to the other side of the darkness

So I was walking to my class this afternoon and noticed a random poster amidst the usual forest of acapella, frat and religious club advertisements saying that there would be a free sneak preview of The Road at 8pm on campus. Holy shit, that's awesome, I thought, and dragged Veronica to the Grand Ballroom to watch it (literally kicking and screaming, because she's not into movies and wanted to watch the men's basketball game instead; whatever).
I enjoyed it; maybe not as much as the book (certain indelible lines and images will haunt me forever), but it was mostly very faithful and I enjoyed it. I kept thinking about the poem from Galway Kinnell's The Book of Nightmares - I like it when things have some kind of inter-relevance - both of them born out of the experience of being a father, both about the opposing presences of bottomless love for one's child, and the inescapability of death, loss and pain, in this transient and fragile world. The last stanza of the poem ("When I come back/ We will go out together...") makes a perfect match for the end of the movie/book, emotionally speaking.
After the screening there was a Q&A session with the film's producers, which was just awesome. It felt like reading a book and then immediately getting to speak with the author about it. We got to listen to them talk about all the behind the scenes business, and the casting process, and Robert Duvall's improvised monologue, and Cormac McCarthy's input, and the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis soundtrack, and just general... Viggo stuff. Viggo!
On Thursday they're having the same thing, but for Fantastic Mr. Fox! Yay! On days like this I love my school.