Am I the only person who read this book, thought it was absolutely incredible, and who never wants anything whatsoever to do with it ever again?
It’s a testament to how well written it is that I was so thoroughly disturbed by it, and I don’t feel the need to experience it again.
I saw a glimpse of a map in the trailer and it seemed to confirm my perception that their journey took them from somewhere around Chatanooga across northern Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean.
I really don’t understand why you would make a film adaptation of that particular novel nor why anyone who enjoyed reading the novel would get anything more from seeing a film of proceedings.
What made you think it was in Chattanooga? It’s obvious in the book that they start their journey somewhere west of the Appalachains in the Midsouth, and I read pretty closely to see if the location could be narrowed down any further, but neither I nor a friend who read it around the same time ever found anything indicating a specific state, let alone Chattanooga, which we both live outside of.
Because it’s popular, and because we enjoyed it? I love both dystopias and character studies, and would be similarly excited for modern adaptations of 1984 and Alas Babylon.
Didn’t they pass one of the massive “SEE ROCK CITY” signs painted on a barn somewhere?
I think people are misremembering the mother’s role in the book. She’s in several flashbacks–none of which are by themselves substantial, but add on some interesting psychological backstory and which will be essential to the film. I’m willing to bet that Theron, though billed prominently (and shown frequently in the trailer), is not in much of the movie itself and is only on display as much as she is for her name recognition.
Crap. Now that I did some research it seems there’s still 70 of these barns scattered throughout the south advertising Lookout Mountain.
Yeah, the barn is what made me realize he was somewhere in or near Appalachia, but they’re pretty widely dispersed. For what it’s worth, my hunch is that they were in the Tri-Cities region near the Tennessee-Virginia border. I recall them talking about “the gap”, which I took to mean the Cumberland Gap in that area.
I don’t remember anything in the book particularly identifying any characters as hillbillies (though I can see how a reader influenced by Hollywood stereotypes might have perceived them that way). Been a while since I read the book, though, so I might be mis-remembering.
Either way, I get annoyed with the evil hillbilly stock character. It’s just lazy writing.
My dad’s family is from the mountains of Western North Carolina, and he’s from a tiny town of hundreds in the mountains of East Tennessee, so I’m familiar with them, and neither the book nor the trailer had any characters I would call a hillbilly.
The glimpses we saw of roving bandits and, if I remember correctly, the house of cannibals in the trailer are straight from the book.
To be fair, after enought time in a postapocalyptic wilderness, *everyone *ends up looking like an evil hillbilly.
Incidentally - did anyone see any green in the trailer? One reason I found the story so horrifying is that there was nothingn nothing left alive but the people; a single living blade of grass would have changed the entire tone of the book. I need to know if that was carried on to the movie.
Strike that. What I meant to say and tried to edit is that I didn’t see any “Hollywood hillbillies”. However, by being rural mountain dwellers in Applachia, they’re real hillbillies by default.
Stupid five minute rule.
Which is what, exactly? Hillbilly only means a rural mountain dweller, and living in a large city near the foothills of Appalachia, I encounter a fair number of them, but none wear overalls and straw hats. This is what I assume spoke- is annoyed by.
By “evil hillbillies” I refer to the stereotype most notably propagated in Deliverance, and used as a crutch by lazy screenwriters ever since. The grimy, ballcap-wearing, coveralls-or-overalls-wearing, menacing hillbilly looking to do violence to hapless outsiders.
And yes, the trailer features a standard-issue of the type:
Again, I don’t recall anything from the book that particularly identifies this character as an Evil Hillbilly[sup]TM[/sup], but the movie jumps right to the archetype.
Lazy writing.
You know, classic Hollywood hillbilly: bearded, unkempt, flannel-clad. Basically what all us white guys would look like if civilization collapsed.
I did see a patch of green grass in the trailer. It was jarring, like you say, because of the lack of green in the book.
About the “hillbilly”, I know it’s not fair to judge before seeing the whole movie, but that’s the vibe I got too, from Dillahunt’s character. (He used his Jack McCall accent.) Some people will see that and think “No surprise there – those folks from Appalachia turn cannibal when the grocery store closes early.”
While I have absolutely no interest in seeing this film–reading the book was jarring enough for me once, I don’t need to see it enacted before me unless some really excellent reviews start coming in–I found it interesting that a large part of the filming took place in Pennsylvania because of how abandoned and run-down it looked. Apparently they also filmed in parts of Louisiana that were beaten badly by Hurricane Katrina.
Times article about Viggo Mortenson and the apparently brilliant child actor, Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Not the only one. I loved the book but I will not be seeing the movie.
Though, FWIW, the mother’s impact on their little family was absolutely critical to the story and I would be really disappointed if the filmmakers thought “Oh, she’s just in a few pages, she’s not important.”