Road To Perdition

[Guest Vitamin X]

Hey all, haven't posted in this folder a whole lot, but you can expect to see a lot more of me now since I got a job working as a Shift Manager at Blockbuster.. Anyways one of my free rentals this week went out to seeing Road to Perdition (along with One Hour Photo w/ Robin Williams which was a FUCKIN AWESOME movie). And, well I'm just a bit confused about something..

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

I know the whole premise of the movie is based on the son and father thing, where William Sullivan Sr. doesn't want William Sullivan Jr. to turn out like he did. But for some odd reason, and maybe I shoudl watch this part again if I missed it, but..   WHY DO THEY WANT TO KILL THEM?!?! Is it mainly to just Conner Rooney over as a heel in the film, hiring Maguire (Jude Law) to kill Sullivan, and thus becoming heels by association? The only answer I could come up with was in the beginning of the film when Michael Jr. witnessed the shooting of one of his father's dear friends, and Conner wants to make sure that the Sullivans are silenced, especially Michael Jr. Am I right or is there something I missed here?

[Guest Downhome]

Hey all, haven't posted in this folder a whole lot, but you can expect to see a lot more of me now since I got a job working as a Shift Manager at Blockbuster.. Anyways one of my free rentals this week went out to seeing Road to Perdition (along with One Hour Photo w/ Robin Williams which was a FUCKIN AWESOME movie). And, well I'm just a bit confused about something..

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

I know the whole premise of the movie is based on the son and father thing, where William Sullivan Sr. doesn't want William Sullivan Jr. to turn out like he did. But for some odd reason, and maybe I shoudl watch this part again if I missed it, but..   WHY DO THEY WANT TO KILL THEM?!?! Is it mainly to just Conner Rooney over as a heel in the film, hiring Maguire (Jude Law) to kill Sullivan, and thus becoming heels by association? The only answer I could come up with was in the beginning of the film when Michael Jr. witnessed the shooting of one of his father's dear friends, and Conner wants to make sure that the Sullivans are silenced, especially Michael Jr. Am I right or is there something I missed here?

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

That is pretty much it, yes. When Jr. witnessed the shooting, his family's life was turned upside down. His father promised that he could be kept quiet, but even though Mr. Rooney loved him like a son, he could take NO chances in anyone "ratting" out what had been going on. When the attempt to kill the ENTIRE family failed, the two had no other option but to run. Sullivan began to realize that his walk of life was not right, and did not wish for his son to follow suit. You basicly understand it, so yeah, you are right.   It was just to keep them quiet.

[Guest Crucifixio Jones]

Elements of Road...were inspired by the Lone Wolf & Cub (baby cart) movies, as well, if you needed that pointed out. It's fairly obvious.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

The kid was too big of a liability after that, he had to take a dirt nap

[Guest Lethargic]

I just read the original comic books of Road to Perdition. In there they said that his family was never meant to be murdered at all. Only Michael and his dad were to be murdered. Connor Looney did the other two on his own. I don't remember that really coming across in the movie.

 

It's amazing how much different the book and movie are. Jude Law's character isn't even in the book. None of the farm subplot is in there. I can't really tell which I like best though. The book is really not that good, while I loved the movie. But yet, the book is a lot darker and way more violent which IS good.

[Guest MDH257]

Just to clarify:

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

John Rooney didn't order the family killed Connor goes to the Sullivan house to kill the rest of the family (including Michael Jr., whom he believes will rat on him) thinking that Michael Sr. has been killed at the nightclub (per the note he sent along, he's lying when he says it's from his dad). Connor does this to get rid of both Jr. and Sr.(whom he is jellous of) and because he knows his father will forgive him know matter what. I thought John being so upset at Connor over what he's done made it clear he didn't order it. When John is meeting with nitti (Stanley Tucci) he tells Nitti not to have Jr. killed. Nitti warns John that Jr. will one day come looking for revenge. When Maguire is on the phone recieving his orders to kill Sr. he ask what does he do with the kid. We don't hear what he's told, but he puts x's on the eyes of a face he has drawn on a piece of paper. I took this to mean that he was told to kill Jr. as well.

 

At least that's how I thought it happened.

[Guest El Satanico]

Just to clarify:

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

John Rooney didn't order the family killed Connor goes to the Sullivan house to kill the rest of the family (including Michael Jr., whom he believes will rat on him) thinking that Michael Sr. has been killed at the nightclub (per the note he sent along, he's lying when he says it's from his dad). Connor does this to get rid of both Jr. and Sr.(whom he is jellous of) and because he knows his father will forgive him know matter what. I thought John being so upset at Connor over what he's done made it clear he didn't order it. When John is meeting with nitti (Stanley Tucci) he tells Nitti not to have Jr. killed. Nitti warns John that Jr. will one day come looking for revenge. When Maguire is on the phone recieving his orders to kill Sr. he ask what does he do with the kid. We don't hear what he's told, but he puts x's on the eyes of a face he has drawn on a piece of paper. I took this to mean that he was told to kill Jr. as well.

 

At least that's how I thought it happened.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it happened.

[Guest Lethargic]

What sense does it make for them him to want to kill Hanks though? He didn't do anything wrong. Why would he want to kill him but NOT kill Jr? That doesn't make any sense. You'd HAVE to kill both of them. If you kill Jr, Sr is either gonna go to the cops or do exactly what he did in the movie. If you kill Sr, Jr is going straight to the cops to tell them. You'd HAVE to kill both of them. It would be pointless for him to hire somebody to kill Sr, that wouldn't solve the problem.

[Guest Crucifixio Jones]

After they killed Hanks' family, they had no choice but to kill him then because they knew he wouldn't stop coming for them until he had his revenge.

 

Newman's character was prepared to spare the son, but Hanks' son was ordered to be killed per the advice of Frank Nitti.

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

I thought the flick was okay, except for the idiotic shootout at the end, where Hanks is able to pick off specific targets with a TOMMY GUN at long range, in the rain, at night. I was laughing at how stupid that was.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I thought abou that too, and how was he able totell exactly who John Rooney was and wasn't, and that NONE of those people who looked out their windows said a damn word about the shootout. I thought that part was done a bit too over the top, what with the dramatic killing of John Rooney too. It could have been better if William Sr. would have shot everyone then the next day look at John's dead body and grimace/feel emotion.

[Guest Lethargic]

I'm not bothering with spoiler things, the last few posts already covered everything that could be spoiled anyway. haha

 

But if you haven't read the book, that shoot out isn't even in there. In the book, he doesn't even WANT to kill Rooney. He wants to send Rooney to jail because in there he'll die slow. He gets all those papers from Rooney's accountant or whatever, and gives them to Elliot Ness who uses them to arrest Rooney. I can't think of anything that's been more changed from page to screen than this. But I do think the changes made a better movie. I don't think it would've worked without getting to see Rooney get what was coming to him.