Friday, February 5, 2010

THE ROAD

I just saw "The Road" with Viggo Mortenson, and it's one of the most moving films I've witnessed in years... I was similarly moved by the Coen Brothers adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country For Old Men" a few years ago...

McCarthy seems to capture the intense longing we carry within us for redemption (Romans 8) like very few authors out there...

In The Road, Director John Hillcoat, takes another McCarthy novel and paints a gripping picture of a world devastated by some kind of apocalypse, and a father who will go to almost any length to protect the son he dearly loves...

Aside from Romans 8, where Paul indicates that "all creation groans" and "we ourselves grown inwardly," the other passage that came to mind as I contemplated the bleak landscape of The Road was what Jesus said in Matthew 24:22 (ESV), "...and if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."

In the desperate landscape described in the book and depicted in the film, both McCarthy and Hillcoat want us to feel the desperation of a world where many have lost all hope and resorted to the type of behavior described in Romans 1... Hence the troubling depictions of slavery and cannibalism...

The world depicted in the film is depraved and desperate... But at the same time, hope is still alive... Faith still remains...

Sometimes, only a flicker is left... Like the fading hope that is barely burning in the heart of an an old man whose eyesight has faded... (Old Man played by Robert Duvall)

Faith and hope remain in the heart of "the Man." The following statements from the Man are profound and poignant:

"If I were God, I would have made the world just so and no different. And so I have you... I have you." (The Man's reflection on his son...)

Or, how about this statement from "the Man?" "Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. "

Wow!

But make no mistake about it, faith, hope and love beat most powerfully and profoundly in the heart of "the Boy."

Again, perhaps McCarthy and Hillcoat are reminding us of the words of Jesus, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." ~ (Matthew 18:3)

The film is about "keeping the fire within" even when the world does everything possible to rob you of your humanity and violently rip all faith, hope and love from you...

Michael Chabon, in The New York Times book review of The Road, describes the fire like this: "...that life will not always be thus; that it will improve, that beauty and purpose, sunlight and green plenty will return; in short that everything is going to be okay, a word which both characters endlessly repeat to each other, touching it compulsively like a sore place or a missing tooth. They are carrying the fire through a world destroyed by fire, and therefore—a leap of logic or faith that by the time the novel opens has become almost insurmountable for both of them—the boy must struggle on, so that he can be present at, or somehow contribute to, the eventual rebirth of the world..."

I think Chabon has nailed it.

As the film closed, I found myself sitting speechless in an almost empty theater, quietly crying... Silently praying... Longing for God to set this whole messed up world right...

But I also felt hope... Hope...that even when it appears that all is lost, God is still present. He is still watching... And, "You need to keep going. You don't know what might be down the road."

The film has received mixed reviews... Rotten Tomatoes brought it in at 76%... Christianity Today gave the film 4 Stars. You can read their review by clicking here.

Keep in mind the film is Rated "R" for a reason. Some will find the content of the film rather troubling..

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