Valkyre

Road to Perdition

I had bought this movie on DVD when it first came out. And, it has been sitting around in it's shrink wrap ever since. I decided to watch it yesterday. I loved it! It was a great movie! It takes place in the early 1930's. Tom Hanks plays Micheal "Mike" Sullivan. Paul Newman plays John Rooney, an Irish Mafia Don who "owns" a whole town. John Rooney took Mike Sullivan under his wing and raised him as his own son. He also taught him the "business". Mike Sullivan is a hit man/bodyguard for John Rooney. Daniel Craig plays Connor Rooney, John Rooney's real soon. He's a major screw up with a hot temper. Mike Sullivan lives what looks like a bucolic life, a wife and two young sons in a farmhouse. When his son Paul, who is 8, asks his father what his job is, their mother, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, tells them that their father's job is keeping a roof over their head. Micheal "Mike" Sullivan Jr. is played by Tyler Hoechlin. His character is 12 years old in the movie. He is also curious as to what his father does for a living. When his mother sent him to get his father for dinner, he saw him remove a gun from under hit suit jacket before he took it off.

One night, Mike Jr. hid in the back of his fathers car when he went to one of his jobs. This particular job was to just "talk" to a guy who had insulted John Rooney earlier. John sent his real son Connor along and told him to take Mike. You can see why as Connor talks to the guy. Connor is a real hothead and ends up killing the guy and Mike ends up having to save his ass and kill the bodyguards. This was witnessed by Mike Jr. And, soon enough, Mike Sr. and Connor find out that he witnessed the whole thing. Mike reassures Connor that Mike Jr. won't talk. John Rooney is upset with Connor for messing things up and showers favors on Mike. It's enough to drive Connor to try to set up Mike and have him killed. While that's going down, Connor goes to Mike's house and tries to kill, who he thought was Mike Jr., but it turns out to be Paul, Mike's younger brother. He also kills Annie Sullivan (Jennifer Jason Leigh). At this point Mike Sullivan Sr. and Mike Jr. take off. Mike wants to protect his son, but he also wants revenge. He also finds out that blood is thicker than water as John Rooney took his real son's side, albeit begrudgingly. In a sad and twisted way, Mike Sullivan Senior bonds with his namesake Junior when they are on the lam. Mike Sr. wants to take his son to his maternal aunts house for safety reasons. She lives in a beach cabin in a town called Perdition, hence the movie title. There is much more to the movie, but I feel that I have given a lot away already.