Road to Perdition is a 2002 American crime drama tragedy film directed by Sam Mendes and written by David Self, based on the first volume of the DC Comics graphic novel series of the same name by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. It stars Tom Hanks, Tyler Hoechlin, Paul Newman (in his final live-action theatrical film role), Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stanley Tucci, and Daniel Craig. Set in 1931, during the Great Depression, the film follows a mob enforcer and his son as they seek vengeance against the mobster who murdered the rest of their family. The film explores themes such as father-son relationships and the consequences of violence.

Road to Perdition was screened at the 59th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2002, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, 2002, and was a box office success, grossing $183.4 million against its $80 million budget. Critics received it well and praised Mendes's direction, Conrad L. Hall's cinematography, and the cast's performances. At the 75th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Newman, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Art Direction. Hall was posthumously awarded the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Plot

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In the winter of 1931, Michael Sullivan Sr, is an orphaned enforcer of Irish Mob boss John Rooney in Rock Island, Illinois. His wife Annie, knows of his work, but his two sons Michael Jr. and Peter do not. Rooney's associate Finn McGovern speaks at his brother's wake, insinuating that Rooney is responsible for his brother's death. Rooney sends Connor and Sullivan to talk with McGovern; Michael follows them and watches the interaction from hiding.

McGovern denies that his brother stole anything from the mob and implies that Connor was responsible, which causes Connor to murder McGovern and Sullivan to shoot the other armed witnesses in self-defense. The men discover that Michael saw everything and swear him to secrecy.

Rooney sends Sullivan to collect a debt from speakeasy owner Tony Calvino. Jealous and paranoid, Connor sends a letter with Sullivan for Calvino. Calvino reads the letter and reaches for his revolver, but Sullivan kills him and his bodyguard. The letter reads, "Kill Sullivan and all debts are paid". Sullivan rushes home and discovers that Connor, suspecting Michael has told others of the murders, has already murdered Annie and Peter. Michael was unharmed, as he had arrived home late from detention.

Sullivan and Michael flee Rock Island and head to Chicago to meet mobster Frank Nitti. Sullivan offers to work for the Chicago Outfit in exchange for permission to kill Connor. Nitti rejects his offer and advises Sullivan against seeking revenge. Rooney, listening next door with Connor, reluctantly allows Nitti to dispatch contract killer Harlen Maguire, whom Nitti orders to kill both Sullivans.

Sullivan plans to take Michael to his aunt's beach house in Perdition as a haven. Maguire tracks them to a roadside diner, where he and Sullivan converse casually while Michael sleeps in the car. Sensing danger, Sullivan escapes from Maguire with Michael, and Maguire kills a state trooper in the process. Sullivan realises Maguire knows their destination, and begins robbing the banks that hold the Outfit's money, hoping to pressure the Outfit into withdrawing their protection from Connor. Sullivan teaches Michael to drive so that he can act as a getaway driver.

When the mob withdraws its money from its banks, Sullivan is forced to interrogate Rooney's accountant, Alexander Rance. Rance stalls Sullivan until Maguire appears with a shotgun. During the shootout and escape, Maguire and Sullivan wound each other and Rance is killed in the crossfire. Sullivan collapses from his wound, and Michael drives them to a farm where an elderly couple helps Sullivan recover.

The ledgers reveal that Connor has been embezzling from his father using dead men's names, including McGovern's. Believing that Rooney will give up Connor once he knows the truth, Sullivan returns to Rock Island and confronts Rooney, who is already aware of Connor's treachery. Sullivan states that Connor will be dead anyway once Rooney dies; Rooney still refuses to give up his son, urging Sullivan to flee with Michael and raise him to be a better man than either of them. Sullivan later ambushes and kills Rooney's bodyguards before reluctantly killing Rooney. Nitti reveals Connor's location after Sullivan promises to end the feud with Connor's death. Sullivan goes to the hotel room where Connor is hiding and kills him.

The Sullivans finally reach the beach house in Perdition. While Michael is outside, Sullivan enters the house, where Maguire shoots him in the back. Michael appears and points a gun at Maguire, and Sullivan fatally shoots Maguire while he is distracted. Sullivan is happy that his son did not shoot, and then dies in Michael's arms.

Michael drives the car back to the elderly couple's farm and stays with them. In his narration, Michael states he has not held a gun since his father's death, and when asked if his father was a good man, he simply answers, "He was my father".

Cast

  • Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan
  • Tyler Hoechlin as Michael Sullivan Jr.
  • Paul Newman as John Rooney (based on John Patrick Looney)
  • Jude Law as Harlen Maguire
  • Daniel Craig as Connor Rooney
  • Stanley Tucci as Frank Nitti
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh as Annie Sullivan
  • Liam Aiken as Peter Sullivan
  • Dylan Baker as Alexander Rance
  • Ciarán Hinds as Finn McGovern
  • Doug Spinuzza as Calvino
  • David Darlow as Jack Kelly
  • Kerry Rossall as Rooney's Henchman (uncredited)
  • Anthony LaPaglia as Al Capone (uncredited)
  • Kevin Chamberlin as Frank the Bouncer
  • Harry Groener as Mr. McDougal
  • JoBe Cerny as Banker

Production

Development

When Max Allan Collins wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition, his book agent saw potential in the story as a film adaptation and showed it to a film agent. By 1999, the novel had reached Dean Zanuck, who was the vice president of development at the company owned by his father, producer Richard D. Zanuck. The novel was sent to the elder Zanuck in Morocco, who was there producing Rules of Engagement (2000). The Zanucks agreed on the story's prospect and sent it to director-producer Steven Spielberg. Shortly afterward, Spielberg set up the project at his studio DreamWorks, though he did not pursue the film's direction due to his full slate.

Sam Mendes sought a new project after completing American Beauty (1999) and explored prospects including A Beautiful Mind, K-PAX, The Shipping News, and The Lookout. DreamWorks sent Mendes Road to Perdition as a prospect, and Mendes was attracted to the story, considering it "narratively very simple, but thematically very complex".

Writing

Spielberg first contacted screenwriter David Self to adapt the story into a feature film.

Some characters' names were slightly changed from their original versions in the graphic novel: the surname of the real-life gangsters John Looney and his son Connor were changed to Rooney, and the surname of Tom Hanks' character and his family was streamlined from the original O'Sullivan to simply Sullivan. One significant addition to the script was the creation of Maguire to provide a persistent element of pursuit to the Sullivans' departure from the old world. Mendes described Road to Perdition as a "poetic, elegiac story, in which the pictures tell the true story". The author also applauded the film's version of Rooney as "more overtly a father figure" to Sullivan.

Casting

Tom Hanks was sent a copy of the graphic novel by Steven Spielberg while he was filming Cast Away. Initially too busy to make sense of the story, Hanks later received David Self's adapted screenplay, which he became attached to. Hanks, a father to four children, described Michael Sullivan's role, "I just got this guy. If you're a man, and you've got offspring ... emotionally, it's devastating." To capture the "seedy countenance" of the character, Jude Law was given a sallow skin tone that reflected the wear from working in a darkroom. Law's teeth also received a lower gumline and had a rotted look.

Anthony LaPaglia was cast as Al Capone and filmed a single scene, which was omitted from the final cut, and can be found in the DVD's deleted scenes. Mendes believed that Capone was more menacing as an unseen presence. Actor Alfred Molina was approached to portray Capone, but Molina was forced to turn the role down due to scheduling conflicts with Frida (2002).

Filming

Mendes sought to produce a period film that avoided gangster genre clichés. Mendes chose to film Road to Perdition on location in Chicago, IL, including downtown at the University Club of Chicago, the Chicago neighborhood of Pullman, the Charles G. Dawes House in Evanston, Illinois, as well as the far west Chicago suburb of Geneva, Illinois. General Jones Armory, the state's largest location mainstay, which houses units of the Illinois National Guard, was provided to the studio by the Illinois State Film Commission. Sets were built inside the armory, including the interiors of the Sullivan family's home and the Rooney mansion. The availability of an inside location provided the crew complete control over the lighting environment, which was established with the rigging of scaffoldings.