Road to Perdition (2002)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 209
Fresh: 171 | Rotten: 38
Somber, stately, and beautifully mounted, Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition is a well-crafted mob movie that explores the ties between fathers and sons.
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 45
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 11
Somber, stately, and beautifully mounted, Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition is a well-crafted mob movie that explores the ties between fathers and sons.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 185,424
Movie Info
The acclaimed graphic novel from crime writer Max Allan Collins becomes this big budget Dreamworks drama from director Sam Mendes and screenwriter David Self. Tom Hanks stars as Michael Sullivan, a morally conflicted Depression-era hit man committing murder in the name of his employer, John Rooney (Paul Newman). A kindly, aging Irish crime boss who raised Sullivan as his surrogate son, Rooney is affiliated with Al Capone in Chicago and thus wields great power in the "Tri-Cities" of Moline, IL;
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Cast
-
Tom Hanks
Michael Sullivan -
Paul Newman
John Rooney -
Jude Law
Maguire -
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Annie Sullivan -
Stanley Tucci
Frank Nitti -
Daniel Craig
Connor Rooney -
Tyler Hoechlin
Michael Sullivan Jr. -
Liam Aiken
Peter Sullivan -
Dylan Baker
Alexander Rance -
Ciarán Hinds
Finn McGovern -
Michael Brockman
Rooney's Business As... -
Jobe Cerny
Bankers -
Diane Dorsey
Aunt Sarah -
Timothy Hendrickson
Bankers -
Peggy Roeder
Farmer Virginia -
David Darlow
Jack Kelly -
The Monte Carlos
Living Corpse -
Jack Callahan
Rooney's Business As... -
Maurie Gallagher
Michael's Teacher -
Michael Sassone
Motel Manager -
Stephen P. Dunn
Finn McGovern's Henc... -
Mina Badie
Betty The Waitress -
Duane Sharp
Father Callaway -
Harry Groener
Mr. McDougal -
Lance Baker
Crime Scene Policema... -
Lara Phillips
Ruby The Waitress -
Kevin Chamberlin
Frank The Bouncer -
Doug Spinuzza
Brothel Maid -
Roderick Peeples
Nitti's Henchmen -
Ian Barford
Ronney's Henchmen -
Dylan Barker
Alexander Rance -
Nicholas Cade
Boy Michael Fights -
Marty Higginbotham
Bankers -
Kathleen Keane
Irish Musicians -
Ed Kross
Young Bank Manager -
Keith Kupferer
Nitti's Henchmen -
Lawrence MacGowan
Bankers -
Rob Maxey
Drugstore Owner -
Brendan McKinney
Irish Musicians -
Jackie Moran
Irish Musicians -
Kurt Naebig
Tenement Murderer -
Heidi Jayne Netzley
Prostitute -
Kieran O'Hare
Irish Musicians -
Phil Ridarelli
Hotel Manager -
Lee Roy Rogers
Secretary -
Jon Sattler
Rooney's Business As... -
John Sierros
Rooney's Business As... -
Craig Spidle
Ronney's Henchmen -
John Sterchi
Cop At Diner -
Christian Stolte
Rooney's Business As... -
Paul Turner
Finn McGovern's Henc... -
James Greene
Farmer Bill -
John Judd
Rooney's Business As...
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All Critics (210) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (171) | Rotten (38) | DVD (38)
So is Perdition still a must-see? No question. But it's tough to fuss about it much when a picture is this fussy.
Top CriticVisually, the picture is all of a piece, but it's a self-conscious piece of work -- all dark-toned academic classicism.
What makes the movie pay off is moving pictures of real action and of intimate scenes between man and boy that are all the more moving for being understated.
While crisply edited and unindulgent, Mendes' work is gratifyingly old-school in its rejection of modern-day stylistic agitation, the better to achieve a slow but inexorable build to its climax.
Sam Mendes's 2002 follow-up to American Beauty finds him every bit as adept, arty, and Oscar hungry.
Ploughing a furrowed brow, Hanks is fatally miscast -- except that the story turns so sentimental and bathetic, he's actually in his element.
Powerful, beautiful film; ok for mature teens.
The top-billed actors deliver: Hanks with his resonant reserve and Newman in conveying Rooney's failed attempt to live up to his self-image as the ultimate just and loving patriarch. [Blu-ray]
...something more than the sum of its parts; namely, a gripping, touching, entertaining motion picture.
This last motif surges in the film's coda with a sequence that is 2002's most rapturous, a long, undulating shot that combines serenity and horror.
Director Sam Mendes is on course to become one of the great directors of this decade.
From the first ten minutes you can already guess this is a true epic and masterpiece.
It's Newman who really stands out. Despite his advanced years -- he's 77 -- the man still has remarkable presence.
Hanks and Newman are the personification of anguish and torn loyalty in a gripping, violent film that is part character study and part cat-and-mouse chase with classic western embellishments.
Road is so beautiful, so well composed and so tidy in its sense of justice that it never quite gets its hands dirty enough to evoke any true emotion.
A simple parable, starkly outlined, with talented actors shading these sketches with wisdom and detail.
An enjoyable, well-acted, written, and directed two hours.
It's wonderful to see Paul Newman in a great role again.
Mendes has proven that he must be counted among the greatest directors
Easily the best movie so far in 2002, Road to Perdition holds its own against the finest films any year has to offer.
Audience Reviews for Road to Perdition
Super Reviewer
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Movies Like Road to Perdition
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- Michael Sullivan: I saw then that my father's only fear was that his son would follow the same road. And that was the last time I ever held a gun. People always thought I grew up on a farm. And I guess, in a way, I did. But I lived a lifetime before that, in those six weeks on the road in the winter of 1931. When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man, or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them... he was my father.
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- Peter Sullivan: Why are you always smiling?
- Connor Rooney: 'Cause it's all so fucking hilarious.
-
- Michael Sullivan Jr.: When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man, or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them, he was my father.
-
- Maguire: I shoot the dead. Dead bodies, that is. I don't kill them.
-
- Michael Sullivan: Is that, uh... your profession or... your pleasure?
- Maguire: Both, I guess. To be paid to do what you love... ain't that the dream?
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Latest News on Road to Perdition
May 22, 2013:
Comic Book Movies You Can Watch OnlineComic book movies are all the rage these days, and every year we see more of them hitting theaters...
August 5, 2010:
Road to Perdition Sequels Coming?According to Max Allan Collins, author of the graphic novels that inspired "Road to Perdition," he's...
November 5, 2008:
Road to Perdition Goes On and OnMax Allan Collins has been signed to write and direct adaptations of the two graphic novel...
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