Product Details

• Actors: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: May 25, 2010
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (237 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001FB5634
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,633 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Road" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ROAD - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

152 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hard film to like-slight spoilers, March 23, 2010

By 

Val "LOTRMatrixHPLostFreak" (RI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Road (DVD)

Someone asked me if I liked The Road, upon watching it. I had no answer. The Road is just one of those films that is too hard to describe. Is the movie good? Well, yes it is-that is a far easier question to answer. I have read the book and must say that the film really does it justice. It is bleak, dreary, utterly depressing and flawlessly acted.

Viggo Mortensen is a man with no name, who, alone with his son (also no name) is attempting to survive what seems to be some sort of apocalypse. We never see what transpired-we only see the aftermath. We are not given a timeline, though you can judge for yourself how long man and son have been attempting to 'live'. Mortensen carries the entire film on his weathered and weary shoulders. I cannot gush enough about his performance-in any film really. But here, you only have to look into his eyes-so full of soul and despair to realise that not only is this man acting, he is really and truly transformed. Just incredible really.

The atmosphere is grainy and desolate, without color of any kind and as you watch, you slowly go mad envisioning what you would do in such a situation. The film features horrors that include cannibalism and at one point, you see the father teach his son how to properly kill himself if anything should ever happen to him. Very disturbing.

By film's end, you are mentally exhausted. This is not a fast-paced film at all. It is purposefully slow-going and I believe that was done with the intent to transport you inside the film itself, and in my mind, it succeeds. After the credits started to roll, I found myself depressed for the rest of the day. This is probably one of the most desolate films I've ever seen, so I would avoid it if you like your films with satisfying ending-because this isn't it.

151 of 165 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "We're The Good Guys, They're The Bad Guys", November 29, 2009

By 

prisrob "pris," (New England USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

The stark, black and white, post-apocalyptic, world I pictured in my mind while reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' is forever laid out in memory in the film by director, John Hillcoat. The real world after a series, of fires and disasters have destroyed the world we know, and 'The Road' is as visible a film as any I have seen.

Many rumors of this film and how it could never live up to the hype of the novel have been swirling through the Internet. What we have here is a masterpiece of a film. It is a powerful vision of a world ten years after some sort of disaster took over. The scenes were shot in post Katrina, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and what they call the 'Abandoned Pennsylvania Highway'. Into this harrowing world marches a man, played by Viggo Mortensen and his son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, trying to find their way to warmth. The coldness of the world is marked, and we can feel the chill. What they encounter is a horror filled world, one in which a group of cannibals keep a farm of humans with missing limbs in their basement. Gangs of marauders around every corner. We see their day to day existence, filthy as they march along, trying to scrape up food to keep alive. They find a house where a left over can of coke amazes the boy, he has never seen it before, and they gorge themselves with food before marching on once again. The stark reality of their life is measured against the gray world where everything is dying. And in this world, the man is teaching his son about goodness versus evil. What we come to see is that the love of this man for his son is the light that may keep this struggle alive. The absence of a God is evident. The pureness of the son may be the antidote.

Charlize Theron plays the mother in a small part, and she portrays the lack of hope that seems so evident throughout the film. Robert Duvall is the Old Man who conveys bits of wisdom. The son wants to help those who are crying for help, but his father tells him they must move on. They can only trust each other. This film is all about the father and his son. Viggo Mortensen is tremendous in this role, and he plays in every scene. The son is as he should be, watchful, hopeful, luminous at times.

The agony of the life that is left to the father and his son is conveyed with such realism. John Hillcoat has captured the feel and the look of the novel. It was difficult at times to keep watching, but then I had to watch. We all want the man and his son to succeed. They are our hope. "We're the good guys, they're the bad guys" is the message the father is conveying. But deep inside there is the hope that the boy and his father will find more.

Highly Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-29-09

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79 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, Excellent Film, January 2, 2010

By 

Stephen Ashley "Author of Walt Disney World w... (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

I won't repeat the theme as other reviewers have done this. Though this film does take place in a very bleak and hopeless time as others have mentioned, it still projects hope and displays intense, dedicated love. This is much of what makes the movie as good as it is. In a time when there should be no hope, the father and son hold on to each other. They search for something that they have no right to hope in, a place where they can be safe and fed. It may not even exist, yet they take to the road despite the fact that many others have given up. They choose to hope.

The relationship between the father and son was so well acted that it was very believable. Viggo Mortenson played this father determined to protect his son with such a fierce passion and vulnerability that it was mesmerizing. The actor playing the son was just as fantastic. Vulnerable and innocent, with such trust of the father, reacting to the evil in the world, but still wanting to do good. It was moving.

This was a movie that makes you think. It showed that in desperate circumstances, some will give up and choose death, some will choose evil to survive, others will choose to do no harm while surviving, and still others will risk everything to do good despite what they're up against. It was very true to life.

This film was powerful, fascinating and well done, and I recommend it.