How Misleading is the Trailer for The Road?
Let's say you've got a violent, bone-bleak survival drama starring Viggo Mortensen. When it comes to cutting a trailer that'll draw an audience for such a film, a little advertising sleight-of-hand is to be expected. But have the Weinsteins gone too far in their attempt to sell The Road?
Esquire hinted at director John Hillcoat's displeasure with the trailer he'd seen, which attempts to turn an intimate, downbeat drama into a Day After Tomorrow-style thrill ride. Now, with that version finally released, you can be the grumbling judge:
As The Playlist notes, that news coverage? That footage of disasters? That explosion at the end of the trailer? Those are things that, oh, aren't actually in the movie.
Now, to be fair, there's more of the film's grim tone in this clip than I might have expected the Weinsteins to include, even if they attempt to buffer it with as many shots they can muster up of Charlize Theron (in a small role that seems much bigger here). Still, I've seen far more misleading ad campaigns from the brothers W -- so many, in fact, that I can watch a trailer like this and think, "Well, it doesn't have the pullquote 'SEXY!' from Peter Travers, so...integrity?" Call me when the one-sheet in the papers is a picture of a smiling, shaven Viggo with his arm wrapped around Charlize, taken in soft focus at Smashbox Studios. Oh, you only think I'm joking.
VERDICT: Where's the tidal wave bearing down on Jake Gyllenhaal?
· Esquire Wasn't Kidding- Trailer For 'The Road' Tries To Sell Us Totally Fairly Different Movie [The Playlist]
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Comments
The effects! The music! The overall tone!
Oh man, if the fucking Weinsteins make the overall film resemble this trailer, I'm not only going to boycott it, I'm going to personally mail bomb Harvey's office. Argh.
All that's missing is the Don La Fontaine voice over ("In a ruined world, one man...") but a fully downbeat, non "adventure-action" trailer might mean general audiences stay away in their droves.
While there's an adrenalized sell here, the actual footage looks like it replicates the grim tone of the book. I don't remember too many road cannibals in Roland Emmerich's movies, although they would've been totally welcome in 10000BC if they ate the entire cast in the opening scene.
I could've done without the Coke Adds Life (Even To An Apocalypse) moment.
The Road is paved with false pretenses.
I work at Smashbox...You are not joking.
I might not know anything, but I have no problem with this trailer. All these complaints sound pretty inside baseball to me. Cut the movie wrong, well you might have a problem. But a trailer that will make people want to see a movie has never been a crime.
If mediocre Oscar wannabe "The Soloist" got bumped by a few months, what does that mean for "The Road" which will roll out nearly a year after its initial release date?
Let the bad buzz continue. A shame.
Yeah, saw a rough cut of it a few weeks ago (absolutely no effects, overall looked bad) and it's nothing like that. There's no mention of whatever it is that happened and definitely no mention that it's set ten years in the future.