Road to Perdition
When an artist continues to make great films, the list of notable works gets too long to mention everything in one breath. Only the most popular, the stand-outs, come to mind. For example, Tom Hank has some of the most impressive filmographies of all time: Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia, etc. Sam Mendes has proven himself as a stylish, versatile director: Skyfall, 1917, American Beauty, etc. Paul Newman is a Hollywood legend: The Sting, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, etc. A lot of great films get overlooked in those etc’s. The crazy thing is that there is a film that has been underrated because it is included in each of these etc’s.
Road to Perdition was well-received upon release but has been largely forgotten, lost in the mix of the great careers involved.
Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) an ordinary, working family man moonlights as an enforcer for Irish mob boss, Mr. Rooney (Paul Newman), at the start of the 1930s. Things get complicated when Sullivan’s oldest son, Michael Jr., witnesses his father and Rooney’s trigger-happy son, Connor (Daniel Craig), assassinate a target. Jealous of the favor Sullivan receives from his father, Connor responds by orchestrating a hit on Sullivan and his family. Sullivan’s wife and youngest son are murdered, forcing him and Michael Jr to go on the run. Escaping Connor, Rooney, and the psychopathic assassin, Harlem (Jude Law), Sullivan begins to train his son on how to survive on the road in a life of crime. He forms a plan to turn things against Rooney and provide a new life for them, but it is incredibly risky.
The acting is as great as could be expected from legends like Hanks and Newman with the before-they-were-famous talents of Law and Craig. Mendes wields a sharp director’s eye, balancing the action with the artistic adaptation of a graphic novel. The stand-out contribution, however, is the cinematography by Conrad Hall, winning a posthumous academy award. There are some truly incredible shots in this movie. Particularly, the eerie way he films the murders from the child’s perspective; they show just enough to keep you in suspense and innocence and terror. One character's demise is shown in one-long take, through a window, distorted by the reflection and muffled by the sounds of the exterior. Furthermore, character motivations are told through angles and placement; relationships and feuds play out without a single word. The best example is the film’s climax; the rain-soaked showdown between Sullivan and Rooney has only one line of dialogue—Newman delivers the line to sum up what the film is about—everything else is told through brilliant cinematography.
So how does a film with Hanks and Newman become so easily forgotten? Two reasons: the curse of the follow-up and the actors breaking type.
Basically, it was not what people expected. The curse of the follow-up refers to the fact that second attempts by early artists are often misjudged. This was Sam Mendes’s follow-up to his career-defining, directorial debut, American Beauty, a psychological black comedy. Fans and critics were eager to see what he did next, but like with a lot of follow-ups, Mendes tried to stretch his versatility. Road to Perdition is a slow, noir crime drama. It was difficult to compare to American Beauty; it was too different and therefore interpreted as lesser. It was not what people expected.
The two leads could attract audiences. Hanks and Newman were dependable to draw crowds. But people also came expecting them to play certain types of characters. Hanks is an ordinary man in extraordinary situations. He is charming, likable, and brave. We relate to him. Newman was…Cool Hand Luke. Both actors break type in this film. Hanks is a cold, distant killer. He struggles to connect and comfort his son, while simultaneously being the cause of the boy’s loss of innocence. Newman is angry, manipulative, and merciless. Both men are chilling. It may have been too different for audiences to agree with. Both actors are in top form; they are believable, but it is still hard to accept them as evil. It is hard to place these countering performances among our favorites in reflection.
But that was the point. The film knows how we feel about the actors and uses this. It was perfect casting! The film’s major theme: what makes a person good? Michael Jr naturally loves his father and his father figure in Rooney but has to grapple with learning what the men do. Similarly, we come in naturally liking Hanks and Newman based on the legends’ reputation on and off the screen. We as the audience have to figure out how we feel when they play such dangerous people.
But Road to Perdition should not be overlooked. It deserves to be better remembered.
