The Road Dystopian

Introductory slide:

“The Road” directed by John Hillcoat is a post-apocalyptic dystopian style movie. It features a man and his child travelling south along the coast to reach a more hospitable area. To reach the south however they must face the ravaged lands riddled with cannibalistic gangs and endure the weather. The cause of the cataclysmic event that ruined the world as we know it, it not shown to us. “The Road” falls under the post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction genre, this means that something terrible has happened to the world and the human race has not been able to fully recover, and in this instance the humans has resorted to going against basic human morals to survive.

Slide One:

The setting in which “The Road” in displayed, is one

At first we see the man give the boy a can of soft drink and we just glance over it, but in a post-apocalyptic world this could change this boy’s week. It symbolizes that in the world where everything is gone and is an artefact of a former civilization. Next we see a ruined ship on a suburban road. To just see how abandoned this world has been left, this still frame is in a grey-green tint. This represent the darkness of the world that is now left without hope, without decency, and without kindness. However, in the third photo we see the man holding a flame, lighting his face. This symbolizes how in this world without hope, in contrast to the previous photo, there is a hope and a fire in their heart to guide them through this shattered society. Lastly, we see a photo of the dehumanisation of society throughout the time since the event. The cannibals are hunting in gangs symbolizing the end of society and what the world has now

You see citizens living in a dehumanized state amidst marred and downtrodden societies basically living off the scraps they can scavenge, this is all based on a society worse than the reader lives in. these points so far already are used to capture the reader’s attention and create a contrast in their mind. We see the trailer attacking the characters creature comforts; through being hunted and surviving out in the wild. There is a ‘herd’ mentality rather than individualism. You see this in many of the gangs and bands of survivors because it is the way that they stay alive, through safety of others. The protagonist is considered a leader and is intelligent, resourceful, and courageous. The trailer seems to address the issue that if earth is ever to take a turn for the worst and suffer a major disaster, that this would be most likely to happen, where people will band together to survive, whether it be by hunting others or by travelling across the