Director of “The Road” Talks About Cut Scenes

If you went to see the big-screen adaptation of “The Road” this weekend and have read the book, you may have noticed a couple of scenes missing from the book.

One particular missing scene involves a graphic image of a baby being roasted over a fire by cannibals.  Director John Hillcoat tells io9 that while the scene works in the book, he felt it was something better left on the cutting room floor when it came to the big-screen version.

“it all works in the book because it’s in your head, when you visualize some of this stuff it just becomes too much. And it was overkill,” Hillcoat says. “Luckily, Cormac [McCarhty] himself, he really understands how film works as a medium, how different it is. He didn’t miss anything from the book other than four lines of dialogue… Just those four lines. Nothing else. He didn’t miss any of it, he didn’t even bring up the baby. He said, ‘Oh, that’s irrelevant.'”

Hillcoat says that he worked with author Cormac McCarthy throughout the development of the script and during the film. And that he found it a great challenge to translate the post-apocalyptic future of the novel to the screen.

“The heart and soul, the reason this book is now the most translated of modern time, apparently, is because of this love story between father and son. If it was just about that other stuff it wouldn’t have struck that kind of chord. That’s if you focus on the background scenery. I’m a little defensive about that. But sure, it’s a projection of everyone’s worst fear. The apocalypse has been around as an idea since ancient times,” he says.

“It’s very simple, it’s humanity’s worst fear. What is it? It’s us dying, the world dying. And we saw what happened with the dinosaurs, so we don’t want to join them, and that’s understandable. But then I think, also, every individual has their own personal apocalypse, where your time comes. We’re mortal beings, we have to check out. So I think in many ways it’s just a projection of our fears,” he added.

“The Road” is currently playing in theaters.