comment #1

Aris P says ...

No such prologue in the book. The book won a pulitzer without a bullshit CNN-opening.

comment #2

Noah Redfield says ...

I'm keeping an open mind because I loved Hillcoat's last film, The Proposition. You can never judge a film based on the trailer no matter how lousy it looks (see In Bruges).

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

What a terrible trailer. MEGA SHARK VS. NOMAD CANNIBALS.

comment #4

Strictly From Hunger says ...

I'm just glad this thing finally has a release date.

Assuming they don't push it back again.

comment #5

Jonah says ...

Exactly what makes this trailer look bad? Because it has some differences from the book? Well, we all know that the only great movies adapted from books never strayed an inch from the source material.

comment #6

Gordon27 says ...

I didn't know Robert Duvall was in this. And I didn't see him in the trailer. But I did see OMAR!

I think that's a cool trailer, until it gets all Woosh-y and loud.

comment #7

hunterd says ...

anyone else catch the wilhelm scream right before the 2 minute mark?

comment #8

Markj74 says ...

Weinstein allegedly added the shitty CNN footage at the start.

Terribly generic trailer but the actual footage looks terrific. Looking forward to it.

One can only wonder what horrors Hillcoat has endured at the hands of the Weinsteins over the past year.

comment #9

JD says ...

Jonah, I haven't read the book and I still think the trailer looks shitty. Of course, this can be largely chalked-up to the gratingly conventional use of music and sound effects throughout, but the trailer shows no evidence of real visual imagination or observational precision/insight. We've seen everything in this trailer dozens of times before. It could just be that the Weinsteins are covering up the film's strengths to emphasize its commercial viability, but given their track record, it seems quite possible that this interference could extend into the movie itself.

comment #10

Rich S. says ...

I'm still astonished this film got made, and with the perfect director for it. I think they have to push the "I Am Legend" angle, even though the book, and since Hillcoat's directing I'm assuming the movie, is nothing like that. If they accurately captured the mood of the book in the trailer, believe me, no one except those who read the book would go.

If the Weinsteins did recut this thing, it makes me wonder why they ever made it into a film in the first place, and employed Hillcoat to do it. It's not Omega Man. Why try to make it so?

comment #11

Howlingman says ...

"If the Weinsteins did recut this thing, it makes me wonder why they ever made it into a film in the first place, and employed Hillcoat to do it. It's not Omega Man. Why try to make it so?"

It's all about that opening weekend - who cares if you're selling the public something different from what they're actually getting, as long as you get their butts in seats?

Looking forward to it. Loved THE PROPOSITION.

comment #12

AtticusRex says ...

I guess I need to re-read the book again, I don't remember Charlize's character being in it or if she was only for a moment and not as much as the trailer implies.

Other parts seemed right though.

But it sounded like they strayed from McCarthy's unusual and wonderful way with dialog. No Country by the Coens kept that.

comment #13

Ray says ...

This is a terrible trailer that only slightly resembles its source material. And that source material is one of my favorite novels of all time.

So I'm kinda pissed.

http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/specials/yet-another-hollywood-fuck-up.php

comment #14

kneelbeforezod says ...

It is indeed an awful trailer but I'm holding out hope that it's just the work of some marketing hacks, and that the actual film is nothing like that in tone. Because the book certainly wasn't. This sums it up nicely:

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2009/05/esquire-wasnt-kidding-trailer-for-road.html

comment #15

Glenn Kenny says ...

I saw a cut of this in...January, was it?...and no, it didn't have any of that fake CNN stuff in it. I hope it's exclusive to the trailer, which is a very poor representation of the film. The film itself is one of the most relentless and relentlessly bleak things I've ever seen. Incredibly potent. Really ballsy.

And when those responsible for letting me see it asked what I thought, I TOLD them to bring it to Cannes. But nobody ever listens to me...snurfle...

comment #16

actionman says ...

The film itself is one of the most relentless and relentlessly bleak things I've ever seen. Incredibly potent. Really ballsy.

Awesome to hear, Glenn.

The first 20 seconds of the trailer suck...the rest if spot on.

The Proposition is a PERFECT movie.

comment #17

actionman says ...

The first 20 seconds of the trailer suck...the rest *if* spot on.

*is*

comment #18

byanyother says ...

Yeah I didn't mind the CNN footage. The Road is one of the best things I've ever read. I can't see the movie being as good as a representation of the book. I hope that it is something in its own right, which is why I don't mind the CNN stuff.

comment #19

Chase Kahn says ...

Boy that is a horribly mediocre trailer. Blah music, the editing plays it up as almost a Road Warrior-like apocalyptic scrum with tons of aciton -- even the title art looks bad.

I'm still not off the bandwagon yet because there are just too many positive things I've been hearing about it -- it's just a bad trailer.

comment #20

Sabina E says ...

Trailer looks alright, but not too amazing. But Cormac McCarthy's books are very good (although I haven't read The Road), so I'm sure this is probably a good movie.

comment #21

Ryansi51 says ...

the book is still stuck in my bones, months on.

i don't think we should get too carried away with the trailer, in the esquire article i think they mention that prologue being snipped.

Glenn that's the best news i've heard all day.. makes sense, talk about a tough movie to market.

comment #22

arch451 says ...

Hunterd: That is not the Wilhelm scream, although I do recognize it and it has been used elsewhere. I do not know the original source for this particular sound effect, but it was used in the Starcraft game.

comment #23

crazyeight says ...

I don't remember where I read it, but someone hit the nail on the head: this trailer looks like one of those fake-out trailers folks were doing the last couple of years. You know, the ones making "The Shining" into a family comedy, "Patch Adams" into (more of) a horror film, etc.

I have faith that the movie could be outstanding-- the footage looks great-- but that trailer hit nearly ALL the wrong notes.

I'll say that anyone who sees this trailer and wants to see "The Road" because of this trailer is someone who almost certainly will *not enjoy the movie*. With this trailer, Wells can finally make the "low rent audience" argument and not come off as an elitist prick.

Oh, and as for Charlize Theron-- the interlude with the wife is maybe three or four pages in the book *at most*, but they're devastating pages, if only because you get (SPOILERS) the sense of utter surrender and despair in how a child's mother can no longer care at all, not even about her own son. Plus, you also get the only hint in the entire book about what happened to cause all of this, with The Man watching the sky light up outside his window.

(As an aside, I'm 99% onboard with the asteroid hypothesis-- it's the only thing that makes sense given that description AND the fact that there's no radiation. Giant volcanos could have the same worldwide effect, but it's not like you're going to see what The Man saw out the window).

Anyway, while there was a lot of Charlize Theron in the trailer, it all looks like it came from the same scene, which could just be a longer version of the only scene with the wife in the book.

Who here has seen the film already, and can confirm how big a role Theron has here?

comment #24

Bob Violence says ...

No offense, people, but the news report stuff is mentioned in the Esquire writeup:

For someone who loves the book, for anyone who knows the story going in, this is a moment you hoped would never come. Why remind us of the reductive logic of cause and effect? Before the question can be asked, Weinstein stands up, offers his hand, and says, "Okay, we're going with the first one." He gives no rationale. And so it seems the metonymic references to the national news, to the weather, to presumed military conflicts laid in as a tonally quiet explanation of what is never known in book or movie, for now will stay in the trailer.

Fingers crossed it stays that way

comment #25

Bob Violence says ...

Sorry, left out the preceding context:

When Bob Weinstein rolls those trailers, each one assumes the predictable arc of a story compressed to its essence. There is a speed to them that the actual movie - which I saw before seeing the trailers - does not possess or seek to possess, an urgency that feels manufactured...The odd thing is, the start of each trailer includes glimpses of a storm, panicky news footage, little puzzle pieces of the world before it ended. No one - not the director or the myriad producers, not the novelist or the screenwriter - had ever even hinted at how it happened, until this.

comment #26

erniesouchak says ...

Terrible trailer, but honestly, if the movie is true to the book, a trailer in line with that would bring NO ONE to theaters. The story is a truly relentless downer.

comment #27

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

The book was promoted heavily by Oprah Winfrey, so I wouldn't be surprised if this did decent business. Not blockbuster numbers, but considering the lack of star salaries and whatnot I'm sure it'll make its money back. An Oscar push could see it doing very well indeed.

comment #28

Jeremy Fassler says ...

This has one of the best scripts I've ever read, and I'm not kidding. It made me feel all the same emotions that the book did. That said, the trailer is not good because it turns it into a generic action movie, which I swear after reading the script I didn't feel. I'm going to ignore this trailer and go by my reaction to the script.

comment #29

frankbooth says ...

I've read the comments and now I'm afraid to watch this. Maybe I'll just hold out.

comment #30

Gaydos says ...

Where does this piece fit into the canon of missives about embargoes broken and respected?

comment #31

vulgar71 says ...

I don't much like the trailer--especially the opening bit--but according to the Esquire article the actual movie is true to the book and not like the trailer implies (i.e., "action action all time!"). I'm still very excited to see it despite the lame trailer.

comment #32

Aladdin Sane says ...

I hate the trailer, but cos it's Hillcoat, I'm giving the film the benefit of the doubt. I love The Proposition.
I can understand having the mother character via flashbacks etc - although the trailer leads me to believe that she's more of a ghost.
I am going to start re-reading the book on my flight to LA tonight. I can't wait for October. If all we got in October is this and the Toy Story re-releases, then it's already the best month ever.

comment #33

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

RE: Harvey not running this at Cannes.

Perhaps because he knew he would be spending all of his time either dealing with Tarantino's film or looking for cheap pickups that he desperately needs.

comment #34

COCO says ...

The trailer is fair, but for the everyday Joes.

This film feels right concerning production crew
and the actors involved. Will see it first chance
I get. Until then the haunting vibes continue from the book.

comment #35

irvingberlinalexanderputz says ...

Cormac can sure set a mood, and the dialogue is great, but it's sure irritating to read his stuff.
Run-on sentences and not putting dialogue in quotes does not make a 'style', it's just bad writing.

comment #36

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

"Plus, you also get the only hint in the entire book about what happened to cause all of this, with The Man watching the sky light up outside his window.

(As an aside, I'm 99% onboard with the asteroid hypothesis-- it's the only thing that makes sense given that description AND the fact that there's no radiation. Giant volcanos could have the same worldwide effect, but it's not like you're going to see what The Man saw out the window)."

Also, in the book, there's that scene where The Man and The Son are walking down that freeway near the city, and they come across rows -- miles long, IIRC -- of burned-out cars with skeletons sitting in them. I think the novel mentions that they were sitting in them at the moment of destruction, whether it's thermonuclear or something else.

Still eagerly looking forward to this fucker come October, though the Weinsteins both can go walk across a live minefield, thanks to the first 22 seconds of this trailer.

comment #37

lipranzer says ...

Having read that Esquire article, I was prepared for the trailer to be bad, and it was (although I am glad Michael K. Williams was in there for a couple of seconds). Still looking forward to the movie, as yet another fan of THE PROPOSITION.