Road to Perdition

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Movie
German title Road to Perdition
Original title Road to Perdition
Road to perdition.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2002
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Sam Mendes
script David Self
production Sam Mendes
Dean Zanuck
Richard D. Zanuck
music Thomas Newman
camera Conrad L. Hall
cut Jill Bilcock
occupation

Road to Perdition is a 2002 drama film with thriller elements directed by Sam Mendes and starring Tom Hanks . The film opened in German cinemas on September 5, 2002.

action

The film takes place in the small town of Rock Island and describes six weeks in the winter of 1931. Michael "Mike" Sullivan is a so-called Enforcer (" enforcer "). He works for John Rooney, the aging boss of an Irish gangster gang, whose interests he has to enforce - if necessary through murders. For Mike, who grew up fatherless, John Rooney is a kind of surrogate father, and Rooney also values ​​Mike very much and trusts him more than his own son Connor. Mike Sullivan and his wife Annie and sons Peter (9) and Michael junior (12) visit the boss's estate, whom the children perceive as a kind of grandfather, for the funeral of a gang member. They also meet Connor Rooney in the house, who has little interest in Mike's children and cannot tell them apart.

Peter and Michael don't know what their father does for a living. He doesn't talk about his work, just the family's obligations to Rooney are obvious. The day after the funeral, Michael junior hides in the trunk of the Buick with which his father drives "to work". He knows his father is armed and wants to find out what he's doing. Together with Connor Rooney, Mike Sullivan visits the brother of the buried gangster, who behaved unwise at the party, in an illegal liquor store, in order to confront him. During the conversation, the man makes hints that Connor is diverting money from the syndicate without his father's knowledge. The Rooney gang pays tribute to the Cosa Nostra in Chicago . Connor Rooney shoots the man against his father's instructions; Mike Sullivan kills the armed escorts. Michael junior secretly observed what was happening through a crack in the door and is traumatized. When Mike and Connor notice his presence, Sullivan assures that his son will keep the incident to himself; Connor initially accepts that. The next day, the Sullivan family receives an unexpected visit from John Rooney, who admonishes Michael junior to keep secret secrets. Connor Rooney is reprimanded and exposed for his arbitrariness in front of the assembled management level of his father.

Sullivan is then supposed to go on his own usual round of collecting money. Connor slips him a sealed letter for another debtor, a brothel operator. However, this is a letter from Urias in which the recipient is asked to kill the bearer. The brothel boss, whom Connor has promised a debt relief, tries to shoot Sullivan. However, Sullivan is faster and kills the man and his bodyguard. Connor has since broken into the Sullivan's home and murders Mike's wife and younger son. Michael Junior escapes the attack because he only comes home during the crime and Connor doesn't notice him. A little later, Mike Sullivan arrives, discovers the bodies and leaves the house with his surviving son forever.

John Rooney is horrified to learn of his son's crime. This justifies himself with the fact that Michael junior would certainly have betrayed the murder he observed at some point. The Rooneys don't know at this point that Connor killed little Peter instead of the older brother they were actually looking for. The father is forced to show solidarity with his son. He lets him go underground and protect him from the Chicago outfit .

Sullivan intrudes into the Rooney's house, but finds only the consigliere who, on behalf of the gang leader, offers him money and an escape to Ireland . Sullivan refuses, he wants to avenge the deaths of his loved ones. He kills the Consigliere to send an unmistakable signal. That same night he travels to Chicago with Michael Jr., where he visits Al Capone's deputy Frank Nitti and asks for support: He would like to work for Nitti and be given a free hand in his campaign of revenge. Nitti refuses because the Rooneys are important business partners of the outfit. Father and son Rooney overhear the conversation in the next room and instruct Nitti to have Sullivan killed. Contrary to Connor's insistence, John Rooney insists that nothing should happen to the child. Nitti hires the perverted photographer and hit man Harlen Maguire to kill Sullivan.

Maguire attends Annie and Peter's funeral on Rock Island and learns through an overheard phone call of Sullivan's plan to take his son to a sister-in-law in Perdition, where his aunt has a secluded house on one of the Great Lakes . Maguire catches up with her at a diner and engages Sullivan in conversation. However, Sullivan realizes the danger and is able to flee with his son. He has to change his plan and is dependent on the help of his son. He teaches him to drive because he needs him to drive away. Sullivan wants to steal Al Capone's black money, which is distributed in banks across the country, so that Capone can drop the Rooney clan and thereby remove the protection for Connor.

The plan succeeds at first, the corrupt bankers hand him the black money without causing a stir. However, his approach is noticeable: Alexander Rance, an accountant for the outfit, comes before him at a bank and has already closed the black money deposit. Mike Sullivan finds Rance at the best hotel in small town to get documents about Rooney's business. Rance is a bait, however, because Maguire is already waiting for Sullivan's arrival in the hotel across the street. Michael junior, who is waiting in the car, tries to warn his father when the killer crosses the street. In the subsequent shooting, Maguire is injured in the face by broken glass; Sullivan manages to get the dead accountant's papers, but is shot while trying to escape. Michael finds shelter for himself and his passed out father on a run-down farm on the way. Mike recovers from the injury and looks at the accountant's papers, in which he finds evidence that Connor has cheated on his father for some time. The relationship between Mike Sullivan and Michael junior deepens in conversations about what happened. When the two of them leave the farm, Sullivan gives the elderly couple, as a thank you for looking after them, most of the mafia black money that the farmers use to renovate their house.

Incognito versa Mike Sullivan to Rock Iceland back and says John Rooney at the exhibition in the church. Although Sullivan confronts him with the evidence, and Rooney avowedly loves Sullivan more than his own son, he does not abandon him. This leaves Sullivan only with the option of clearing John Rooney himself out of the way, so that Connor becomes uninteresting for the outfit. That same night, Mike ambushes the Rooney gang and kills John Rooney. Frank Nitti then reveals to Sullivan the number of the hotel room in which Connor is hidden. The guard lets him pass unhindered. Sullivan kills Connor in the bathtub and drives his son into the house on Perdition. There he is expected by Harlen Maguire and fatally wounded from behind. Maguire sets up a camera to photograph Sullivan for his collection of photos of dying murder victims. Sullivan's son Michael arrives and aims a pistol at Maguire, but cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. Maguire is distracted by this and is shot by the dying father Sullivan.

Michael junior returns to the small farm on the way, where he grows up with the childless farmers. He never picks up a gun again in his life. When people ask him if Michael Sullivan was a "decent man or if there was nothing good in him," he said, "He was my father."

background

  • The original language film title is ambiguous: In the film, “Perdition” is the name of a place that is said to be on Lake Michigan and the destination of the two protagonists' journey. In the literal sense, perdition means "damnation", "perdition", in the figurative sense "hell". The title can therefore be translated both as “Road to Perdition” and “Road to Verderben” or “Road to Hell”.
  • David Self's screenplay is based on the comics of the same name written by Max Allan Collins and drawn by Richard Piers Rayner .
  • According to director Mendes, death should always be shown in connection with water in the film, so that water can herald death or accompany the scenes in which deaths occur in various forms. For example, at the beginning of the film, the meltwater that drips into a bowl under the coffin and comes from the ice that is used to cool the corpse attracts the older boy's attention. It almost always rains pouring rain before and during the shootings and murders in the film. Connor is shot lying in the bath water. The water on the beach, where Michael junior can be seen at the beginning and at the end of the film, points to the death of his father a few minutes before this scene, which is only known about at the end of the film.
  • Al Capone is only talked about in the film, but he is never seen. In reality, he was in jail at the time the film is set and directed the organization from there. However, Nitti was also in prison at the time. A scene with Anthony LaPaglia in the role of Capone was shot for the film, but director Mendes did not use it in the final version because he was of the opinion that you could feel Capone's presence more clearly if you didn't see him in person. The scene is included as an "unused scene" in the bonus material on the DVD.
  • Road to Perdition was the last movie with Paul Newman .
  • There is a misprinting of the German DVD in which the correct age rating “FSK-16” is not printed directly on the disc, but incorrectly “FSK-12”.
  • The Canadian death metal band Kataklysm , which is known for using movie quotes to introduce their albums, used the statement from Paul Newman's character: This is a life we ​​chose, a life for the opening song Ambassador of Pain on their album Serenity in Fire we lead, and there is only one guarantee: None of us will see heaven (Eng .: “This is a life that we have chosen; the life that we have led, and only one thing is certain: none of us will Seeing Heaven ”).

Reviews

“A gangster drama as a moral lesson: The fates of three generations meet in rural Illinois, where Irish immigrants conduct their criminal business. A fateful, gloomy film permeated with thoughts of remorse, whose conflicting characters and situations win strong sympathy through the consistent direction and unusually impressive photography. "

- Lexicon of international film

“As early as 1972, Kenji Misumi's 'Okami', the six-part film adaptation of Kazuo Koike's samurai manga ' Lone Wolf and Cub ', left no doubt that the journey is the goal . [...] 'Road to Perdition' is based on this touching father-son story, but does not follow Koike's tight narration. Because Mendes' family films always want to create images of society and, if possible, also provide a few archetypes. […] Mendes' real family history does not begin until father and son, Michael Sullivan senior and junior, travel through the American hinterland after Connor killed Sullivan's wife and younger son on their own account. The rest of the family can only grow together when father and son - without a wife / mother - are completely among themselves and earn their living with bank robberies. But their path is already mapped out, the place of arrival is known and its symbolism is not very subtle: the place of Perdition, the 'damnation', in the lap of the family. "

- Andreas Busche : The daily newspaper

Awards

At the 2003 Academy Awards , the film was nominated in six categories: Best Supporting Actor ( Paul Newman ), Best Cinematography ( Conrad L. Hall ), Best Production Design (Dennis Gassner and Nancy Haigh), Best Film Music (Thomas Newman), Best Sound (Scott Millan , Bob Beemer and John Pritchett) and best sound editor (Scott Hecker).

The film won an Oscar for best cinematography. The prize was awarded posthumously because Conrad L. Hall had recently passed away. His son Conrad W. Hall accepted the award for him. The film was nominated for several BAFTA Awards (best supporting actor: Paul Newman, best cinematography and best production design - the film won the latter two). Conrad L. Hall also won the American Society of Cinematographers Award for his cinematography.

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating "valuable".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Approval certificate for Road to Perdition . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2002 (PDF; test number: 91 445 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Road to Perdition . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ Road to Perdition. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ The daily newspaper
  5. ^ 'Pianist,' Kidman win BAFTAs . In: CNN , February 24, 2003. Retrieved April 24, 2010. 
  6. ↑ ASC 17th Annual Awards - 2002 . In: TheASC.org . Archived from the original on June 9, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
  7. ↑ Road to Perdition on fbw-filmbeval.com