The Road is the film adaptation of the Pulitzer winning novel written by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote No Country For Old Men and All The Pretty Horses.  Our fascination with what a post-apocalyptic world might be like has been fodder for countless books, television shows, and movies. When I was in college, I was required to read George R. Stewart’s novel Earth Abides. Excruciatingly detailed, the book gave me anxiety attacks for months, as it told the story of a grad student looking for other people who may have survived a plague that wipes out the entire population.

As he traverses the land, the minute changes that he observes in the landscape and appearance of the United States are painstakingly recorded. More recently, The History Channel presented Life After People, which depicts what changes would occur to the earth’s ecological systems and the infrastructure we leave in our wake. Quite frankly, this type of topic scares the crap out of me.

Now we have The Road, which is the harrowing story of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and son (Kodi-Smit McPhee) trying to make their way across the country by foot after some unidentified event has wiped out most of mankind. The wife (Charlize Theron) is shown only in flashbacks. The threat of a harsh winter that they most certainly won’t survive serves as the impetus for their journey southward.  There is a vague possibility of finding other people, but it is based on faith and hope, rather than concrete knowledge of their existence.

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In spite of its rather depressing subject matter and its bleak outlook on most of humanity, The Road manages to be an insightful, relevant, entertaining and important film which will not only hook you from the opening moments but will cause you to do something that most movies released these days do not: Think. Based on the Cormac McCarthy best selling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel, adapted by Joe Penhall and directed by John Hillcoat, the film follows the journey of a father and son making their way to supposed safety in “The South” after an unknown disaster destroys most of humanity and reduces the world to snow and ash covered ruin.

Along the way the father and son encounter the worst of society reduced to ruin and come to realize that they may never reach safety and that that safety may, in fact, not even exist. The dynamic between the father and son is meticulously explored with both Viggo Moretnsen and relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee giving standout performances. Mortensen is brilliant and physically transformed to inhabit his role and Smit-McPee takes what could have been a two dimensional role and infuses it with depth and courage well beyond his years. Looking at him as he progresses and his character evolves before your eyes, you experience what this journey must be like for him and how his relationship with his father changes during the course of it.

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Once again we visit the post-apocalyptic wasteland of director John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning best-seller The Road — in the form of a new trailer courtesy of Dimension Films. Previously, we brought you the first trailer for this movie, which showed more of an overview of what happened and sets up the journey a bit.

This one features more of the relationship between the father (Viggo Mortensen) and the son (Kodi Smitt McPhee) and delves a bit more into the perilous journey they are on after civilization is virtually wiped out. If you’re not familiar with the novel of the movie, this trailer should help you realize what kind of movie this is and, more importantly, why you should consider seeing it — regardless of its potentially disturbing and “downer” themes.

Be sure to check back as the film gets closer to release for a full review of The Road. In the meantime, take a look at this new trailer after the jump. The Road, directed by John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit McPhee, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce, opens everywhere on November 25th.

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