I’m a fan of the book, which is cheery compared to the rest of McCarthy’s work, but I have a bad feeling about the movie. Being pushed back over a year is never good.
I just read a summary of the book. Why do some people equate grimness with realism? In real-life survival cases, such as mass starvation, where cannibalism has occurred, it’s isolated. There’s a fairly consistent pattern of people choosing to starve, rather than engage in cannibalism. If history tells us anything, cannibalism and human sacrifice are more common as religious rituals, where even then it’s an exception to the rule.
Wilhelm….I know what sound floyd is referring to, but I always thought it was that high-pitched whiny sound that Stormtroopers make every time they fall in a Star Wars movie.
To David Marcoe:
Interesting points, well thought out. The novel begins and ends with people who are refusing to commit cannibalism. But the situation between resembles that in the novel and film “Fires on the Plain,” which was based on real cases of mass cannibalism among Japanese soldiers who were abandoned in Burma and elsewhere, left behind by the retreating Japanese empire. The Japanese novel feels like a post-apocalypse world, the mood resembles that of “The Road.” The heroes of both cling to standards of decency, and refuse to commit cannibalism. (At the end of the novel the hero eats the flesh of a dying man who offers it, in the film he does not.) The Japanese soldiers, told by their government that the loss of the war would be the death of their race and the end of everything, must have felt like temporary survivors in a dead world. Their behavior might be typical of those who have reason to believe that everything they know is dead, over. And there is something cult-like about the cannibal bands in “The Road,” as if the cannibalism in McCarthy’s novel is part of a religious ritual.
The Japanese soldiers, told by their government that the loss of the war would be the death of their race and the end of everything, must have felt like temporary survivors in a dead world. Their behavior might be typical of those who have reason to believe that everything they know is dead, over.
Maybe. Although, one also has to factor in peculiarities of Japanese culture, filtered through the ultra-militarism of the period. One would expect less will to survive and more cases of suicide, particularly considering Japanese traditions. Of course, I’m speculating without all the information, but suspect there’s more to be understood about that situation.
And there is something cult-like about the cannibal bands in “The Road,” as if the cannibalism in McCarthy’s novel is part of a religious ritual.
I guess my one point is this: the whole world is going to become cannibalistic. It presumes that human beings will suddenly quit being human beings and become animala. In a certain sense, the likely result would be both better and worse, as the reasons for people doing horrible things are reasons animals could never understand. Even engaging in cannibalism requires a certain intellectual-moral stance and the crossing of a line an animal would never be capable of.
I guess McCarthy’s book leans too much in one particular direction, although from the sounds of it, it’s quite a bit more positive than the rest of his work.
Sorry, I was working from memory. “Fires on the Plain” and the instances of cannibalism occurred at the island of Leyte in 1944, after the US Navy and Army cut off the Japanese troops from any source of resupply.
I’m a fan of the book, which is cheery compared to the rest of McCarthy’s work, but I have a bad feeling about the movie. Being pushed back over a year is never good.
Well, considering it was pushed back over a year by Harvey Weinstein, it could be a Classic!
Good point
I just read a summary of the book. Why do some people equate grimness with realism? In real-life survival cases, such as mass starvation, where cannibalism has occurred, it’s isolated. There’s a fairly consistent pattern of people choosing to starve, rather than engage in cannibalism. If history tells us anything, cannibalism and human sacrifice are more common as religious rituals, where even then it’s an exception to the rule.
Wilhelm….I know what sound floyd is referring to, but I always thought it was that high-pitched whiny sound that Stormtroopers make every time they fall in a Star Wars movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio
I wonder how many times I’ve heard the Wilhelm scream. I’m pretty sure it’s in every action movie at least once.
It’s a classic sound effect.
To David Marcoe:
Interesting points, well thought out. The novel begins and ends with people who are refusing to commit cannibalism. But the situation between resembles that in the novel and film “Fires on the Plain,” which was based on real cases of mass cannibalism among Japanese soldiers who were abandoned in Burma and elsewhere, left behind by the retreating Japanese empire. The Japanese novel feels like a post-apocalypse world, the mood resembles that of “The Road.” The heroes of both cling to standards of decency, and refuse to commit cannibalism. (At the end of the novel the hero eats the flesh of a dying man who offers it, in the film he does not.) The Japanese soldiers, told by their government that the loss of the war would be the death of their race and the end of everything, must have felt like temporary survivors in a dead world. Their behavior might be typical of those who have reason to believe that everything they know is dead, over. And there is something cult-like about the cannibal bands in “The Road,” as if the cannibalism in McCarthy’s novel is part of a religious ritual.
The Japanese soldiers, told by their government that the loss of the war would be the death of their race and the end of everything, must have felt like temporary survivors in a dead world. Their behavior might be typical of those who have reason to believe that everything they know is dead, over.
Maybe. Although, one also has to factor in peculiarities of Japanese culture, filtered through the ultra-militarism of the period. One would expect less will to survive and more cases of suicide, particularly considering Japanese traditions. Of course, I’m speculating without all the information, but suspect there’s more to be understood about that situation.
And there is something cult-like about the cannibal bands in “The Road,” as if the cannibalism in McCarthy’s novel is part of a religious ritual.
I guess my one point is this: the whole world is going to become cannibalistic. It presumes that human beings will suddenly quit being human beings and become animala. In a certain sense, the likely result would be both better and worse, as the reasons for people doing horrible things are reasons animals could never understand. Even engaging in cannibalism requires a certain intellectual-moral stance and the crossing of a line an animal would never be capable of.
I guess McCarthy’s book leans too much in one particular direction, although from the sounds of it, it’s quite a bit more positive than the rest of his work.
Sorry, I was working from memory. “Fires on the Plain” and the instances of cannibalism occurred at the island of Leyte in 1944, after the US Navy and Army cut off the Japanese troops from any source of resupply.
correction: isn’t going to become