Word: man
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Hillcoat does make one important addition to the story: flashbacks to what life was like when the Woman (Charlize Theron) was still alive. They weren't good times--the world was well on the way to environmental ruin--but at least the Man still had a partner. Theron's presence may be a nod to producers who wanted a female star in the picture, but it's not entirely successful in terms of adhering to McCarthy's intent. Theron is graceful as always, but meeting the Woman only makes her absence more troubling and alters our relationship with the Man...
...instance, when the Man tosses his last picture of the Woman into a gully, a gesture meant to banish dangerous sentimentality and show his commitment to inhabiting the new world, it seems cruel and pointless: cruel because the Boy is entitled to an image of his mother, pointless because every time the Man looks at the Boy's face, he must see her reflection--Smit-McPhee looks so uncannily like Theron that it's impossible to forget her. (The Boy also wears her cast-off hat for virtually the whole movie, playing up the resemblance...
...book engages with moral arguments about protection and survival: What if everything we believed in vanished, leaving love to stand naked on its own--would that be enough? McCarthy's writing has always been a manly affair, so it made sense that he reduced his world to father and son, with the Man emerging heroic. Here, when the Man speaks of carrying "the fire," i.e., the conviction of humanity, it rings more hollow, even though Mortensen grapples well with the potential corniness of that line (he gives a somber, deeply affecting performance). The wasteland that surrounds them...
...worshippers stream out of Mardini's mosque, one man finds a package at the door. It is a hardbound Koran, in English, and it has been defaced with silver spray paint. Folded inside is a sheet of paper, bearing a message written in childish capitals: "Islam is a disease. Muslim immigrants are the virus ... Every Muslim should be kicked...
...will become man and man...