The Road

I finally saw the movie The Road recently. It offers a profoundly disturbing depiction of a post-apocalypse world in which scarcely any living thing has survived other than humans, and even though many humans have died either by starvation or suicide, others try to continue to survive, whether by scavenging for any food they can find, or by turning to cannibalism.

Perhaps what is most disturbing for the typical viewer is that scarcity has reduced life in the United States to a horrific struggle merely to find food, and to evade those who would at least rob you and more likely eat you. It is a situation that turns even those who want to be “good guys” into people who do horrendous things to other human beings. And the reason this is so disturbing is because it situates in a fictional future North America something that is a reality in some places today. Food doesn’t grow, people starve, and pain is a daily reality.

In my opinion, what is most disturbing is not this vision of the future itself, nor the reality that our societies have created weapons that could leave the world in a state like the one the film depicts, nor the fact that nature is ultimately beyond our control and could wipe us out or leave us barely surviving where once we thrived. What is most disturbing is that aspects of the future the movie envisages are already part of life for many human beings, and those of us who are wealthy compared to most of humankind (that includes most people reading this blog) are doing just what the “bad guys” in the movie do: survive while others starve, or even take their lives or livelihood as part of our attempt to ensure our own survival, if not indeed prosperity.

If you watch it, you’ll be horrified, but in a challenging way. It asks us to ponder what we’ll do to avoid ruining our world and our future. It asks us to ponder who we’d become if we lived in such a world. And it may even force us to realize that the questions it raises are relevant to the present and not merely an imaginary future, and may challenge us to act to change the world we live in.

There’s more that could be said. It has many similarities to the world depicted in The Book of Eli. And like The Book of Eli and arguably all science fiction, it is not devoid of religious themes, topics, and symbols.