013 is supposed to be dramatic. The last CME happened in 1859 an dknocked out the telegraph system. That's a Hard Line, folks. We have an electronic grid.
Cells and sattellites. They would be wiped out. The grid would be down for 2 months to 2 YEARS. Considering
it's a 3-5 day production to consumption cycle controlled by supercomputers we are kinda vulnerable.
Can you spell 'Darfur'? The US would be that in 90 days…
Enjoy the film. And please pass the popcorn…
I read the book. FANTASTIC read. I usually don't see films with Mortensen in them, but this one is a have to.
Don't know if I can talk spouse into it tho'.
For those that like this type of story read The Earth Abides. Civilization laid waste to a disease that wipes out 99.9% of humanity and how the few that survive band together and start the rebuilding. The surviving generation lives in the ruins of the cities and hopes to past pn their legacy. The next generation wants nothing to do with the remnants of the former civilization. Except for the Hammer. Love the final passage how as the book's hero dies his last glimpse of the world is his "tribe" fighting over who gets to wield the Hammer. Another great story that Hollywood has somehow missed.
Isn't there something about a possible impending magnetic shift in polarities? Wonder what that'll do to the computers.
"For those that like this type of story read The Earth Abides. Civilization laid waste to a disease that wipes out 99.9% of humanity and how the few that survive band together and start the rebuilding. "
Also known as Stephen King's The Stand…:)
SEE!!! Christians got it right! Mankind is imperfect, sinners, fallible. Man is sin. And in that, is where we start our journey.
But the biggest problem with this film, is, THERE'S NO ZOMBIES!!! Ridiculous!!! Everyone knows post apocalyptic worlds have zombies!!! DUHHHHH!!!!
Well I'm not going to read it NOW…you just gave away the ending!!!
As a father with a young son there is no way I could watch this movie. I would do too much projecting.
If you read today's headlines, it is not too far fetched to see this movie actually coming to pass. The world is like a snowball headed for Hell. We need leaders who put the good of the world ahead of their own desire for power. That certainly is not the current American President.
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Is this movie a precursor to the short term future, after the money has run out, the farms shut down, the industries all gone and the government shown to be a consumer rather than a provider ? Uh oh.
there's that as well. The magnetic field of earth is weakening, and the great galactic shift of 2012 (yep- it's a real issue, not just a bad John Cusack flick) where we are in direct alignment with the sun and the black hole in the center of the milky way- called the dark rift. Much speculation- the film is a take on Edgar Cayce's prohecise of a 30 degree shift in the tectonic plates (that would be bad) but others think a magnetic shift- a new 'North' pole as it were- more likely.
Russian scientists think we are about to 'hitch a ride' on the Milky Way- we are actually in Sirius B; a dwarf constellation on the edge- and the whole sky will change. Not to mention recoding of our DNA but that's a story for a different time…
He was AWESOME in Lord of the Rings but flopped in History of Violence. He is a great actor, so I have hopes for this movie.
And we're the conspiracy theorists? Funny man. Not very smart, but funny.
WOOT! Love me a good post-apocolyptic zombie flick. Zombie novels have taken the bulk of my reading lately.
Ya just neverr know, do you? Better safe than sorry. I think Bruce Willis said it best in The Last Boyscout. "Be prepared, son. That's my motto, be prepared. "
Great book, looking forward to seeing the movie. But I didn't get the impression that the catastrophe was due to a nuclear war, as there was no radiation sickness. It seemed more like it was a meteor strike on the scale of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, or perhaps a massive solar flare that scorched everything.
I might have to pick up this book now (or put it on my Christmas list). Thanks for the review.
The the poster that mentioned "The Stand" – I watch it everytime it comes on. So I know I'll enjoy this movie.
I read the Zombie Survival Guide from Max Brooks, very entertaining read. Then I picked up his follow up World War Z. It was good except for the political shots….
The first Cormac McCarthy book I ever read was All the Pretty Horses. It was the newest at the time. I binged on all his earlier stuff. Then I stopped halfway through Blood Meridian because I just couldn't take it anymore.
I know The Road is a brilliant book. I'm pretty sure I'll never read it, though. When he delves into the barbaric, it's no holds barred. I'm still haunted by my ill-advised immersion a decade and a half ago.
I've read all Cormac McCarthy's books. They all hit you with an emotional punch, but "The Road" by far was the most haunting, disturbing yet hopeful books I've ever read. Viggio Mortensen is perfectly cast in this movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it.
I love those books and am cautiously optimistic about the movie version of World War Z. Bring on the Battle of Yonkers!
Did you see the artwork for that battle?
http://io9.com/5140561/world-war-z-concept-art-ro...
I'm psyched about it too…..
Is this movie about life under Obama care?
Sorry, dcase, that's pretty much entirely bullshit. The Earth's magnetic field is changing, as it does over an entirely predictable cycle of thousands of years. In 2012 it will be as strong as it is now, within the limits of our ability to measure.
"Direct alignment with the sun and the black hole…" — just what does this mean? The Earth's orbit is not aligned with the plane of the Galactic disk, and won't be for millennia. Remember, the Earth circles the Sun once every year — if being on a line between Sol and Sagittarius was a calamity it would happen every summer.
"The dark rift" — a black hole is not a rift. Astronomers don't use the term rift for anything. This sounds like you're getting your science facts from a Godzilla movie.
Edgar Cayce — a psychic fraud who's been dead since 1945. Pure unadulterated bullshit.
"A 30 degree shift in the tectonic plates" — and just how is this supposed to happen? The energy required to shift the entire crust of the Earth would MELT it. No evidence of this ever happening in the geologic record, no mechanism which could plausibly cause it, and no explanation of how it would happen. 100% bullshit.
"Hitch a ride on the Milky Way" — what does that MEAN? Are you just retyping bullshit without even thinking about it?
"Sirius B, a dwarf constellation on the edge" — again, this is utterly meaningless gabble. Sirius B is a star, the dim companion of Sirius. Constellations are patterns in the night sky, they are not actual structures or groupings in space.
This is idiocy, refined and pure. You have thrown together a lot of words which sound impressive but mean absolutely nothing. An actual scientist (not one of those oh-so-vague "Russians" you refer to) would alternate between laughing uproariously at your idiocy and weeping that a person raised and educated in the wealthiest society which has ever existed can be so ignorant of the basic nature of the world he lives in.
You FAIL. Go back to kindergarten and start over, and try to learn something this time.
McCarthy didn't elaborate on the disaster in the book. Whether it was an asteroid or nuclear war doesn't really matter, because it was incidental its central moral theme of the man's struggle to maintain his individual humanity.
The most haunting bit of the book was the man's realization that as the human race was dying, so were the abstractions of the human mind… memories, words, language itself.
The thinking man's "2012."
I second that – archaeology tests artifacts, especially those that were in a fire, for magnetic fields and they learned that the magnetic north wanders, with a cycle of about 8,000 years.
"we're the good guys, and the good guys never give up"
I would have been a HUGE fan of his if he had not come out with his stupid 'no blood for oil' t-shirt. If I had a magic wand, I would have shown him what ACK!tors can do without oil…
Well, I guess that's okay. Just kidding. That looks pretty impressive. I'm still concerned about World War Z being made into a movie rather than a tv series.
Although I haven't read much of the graphic novels, I'm looking forward to AMC's version of The Walking Dead. AMC's track record so far (excluding the abysmal Prisoner remake) has been pretty good.
I'm more concerned with WWZ trying to make some silly political commentary rather than tell what could be a great zombie story…..
And what was up with The Prisoner?? Jim Cavezial is a fine actor, but that series was a mess….
Well said, Trimegistus. I loved dcase's statements about the alignment of the sun and the black hole and the "fact" that our solar system is actually not in the Miky Way but a constellation. My guess is this guy spends a lot of time listening to Art Bell and George Noory.
wow- an ignoramus passing as a genius…
and an insulting one as well. This was just a friendly rejoinder that galactic forces that few understand are at play here. Mostly the solar flares and CME (which you chose to ignore, and was the thrust of the reply) which could very well fry the grid.
As far as the other esoterica, yes the 'dark rift' is not a black hole. Never said that either, smartass.
We are entering the 'dark rift'- it's a 26,000 year cylce where we are in a direct alignment with the galactic center; a massive balck hole- and the sun directly in the middle. Strange things can, and have happened.
'2012' the FILM is based loosely on Cayce. We didn't endorse it. And yes, tectonic shifts of that magnitude have happened before, the Antarctic was once NOT under ice (Piries Reis maps)
and we were once a 'supercontinent' remember? So no (expetive deleted) here, either our foul mouthed friend.
I'm also dreading the inevitable political commentary. Don't preach. Just entertain, if you don't mind. That's what ruins a lot of Romero's films.
That Prisoner remake was ghastly. I have nothing against Caveziel, but he's no Patrick MacGoohan. Sadly, that was just one of many problems with the newest version of The Prisoner.
the constellation is Canus Major. So shoot us…
And what, pray tell, is your crowning achievements, you nattering nabobs of negativism?
This was just a friendly repast inspired by the prophets of doom. Your smamrmy replie(s) were just dive bys.
Don't care much for Art Bell and Noory's program is past our bedtimes. But if you think Caltech and MIT know everything- that 100% of everything can be explained 'scientifically' you are fools.
Or, as Thomas Dolby once sang: 'Blinded me with science'…
I didn't reply to your assertion about flares because that part wasn't pure unadulterated bullshit.
Nice walk-back on the "dark rift" — so now the "dark rift" is a "cycle"? And a 26,000-year cycle, at that. Which means that if it will be "in a direct alignment" in 2012, we are currently 0.02 degrees away from that alignment. Odd that a phenomenon involving a black hole 50,000 light-years away shows no effects when we're a fiftieth of a degree off. Here's some basic geometry: any two points define a line. The Sun is ALWAYS "aligned" with the center of the Galaxy, in the sense that one can draw a line connecting them. The Earth is not on that line now, nor will it be in 2012. So this is, yes, bullshit.
"Tectonic shifts of that magnitude have indeed happened" — yes, OVER THE COURSE OF MILLIONS OF YEARS. The Pangaea supercontinent broke up 250 million years ago. It didn't happen in an afternoon, it was a slow process which is still going on. The continents move about as fast as your fingernails grow.
By the way, you still haven't addressed the question of where the energy to power this sudden shift is supposed to come from. And how come it won't melt the Earth's crust.
And I hate to break it to you but the Piri Re'is map doesn't prove jack about the position of Antarctica, unless you're claiming that Antarctica has moved since the 16th century, which is when that map was drawn. Here's a clue: just because a Turkish admiral drew a map which kinda sorta looks like the coast of Antarctica (if you squint) doesn't actually prove anything about Antarctica.
You still FAIL.
Whatever happened to the Hollywood that wanted to just entertain us, make us forget our troubles and leave the real world behind for the time we were in the movie theater?
I've never read "The Road" because frankly, if I want to be depressed, I can read about Congress. I know the film will probably be a critical darling (just like the book) and will likely be nominated for numerous awards, but I'm unsure just how well it will do in a holiday box office. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, in this time of double-digit unemployment, long-term financial uncertainty, and a government who seems to answer to everyone but the people who elected them, would rather spend two hours looking for the joy still to be found in the season.
(Or, failing that, stop thinking for almost three hours and watch a complete fantasy where a lot of neat CGI stuff blows up or falls over.)
By that reasoning, the Man is a hazard to the cannibals if he tries to help the cannibals' victims (people kept confined in a house basement as "farm animals"), and should likewise be killed. The boy is a hazard by not offering himself or going willingly with the cannibals to become food.
The lack (or dearth) of punctuation was hard for me. I guess it was the author's way of making the text more suggestive of a value-less and anarchistic world. Enjoyed the story despite that.
That takes a LOOOOOOONG time to occur.
I understand your reticence. I cried when I watched the children scatter and hide in Schindler's List.
Don't be so hard on dcase; bad science makes me cringe but it's easier to take than bad public policy sometimes.
Good rebuttals to the various points! I would've thrown in the bit that, since random neutrinos may knock a rung off a DNA strand now and then, or the transcription gets fouled for other reasons, we are having our DNA "re-coded" all the time anyway.
That's a classic, but I liked The Hammer of God better. (Niven and Pournelle?)
That's like saying "Frank Sinatra is also known as Michael Buble".
The Stand was a good read, but the themes between the two books were completely different.
and obama economy
I think that a movie with a message about keeping your morality despite a bleak world's attempt to make you do only what's best for YOU, even if evil acts will help you survive, is a GREAT Holiday movie.
Hard times are coming.
Will you make the stand?
its from global warming – author didnt deal with it cuz he wants to maximize appeal and sales
its the only approved scenario by obozo
ok-
The Dark rift is a band of unprotected space that will expose the black hole to us. The 12/21/2012 thing is the winter solstice WHEN the earth, the sun, and the black hole with it's concomittant gamma radiation CAN or MIGHT cause a major 'event'.
As you have no doubt guessed we are not astrophyicists. You're nasty tone means you aren't one either- but most likely stayed in a Holiday Inn at least once. And Piri Reis map was found- not 'drawn' by the Turkish admiral, and until the US Navy did sounding to find the continent
no one- including the Turks of the 14th century- knew what the continent looked like.
It is accurate, no? We are glad that you didn't hink the solar flares to be not (expletive deleted). How very noble of you.
Jerk…
surely this is a remake of something from America's better days
pre carter/clinton/obama
"The film never explains whether the destruction was wrought by man-made actions such as nuclear warfare (which appears to be the case, due to the fact that Mortensen’s voiceover says that “all the clocks stopped at 1:17 a.m.” and in a flashback to that moment, he sees walls of flame reflecting off the glass of his home) or an environmental catastrophe"
Actually it was caused by 8 years of Obama.
I was distracted at first by the absence of punctuation, but I stopped noticing it after a while. I took it almost as though the author was writing in a stream-of-consciousness style, with the words and ideas coming so quickly that they were written down as one might write in a journal.
It reminded me a bit of Ayn Rand's Anthem, where the word "I" is (intentionally) missing throughout.
thanks for your (we guess) support…
This was meant to be a fun exercise in conjecture; what is described as 'science' is not an absolute, and there are things outside ofour understanding.
Explaining the mysteries of the universe in 200 words or less is never easy. But being rude is never acceptable…
Not at all, because according to Natural law, the Man is Correct, and the Cannibals are not.
There was a lot of talk about ash in the sky, if I'm remembering correctly. That would point to some sort of fall-out issue, but it's unclear whether it's from a nuclear war, a meteor strike, or some large-scale volcano eruption.
I think there's a place for both serious movies and movies where sh*t gets blowed up good. If you limit yourself to one or the other category, you're missing out on a lot of good stuff.
I had no idea about WWZ becoming a movie. Oh goodie gumdrops. Loved Max Brooks' books, but if you want an entertaining read, look up The Morningstar Strain (2 books). No politics, jsut good old-fashioned zombie stuff. Permuted Press (an independent book publisher) hosts alot of good zombie novels. Unfortunately, they are a print-as-you-go book publisher, so no Barnes and Noble, but you can get them on Amazon. Also, Monster Island/Nation/Planet is a decent series as well.
Ever seen The Mist? The ending killed me. I know what you mean.
I have a feeling the book is better than the movie in that respect. Didn't really care for it.
Reminds me a little of "The Postman", in that someone in a post-apocalyptic world carries the torch of civilization. I see a lot of potential in that kind of hero story, and I hope this movie does a better job of it than that awful Costner flick.
"A band of unprotected space" — what does that MEAN? Unprotected from what? Space is a vacuum, how can it be unprotected? Again, are you just writing random sciencey-sounding words?
Try some facts: at the winter solstice the Earth ISN'T "lined up" with the center of the galaxy. The center of the galaxy is in Sagittarius, and in December 2012 the Sun will be in Scorpio, 30 degrees away. In other words, your statement is verifiably WRONG.
And you're right: I'm not an astrophysicist. I don't have to be an astrophysicist to know how wrong the things you're saying are.
As to your idiocy about the Piri Re'is map, it isn't accurate, it was drawn in the 16th century, and it's pretty much guesswork about places no Turkish navigators had ever visited. By sheer coincidence it kinda sorta looks like what the coast of Antarctica was believed to be under the ice — back in the 1960s, anyway. Estimates of Antarctica's shape have changed since then but the crackpots don't like to talk about it because it ruins their spooky "ancient wisdom map."
This is all stuff you should learn in fourth grade, for God's sake! Stop believing every stupid thing you hear on Coast to Coast AM or read on some nutbar's Web site! Learn some REAL SCIENCE. Oh, and when you're in a hole the best course is to stop digging.
That would be "Lucifer's Hammer", IIRC.
I have read the book – and while hope is a major theme, it is supremely bleak and depressing. I won't be seeing the movie either. I have enough real tradgedy in my own backyard (as do a lot of other folks). Please Hollywood- something uplifting! God knows Star Wars came out in the 70's just when we needed it.
That was so over the top. And the dad having to live with that memory…..I liked the movie except for that.
I'm going to check those out right now, can't get enough zombies!!
there is no mass between us and the black hole, that's what is meant. And you are incorrect bout he Piris Reis maps as well…
we could go on but you are really an ass…
I'm really beginning to wonder about Carl's movie reviews. Seems like he likes everything.
As for "The Road", I find it impossible to believe it will be any good, because the book was so horrible. I actually like some of McCarthy's writing, but "The Road" was pretentious drivel. The story went nowhere, it was primarily recycled bits of previous post-apocalyptic stories, it was riddled with plot contrivances (like stumbling on a completely-stocked underground shelter right when it was necessary). But worst of all, the tiresome attempts at 'poetic prose' were off-putting and ridiculous. Spending a page describing the fall of ash on a road doesn't make up for an idiotic, by-the-numbers story about cannibalism and savagery in a post-apocalyptic world.
and, by the way, you speak with a certitude of someone who believes but does not know. The US Navy did do soundings of the Antarctic, there is no 'sorta', and the continent when overlayed on the map is eerily similar.
But that doesn't fit into you pat vision. Listen, minds should be open- as is ours.
Apparently not to know it alls like yourself. Explore this a little. You might actually learn something…
They filmed some of these scenes near my house, on the peninsula at Presque Isle State Park in Pennsylvania. I remember when Viggo Mortenson was in town for the filming a couple years ago. They delayed the release so as not to have to compete with some of the other popular movies released in the last year or so. I'll read the book while I wait for the movie to hit the internet, seeing how I refuse to spend one nickel at the theater's. I look forward to seeing it as well.
If you actually looked at the damned maps instead of retyping what you find on Richard Hoagland's Web site, you'd find that no, they aren't "eerily similar." If you use one particular modern map projection and superimpose the Piri Re'is map (ignoring the pictures of giant parrots in the southern continent) you get a very rough fit — a rough fit which DOESN'T match more recent mapping of Antarctica below the ice.
Dude, we know you're a fool. The only question is how big a fool you are, and every reply just raises the estimate a little.
"Explaining the mysteries of the universe in 200 words or less is never easy. But being rude is never acceptable…"
Scientific hypothesis and theories have been and will always be hotly debated. This is essential to the scientific process and keeps us grounded. as for rudeness, it doesn't happen only in here my friend; you should have seen some of the childish behavior I've seen among some of the archeological presentations I have attended in the past, and this from the doctorates. But yes, there truly is no need for such and it only serves to alienate instead of advance.
I don't limit myself "one or the other category," but this is not the type of movie I or a lot of other people want to see during the Christmas season, especially a Christmas season fraught with all the problems I listed in my original post. If you'd rather exchange "Joy to the World" for a dark and depressing movie about the end of the world, knock yourself out.
OH, and just so you know, you are ALL wrong! The end of the world will come when Zombies overrun civilization!
"Everyone knows post apocalyptic worlds have zombies!!! DUHHHHH!!!! "
Exactly! And they could have at least thrown in a vicious Jackalope or two for good measure.
I recomend them as well. We have many Permuted Press novels in our home library.
Indeed, it was the one thing that keeps me from watching it ever again.
I've got The Morningstar Strain, but I haven't read it yet. Still reading David Wellington's, Monster Nation. It's part of a trilogy: Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet. They're not bad, but I do like Max Brooks' books better.
I freakin KNEW IT!!!
That's good enough for me
There have been several great movies about "keeping your morality" in a bleak world and I've enjoyed most of them. But I won't apologize for thinking–and posting–that a dreadfully depressing post-apocalyptic movie featuring flashbacks of suicide, cannibals, and starvation is not what I want to watch during the holidays.
Seriously, are you a liberal? Does my opinion that this is NOT a good holiday movie somehow invalidate your opinion that it is and hurt your feelings? If you want to see it, fine. Sit long and prosper. But I still have the right to say I don't want to and why.
And as for taking a "stand," since you have no idea what I do in the "real" world, I don't think that's a question you deserve to ask me. But I can tell you I don't have a lot of time to contemplate meaningless rhetoric while I'm doing it, because if I do, I might get myself or someone else hurt.
followed by uncontrolled ravaging hordes of rabid jackalopes.
Same here bro….Even in the most desparate of times I could never envision a scenario where I could take my child's life and then go on living.
I saw it once, now when it's on I change the channel before the ending.
You can mouse over people's avatars or click on their screen names and learn a lot.
You MAY WANT TO AVAIL YOURSELF of this helpful BB feature in the future.
Seriously.
D**n skippy! Exactly! Where are the zombies?!? Every end-of-the-world movie has zombies. Where are the CNN fact-checkers when we need them?
You're right!
"The Hammer of God" was written by Arthur C Clarke.
Thanks for the clarification.
You have to read Patient Zero.
Put Monster Nation down. (It disappointed me.) Patient Zero is very very good.
You will thank me.
They taste like chicken…..
Why is this? Other than for the reason that cannibals are going to get BSE for their trouble, I mean.
My husband and I are picky about our science (he's a theoretical astrophysicist specializing in V&V, computational astrophysics, relativistic hydrodynamics. I'm trained in forensic science.) We like to mock string theorists and ManBearPig. Some of what you posted was cringe-inducing but none of it warrants harshness.
Thanks for the suggestion. While I'm busy making Christmas purchases, I'll pick this up as a gift for myself. Nothing like a nice zombie book for the holidays.
When I asked you if you were a liberal, I was being sarcastic. You may want to "avail yourself " to the definition of the word.
I asked a legitimate question: Why are you so bent out of shape because my opinion doesn't agree with yours? It's a book and a movie, that's all. I personally couldn't care less who likes it or doesn't like it. Why do you feel that everyone must hold the same opinion you do? That's exactly how most liberals act–thus my sarcastic comment.
Oh, and I did click on your avatar before I posted my first reply. It didn't change my mind about the movie–or your comment.
yep- and you just know everything, don't you? Considering the cartography skills of the ancient mariners and possible changes since it was done- some think it was part of the Babylonian library- it could be thousands of years old.
But you know for certain. And you know who Hoagland is as well.
So 'Dude'- you are a jackass. And not a particularly pleasant one, either…
The story is nothing more than the reality of the world that has existed and still remains. It resides in the memory of the humanity within each of us. You and I can be as evil as we desire and as nice as we choose. All the visions you can muster with misery, barbarism, cannibalism, horror, and beyond are all real. To deny them is complete cowardice.
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