So in the world they created it appears Australia has been fallen....and China has taken over Australia (via the chinese radio station, mandarin characters on the supply train, and even Pattinson being able to speak chinese).... Reason I think America is still valid is that most of the merchants would only take USA dollars.
Pretty legit post apocalyptic set premise!
Michod has made some comments about maybe the Asian world being the most powerful economies left, and that's why you see some of that in Australia.
Have you been to the official site? They have a lot of stuff about "the collapse" that is really well done.
http://therover-movie.com/#home
"Timeline of the Collapse" and "Remapping the Future" sections are interesting.
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http://tinyurl.com/k6hhn2d
Fear the man with nothing left to lose.
ahh cool site! thanks!
shareMichod has made some comments about maybe the Asian world being the most powerful economies left, and that's why you see some of that in Australia.
Most critics accepted the premise:
Tampa Bay Times:
Set in a desolate near-future after an unexplained economic collapse, The Rover fascinates and frustrates in equal measure, with Michod withholding details of plot and character so thoroughly that a nihilistic fog sets in. It's all intended to set up a final scene explaining why Eric (Pearce) is so determined to retrieve his car, amounting to less of a payoff than intended. Yet the violent set pieces and one performance keep Michod's pointlessness interesting.
The performance springs from an unexpected source: Robert Pattinson, in his latest attempt to smash that Twilight saga pinup boy image. Pattinson plays it impressively slow-witted and Southern-accented as Rey, a fourth member of the robbery team left for dead by his accomplices, including his brother Henry (Scoot McNairy). Rey is too dumb to be angry, or to bristle at being Eric's hostage on the thieves' trail, the closest to innocence in this morally bankrupt scenario
And here is yet another TR DVD review with great praise:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2014-10-14/dvdanger-the-evil-that-men-do/
Pearce, as always, is masterful. His depiction and description of a man walking through an amoral landscape, one who has adapted perfectly to this new paradigm, and despairs of those that cling to the old orthodoxies, is peerless. Well, not quite.
This is yet another revelatory role for Pattinson (yes, some day we'll stop being surprised that the guy from Twilight is really that good). Rey is not the brightest bulb in the box, with an implication of learning or possibly developmental disabilities. Just as Benno tries to break Tore's devotion to God, Eric rolls his eyes whenever Rey swears that his brother didn't mean to leave him behind, that he'll be glad to see him.
There is a kinship, although it is mutated: Tore seems oblivious, while Rey is no innocent, and Pattinson never forgets that he's playing a violently inclined thug. On the other hand, Benno is a scumbag just because he can be.
When Eric unleashes an act of seeming inexplicable violence, the question is, why? Why is he so obsessed with getting his car back, when he seems quite happy to, ahem, liberate the property of others? While Gebbe strikes almost purely emotional notes, The Rover's writer/director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) takes a more philosophical bent, depicting post-morality man as a product of his sand-blasted environment.
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I don't really buy Michod's new world order. The Chinese economy is extremely dependent on exports to work -- an actual collapse in the Western economies would be as or more brutal to the Chinese economy and probably lead to political chaos as well.
I think this is probably more representative of a more particular Australian economic paranoia about Chinese power in Australia relative to its mining resources.
That's why I love this film, there is no exposition
Why the world is like that? that's up to you
Michod has left details all over the film for the audience, so you can make out what the hell is going on
That's a kind of cinema that's VERY rare today and I ,for one, applaud Michod for having the balls to do it like that
I agree, it was very gutsy to start the film off the way he does, and it requires some thought on the part of the audience, it isn't some mindless comic book action. Can't wait to see what Michod does next.
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