Cormac McCarthy's The Road: The Movie and Pittsburgh as a substitute for post-Apocalyptic America

You probably know that Cormac McCarthy's well-known novel, The Road, was made into a well-known movie directed by John Hillcoat. Did you know parts of it were shot in western Pennsylvania? Did you know one of those western Pennsylvania places was Pittsburgh? And did you know that one of the places where it was shot in Pittsburgh was in my fine neighborhood of Lawrenceville?

I knew some of this before I saw the film. I had friends working in the crew and heard through emails they were scouting for blighted, run-down, post-Apocalytic-looking places to stage scenes and cull for props. I didn't know until seeing the film that one of these scenes was shot 7 blocks away.

The particular scene shows the boy and his father silently walking along. They're underneath a bridge where debris is strewn about in some decayed urban wasteland. This sequence, like a few others in the film, killed any hope I had for my suspension of disbelief. I knew exactly where that shot was shot. For all the art direction, prop-strewing, CGI and post-work done, this place wasn't some place existing only in the future. It was in my neighborhood.

The giveaway was that NG CO. on the left side of the frame. That's from the side of the Pittsburgh Casing Company building on 33rd Street.

I walked under past that building and under this bridge a few times a week when I needed to get out of my apartment. It was always quiet there and was, thus, a decent place for me to clear my head after working from home hours on end. I'd head along Butler to 43rd Street, walk down to the Allegheny River and take the trail that went along the water until it reached the train trestle. The train trestle is above where we see the characters walking.

I like to tell people that this scene was ultimately motivational for me, part of the reason I had to leave Pittsburgh and give New York City a shot. I didn't like the idea that where I was living could stand in for the most blighted, depressing, awful vision of America. I was, and still am, too young to be living at the end already.

I know Pittsburgh was and is more but it felt like, in living there, opportunities were being missed. Moreover, iIt just seemed generally unhealthy to be living in a post-Apocalyptic environment. You may have seen the abandonded dentist's office accross the hall from my old apartment. Seeing blight all around you all the time gets in your head. I needed something more than that.

The photos are from January 29, 2010 roughly two months after the film was released in theatres. I took the shots before driving the remainder of my belongings to NYC. The screen captures are from the DVD of The Road.