MovieChat Forums > The Road (2009) Discussion > Some thoughts on why spectators hate the...

Some thoughts on why spectators hate the kid

posted 10 years ago by MaxiLau
19 replies | jump to latest

First of all I have to clarify: I was one of the people who liked the movie and found the kid awfully annoying at first. I've done some introspection and rewatching to determine why I found him so annoying and whether his annoying behavior was a negative aspect of the film or central to the meaning of it. I’ll try to be brief: first I provide some introspection on why we found the kid so annoying, and second I give some thoughts on why we shouldn’t hate him given that his attitude is pretty much the point of the movie.

The first question: Why do we hate the kid? The reason, to me, is obvious: because we empathize more with the father. We imagine ourselves in his position: knowing you can’t trust anybody and live in the worst world possible, always thinking of survival and never being able to let your guard down. The father is the only reason why they really survive at all. Given this, we imagine ourselves being the ones responsible for guaranteeing the survival of the “group” so to speak, and find the kid continuingly thwarting the father’s efforts, not because the kid intentionally does so but because he’s extremely naïve (such as giving food to people who would have left them for dead). We, as spectators, find him as a liability for survival, but the father’s only reason for surviving is taking care of his son. Summing up, I believe that we, as spectators, empathize more with the father’s struggle for survival than we do for his unconditional love for his son, given that the son is pretty naïve and complicates things.

The second question: should we “hate” the kid for being a handicap for surviving? I believe this is the hardest part to reflect upon. Given the first answer, we know we empathize with the father on his struggle for survival and find that the kid makes it harder to survive in the worst world possible. But the kid’s innocence is what pretty much gives meaning to the film; it’s the last piece of human kindness and belief of helping others left in the world. Facing the end of mankind, there’s no room for kindness or “nice gestures”: nobody who has managed to survive this long has done so by giving food to those who are starving, everyone’s hands are dirty, including the father’s. So the kid being annoying, naïve, thwarting survival attempts, giving food to people who would have left them for dead and so on represents the last remnant of one of the most distinctive characteristics of mankind that can’t be described in a short word, but I would use “innocence”.

Summing up, I’ve given some thoughts on why we hate(d) the kid and that him being annoying is pretty much the point of the movie. Of course there are multiple aspects of the film that are worthy of attention (and I mean, multiple), I’ve just shared some thoughts on one point which many posts are continuously referring to. Anyway I’ve liked the film very much and hope this might shed some light on the movie’s theme.

[–] samantha3 10 years ago

One more thing you might add, "we" don't "hate the kid". Some people who post here do, but many who saw the film understood perfectly well why the child was depicted the way he is. Some of them have also posted here.

And one of those who understood was the gifted child actor who played him.

[–] Sanpaco13 9 years ago

"We" is a term meant to refer to a group of people. If you didn't hate the kid then there's no need to act as if the author is forcibly including you in the "we" that he is talking about.

"Is that your IQ or the number of dipwads your mother had?" - Car Pool Man

[–] CorpseCandle 10 years ago

I think people who hate the child for being a child and not an all-action-all-American ego f*ucknut are the ones with the problem.

I have THREE black belts in FULL ON PSYCHO!

[–] samantha3 10 years ago

Some of them, at least, are just kids themselves, not enough older to be objective about real childhood. I think the Boy embarrasses them because they can't pretend they're him without facing up to wht kids are actually like, away from movies and TV shows.

Others, well...let's hope they aren't parents and won't be any time soon. ☺

[–] CorpseCandle 10 years ago

The thing that puzzles me about people not liking the child is that they dislike him for being himself. The boys character is truthful unto himself thus I am unsure as to why people were annoyed by him?

Are they then annoyed by fear or people being traumatised?

I know it's been said multiple times on this board but I often get the feeling that some of the people on here wanted another Mad Max picture.

I really, REALLY dpubt that these same people read the book and then saw the film and got annoyed at the boy or hated the film.

You are right Samantha I think there are a great number of kids on this forum.

I have THREE black belts in FULL ON PSYCHO!

[–] teal123 10 years ago

I understand your sentiment and I agree with the crux of it. It was frustrating at times seeing the boy be so oblivious to their plight, to not be playing by the rules of this horrible world, but instead being so kind and generous and forgiving. That's the beauty of the book/film, you nailed it.

[–] bijinius 10 years ago

yeah, imagine if the kid were some faux-hipster catchphrase-spouting stand up comic like the kids on home improvement or.....alf??

[–] SpiltPersonality 10 years ago

I think the kid was just unrealistic.

He was perfectly realistic for a kid who, yesterday, or 3 weeks ago had been playing xbox, but not for a kid who had been bought up in that world.

The events in 'the Road' are well after the cataclysm. The kid would have been a lot tougher.

Or to put it another way, can you imagine a kid acting that way in a movie set in the Hundred Years War? I don't think so.

That's my problem with the kid.

[–] samantha3 10 years ago

Several posters here have said the the Boy strongly resembles kids they saw in refugee camps in Africa. Remember that he has been sheltered as much as possible by his parents for years. He has seen a lot, but he still wants to believe in human goodness and to help people. He is a deliberate creation with this character -- the author said this is his book about human goodness, written to follow several books about human evil such as NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and BLOOD MERIDIAN -- but there is nothing unrealistic about him. He is just not like the kids in most movies and TV shows, tough little smartasses. And remember that he seems to have had no peer models.

Most of the folks who hate the kid seem to have little or no experience with close contact with real children, such as parents and many other adults do (and as the author does). I'm not a parent, but I recognize him as realistic. A lot of the haters are clearly teenagers, who seem to resent not having a kickass role model in the book and film. Many parents have said of the book and film that they are almost unbearable because the story makes them think of their own kids and themselves in such a situation.

[–] shanayneigh 9 years ago

Or maybe, just maybe, people didn't like the kid because he was an obnoxious idiot who doesn't seem to have learned one thing after having lived in an apocalyptic wasteland for years.

Working in the movie business since -92

[–] OnlyRocknRoll 8 years ago

Amen and ditto!

_______________________________________
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??!!

Maximus Decimus Meridius

[–] rhfry 9 years ago

I think if you hate the kid you miss the entire point of the movie. Maybe only parents can really understand it because we are forced(at least the good ones) to be selfless and sacrifice for our children and most hopefully do it without giving it a second thought. The movie pretty much says it outright, the boy says he is the one who has to worry about everything. Just like our children now have to worry about the world they grow up in. The child represents the best of humanity and seeing his kindness as a weakness is just stupidity. It's really the opposite, unwavering kindness is our greatest strength. See, it takes more strength to be kind than to be like everyone else and be self serving. The child is the strong one who can look past everything around him and still be kind and that is "the fire" he carries. The strength to be humane when surrounded by so much inhumanity. I kinda thought it was really obvious during the film but then again I thought what the child was doing was the right thing to do and didn't find him annoying at all, quite the opposite, very endearing...

[–] twodollarshort 9 years ago

well the father should hate himself, because he raised his son to be a little whining crybaby that have an emotional breakdown every 30 min and naive as a 4 year old, and compleatly useless and allthough 11-12 years old totaly helpless and cant take care of himself at all.. he should drive him around in a stroller with a milk bottle in his mouth, would have been more suiting

[–] TerraFirma69 9 years ago

Absolutely. I didn't hate the kid, I resented the father for clearly having coddled the kid his whole life.

The father knew very well there was going to be a trial like this at some point, and that there was a good possibility the kid was going to have to fend for himself and/or look after his father at any time. If he loved the kid so much he'd have done everything he could to toughen him up.

...then whoa, differences...

[–] TheDarkKnightMatter 8 years ago

The kid is a big problem because he's a whinny little bitch. He was born in the apocalypse, so why did they make him such a wimp? He was raised in harsh times and should of had that mentality of survival instead of being a brat. I've seen kids in Afghan documentaries that are so use to war that it doesn't even bother then, even when they're kicking a ball around mine fields or seeing dead bodies. This is now how a kid would act if he was raised in this situation.

State champ in martial arts. Trained with firearms. Don't be a keyboard warrior.

[–] parkerzielinski 8 years ago

Wow. You sound like a pompous azz. Your signature quote confirms it.

[–] TheDarkKnightMatter 8 years ago

So you think life is full of rainbows and unicorns? Time to exit your bubble little man. Takei from Star Trek said while in the camps in WWII when Japs were rounded up, when released, his little sister said she wanted to go home. Refering to the barb wired wastelands they stayed. She was so use to it that normal life was strange to her. Truth hurts boy.

Don't get hurt kid. I'm not your daddy, I'll beat you senseless.

[–] scootergirl9988 8 years ago

It's allegorical, tough guy. The father is a protector charged with protecting the only things left worthy of protection: love, kindness, hope, innocence and the nobility the human spirit is capable of in the darkest hours if that spirit is strong enough. The kid is the representation of all that is good and makes the human life worth living at all. Make him what you think he should have been and humanity is dead before humans are even extinct. That's fine for a mindless action pic but not for a think piece.

"Nothing is more ill bred than trying to steal the affections of someone else's dog."