The Film The Road as a Cautionary Tale

The Film The Road as a Cautionary Tale

 

The film The Road based on the book by the same title, is a very good cautionary tale illustrating why it’s not good to get caught with your pants down with regards to preparedness.

 

As the film begins, the father, played by Viggo Mortenson, knows something is wrong.  When he begins filling up the bath tub, his wife, played by Charlene Theron ask him something to the effect of “Why are you taking a bath?”  He wasn’t bathing.  He was stockpiling water for drinking.

 

As you get further along in the film, it becomes obvious that the wife is not going to make it.  She does not have the psychological survival skills to make it.  She wants the pre-TEOTWAWKI world back and it's not coming back.  Hence, the reason to prepare, so you can rebuild the world if it comes to that.  The wife simply wonders off into the night and never returns.

 

After the wife is gone, the father and the boy, forgive the terrible pun with relation to the title, hit the road.

 

As someone who has been a student of preparedness for more than two decades, a writer of a paid, print, subscription preparedness newsletter for two years, and a blogger on the subject 2 to three years now, I was floored, absolutely floored, by what I saw in this film.  (Yes, I know it was just a movie, but what a lesson it teaches.)

 

Ever heard this?  “For want of a nail......”  In fact, the film could have been titled For Want of a Nail.  Or better yet For Want of a Bullet.  Let me explain.

 

The father and the son faced many dangers that could have been taken care of if they had just done only a little bit of preparation.  They were presented with INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES they could have taken advantage of if they had prepared.

 

Before we examine the dangers and opportunities, I want to make some comments about the film.

 

I thought the film The Book of Eli presented an accurate portrayal of what a post TEOTWAWKI would look like.  As good as that film was in portraying TEOTWAWKI, the realism of what TEOTWAWKI would look like in The Road was, in my opinion, a power of ten increase over The Book of Eli.  (The Book of Eli was an awesome film!)

 

Dangers-If you ever want a reason to get motivated about stockpiling ammunition for your firearms, just watch this film.  Before the wife walked out into the night and never came back, there was a scene in which husband and wife were talking.  They talked about how the raiders (for those of the Rawles school of preparedness this is the “golden hoard) would come back and that they only had TWO BULLETS!!!!  Does one have to go to school and take special courses to be that stupid?  In addition, they only had a revolver!

 

Fast forward now to the scene where the men on the truck were hunting.........humans.  Yes, there is cannibalism in this film.  In this scene the father and the boy head into the woods to hide.  One of the members of the cannibal hunting party walks into the woods to urinate and discovers the father and son.  He states that he thinks the father won’t shoot him.  The father deposits high velocity metal into the skull of said hunter.  Now the father has only one bullet, and the other hunters are streaming out to find out what happened.

 

If you observe close, essentially all of the hunters had scoped, bolt action rifles.  If the father had only had a Ruger 10/22 with a 25 round detachable magazine, he could have killed half of the hunters before they even knew what was happening.  But when you only have a revolver with one bullet........

 

Opportunities-The father and son had numerous opportunities they could have taken advantage of, if only they had prepared.  If they had say 300 standard sized nails, 300 two inch screws, a hammer, screwdriver, and a small hand saw, they could have had their choice of accommodations.  In one scene, the father finds the house he grew up in.

 

The items mentioned in the previous paragraph could have been easily carried in the cart the father and son  carried their supplies in.  With said items plus a Ruger 10/22, they could have fortified the houses they walked up on.  (To be fair though, running a 24/7 LP/OP watch with only two people could not be done for an extended period of time.)

 

With regards to missed opportunities, it gets even worse. 

 

When the father and the boy were just about to drop from starvation, they find an underground shelter loaded with food and supplies!  (The owner(s) of that underground shelter probably were dead-most likely because they bought into the lie that firearms are not needed for survival.)

 

The father and the boy stay in the shelter for a while, gain some weight with all the food there, and get much needed rest.  In additions, the father gets to spend time with his son doing what fathers do in normal situations.

 

Then one day they hear people walking on the surface.  They have to leave BECAUSE YOU CANNOT DEFEND YOURSELF OR YOUR PLACE OF SAFETY WITH A REVOLVER THAT HAS ONLY ONE BULLET!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As bad as this was, it still gets even worse.

 

In one part of the movie they run up on what appears to be an empty house.  The basement/cellar is locked.  The father opens it.  He discovers a group of people being held prisoner, chained and naked, to be eaten by, you guessed it, more cannibals.  Just as the father gets back to the main floor, the cannibals return.  Father and son hide upstairs and discover the area where the prisoners were butchered to be eaten.  Just as father and son are about to be discovered, the prisoners start coming out of the basement/cellar and this gives father and son time to escape.

 

Have you ever heard the word “charity”?  Protecting yourself, your family, and your property are not the only reason to own guns.  When other humans are in danger, and the risks to you and yours are relatively low, you have not a responsibility, but AN OBLIGATION to defend your fellow human beings.  The obligation is even stronger if those other human beings are old, sick, children, handicapped, or weak.  I chose the word obligation purposely.  ‘Responsibilities” are made to be shirked off.  Ever hear these kindergarten teachers who try to brainwash young children into believing the lie of man made global warming?  They make children repeat “With rights come responsibilities”.   Factually incorrect.  With rights comes only ONE obligation: Don’t violate the rights of other human beings.

 

An obligation is stronger than a responsibility.  I wish there were Samurai kindergarten.  If I had any children that is where I would send them.  At least they would get the opportunity to choose honor instead of mediocrity.

 

In that scene, it never shows what happened to those people.  It’s highly likely they were put back in the basement/cellar, naked, because THEY HAD NO GUNS, BUT THE PEOPLE WHO TOOK THEM PRISONER DID HAVE GUNS.

At this point, the reader might have noticed a, shall I say subtle, sub-theme in this post?  If you have, excellent!

 

This whole anti-gun thing is getting, correction, has gone, way past the point of logical thinking.  I’m fine with keeping guns out of the hands of people who meet the clinical definition of psychosis.  (Psychosis is any mental disease in which the person has lost touch with reality-they hear things other people don’t hear, they see things other people don’t see, etc.)  But to restrict firearms ownership by people who are law abiding, have no violent crime convictions and no psychosis is done only for one reason:Tyranny.

 

(Also, if a charge of domestic violence is going to keep one from owning a gun, domestic violence needs to be raised to a felony in areas where it is classified as a misdemeanor.  Otherwise you have felony accountability for a misdemeanor crime.)

 

If the U.S. government wants to restrict or take guns away from people who obey the law, you can be sure of this: The U.S. government is planning on BREAKING THE LAW sometime in the near future.

 

I do recall something about “of, by and for the people.”

 

Sorry for the rant.

 

Do learn the lesson that The Road teaches.  It says:

 

1.  Be prepared and don’t get caught with your pants down.

2.  Being prepared is not only about helping yourself.  It’s also about helping others.

3.  Being prepared to take advantage of opportunities is a large part of winning in survival.

4.  Keep the fire alive.  (You’ll have to watch the film to get that one.  This is arguably the most important thing in survival-attitude.)  The father taught this to the boy in the film.

5.  With regard to guns, have more than a revolver with two bullets.

 

To all of you all around the planet, keep the faith, think noble thoughts, do noble things, take care of the ones you love, help others when possible, behave in an honorable manner, judge others solely by their actions, respect the person and property of other people, and remember that when individual human beings work together, we can improve the lot for all.