‘The Road’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLgszfXTAY) is a difficult film. Difficult to watch and fearful to contemplate. After my single viewing, I arrived at the conventional interpretation: an american post apocalypse. But, this is wrong. A more careful 'reading' of the film shows that the film is not so much, post apocalypse, but ‘apocalypse now’! Consider: there is no pre-apocalyptic world depicted and there is no reason given for the apocalypse that is shown and the whole world, as suggested by the father when asked by his son if there was something different on the other side of the ocean, is as it is in the story before the viewer.
The Road is now. What blinds most of us from seeing it is our cupidity. Our homeless are on The Road now. Our sick without insurance are on The Road now. Those from foreign lands who come to amerika to seek out jobs on the bottom rungs of employment are on The Road now. Our long-term unemployed will soon be on The Road.
The most striking metaphor in the film is the mansion that the father and son happen upon. That mansion is the myth of amerika. The cellar is the reality!
We are dupes of dopes. We are led by fools. The Road shows where that leadership leads. The Road also shows us what happens when we tire of that leadership and put it down like a rabid dog. The Road shows us the ending of the myth of amerikan civilization. And, to that end, The Road is a parable of justice. What a tough justice it is. But then, who said justice would be a sunny day at the beach? Unironically, The Road gives resonance to our next ‘great leader’, sarah pallin’s, remark: “We eat therefore we hunt.”
bon appétit!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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