Drawn to Cinema Season: Road to Perdition (Dir Sam Mendes, 1h57m, 2002)

The year is 1931, the height of the Prohibition, the era of gangsters, and a father (Tom Hanks) and son (Tyler Hoechlin) are on the run. Behind them lies their home and their murdered family; in front of them lies a string of bank robberies, murders amd revenge, as the father hunts down the man who killed his family, and the son, witness to a further murder involving his father, must witness, whilst getting to know his father better in the six weeks they are on the road. This is Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes' adaption of the Collins and Rayner graphic novel of the same name, perfectly executed in its transfer from page to screen, in which a father and son must band together to survive, for the father's revenge and the boy's innocence.

Road to Perdition the graphic novel, published in 1998, takes that oft-companion of the pulp 30s and 40s comic, Noir, and melds it to both the real history of the era; Hanks' Michael Sullivan is loosely based on Dan Drost, the former lieutenant of notorious Illinois gangster, John Patrick Looney, who forms the basis for Sullivan Sr's mentor and boss, John Rooney (a late role for Paul Newman). Sullivan Sr and Jr's journey and closer bond owes a notable debt to the Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub, the tale of a samurai enforcer and his infant son; this pairing of innocent child and homidal and often criminal adult has subsequently become an influence on works as disparate as Logan (2017), Frank Miller's Ronin comic book series, and the wildly popular Star Wars spinoff, The Mandalorian.

Michael Sullivan Jr (Tyler Hoechlin) and Michael Sullivan Sr (Tom Hanks)

The quality of the translation from page to screen is evident from the very first shots, as we follow Michael Jr through the nearby town where he works as a paperboy; the film's entire visual style, the bleak winter of 2001 juxtaposed with the Edward Hopperish mise-en-scene of the entire film-there is, thus a sense of atmosphere, of emotion, of some recapturing, as Hoechlin's narration cuts through this rememberance, of something lost. This atmosphere permeates the entire film, a smartly done rendering of one form of Americana into another, with equal cinematic grounding, leading to some beautifully cinematic shots in veteran cinematographer, Conrad Hall's, final film. Look out for the later sections of the film, where the stark figure of Sullivan Sr often lit from above, stalks through the corridors of hotels, or the streets of Ilinois

For the opening act, though, the elder Sullivan is kept at a distance: the wake which the family soon attend, of the funeral of brother of another Rooney enforcer, Finn McGovern (an extended cameo from Ciarán Hinds) largely focuses on Michael Jr and his brother, Peter, and it is largely through their eyes that we see the figures of John and the vicious and shadowy Connor (Daniel Craig, in fine mid-Atlantic drawl for the first time), as the elderly man dotes upon the grandsons he never had. This peace is not to last-McGovern insunuates throughout the wake that the Rooneys have murdered his brother. Told to threaten him by Rooney, so things spiral quickly out of control, leading to the film's first explosion of violence, in the enforcer's summary execution at the hands of Connor and Michael Sr.

Michael Sullivan Sr-a man with a life stained with blood.

They discover that Michael Jr has witnessed the murder, the boy is sworn to secrecy. This triggers the first of a set of nailbiting set-pieces in which he's threatened by the elderly Rooney, only for Connor, once more, to take things into his own hands with brutal results, Michael Sr only surviving an ambush set up for him in a speakeasy by the jitteriness of his would-be killer, and his son by the  luck of ending up in detention. With Connor's butchery behind them, they set out for Chicago, only to be thwarted in their attempts to turn the Chicago mob led by Frank Nitti (Stanley Tucci) against the Rooneys, and the duo soon find the sinister form of hitman-photographer, Harlen Maguire, (Jude Law at his idiosyncratic best and deeply unnerving) on their trail as the Sullivans set out to get revenge in their own fashion.

Here the heart of the film lies. This is a film about the bond between a father and so; their journey on the road begins with a decided testiness and distance to the father, in a most un-Hanks-like performance that retains a sense of menace, against the fragile figure of Michael Jr. Left in a waiting area in Chicago, we see him slowly dissolve into tears, aware, for the first time, of the violence and death surrounding him. Yet, as their journey continues, once Michael Sr narrowly escapes an encounter with the unsettling figure of Maguire in a diner, their relationship slowly develops from mere survival to a curious partnership to a true father and son bond,  as the duo go on the offensive. Michael Jr soon becomes his father's getaway driver, and the two plan and stage several bank robberies against Nitti's "Chicago Outfit", depicted in a smartly done montage.

Road to Perdition is a film ultimately built on its father-son bond

But, moreover, Road to Perdition is a film about sin and redemption, about a father's love for his son. Michael Sr is a man with a past, stained with blood as a hired hand for Rooney, and he is determined to break this cycle-Perdition, or damnation, is where he, and the men of the Chicago and Ilinois underground are headed to. Without the chain of violence being broken, the younger Sullivan will be dragged into this as well. We see Sullivan Sr's reluctance to give his son a gun, we see the two of them grow closer once Michael Sr is wounded in an abortive heist, and we see, despite the violence of their revenge, the elder Sullivan attempt to shield his son from the sin of his life; it is only with the film's denoument that this question of morality, of violence and innocence, of whether the cycle of violence is broken, are answered.

Road to Perdition remains a remarkable piece of cinema; alone among the four films I will discuss this month, it has escaped the orbit of mere comic book/graphic novel movies, but more than this, it remains a superbly taut thriller about revenge, redemption, and the bond betweeen a father and son.

Rating: Highly Recommended

Road to Perdition is available to stream via Disney+, and on DVD and BluRay from 20th Century Fox. It is also currently available via these platforms in the USA.

Next week, we arrive at Mega City One, as Dredd returns the iconic 2000AD character to his rightful place as ultraviolent anti-hero.

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