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Post by moviebuffbrad on Jun 15, 2023 2:09:38 GMT
I'll also add that have not yet read the dual novels The Passenger and Stella Maris that he published earlier this year. Thank you for the in depth response. No Country is one of my favorite movies of all time, so it being one of his least celebrated novels is a surprise. I've also seen The Road and thought it was solid enough. The scene that stands out the most is the one with Omar from the Wire. Sounds like the book is probably better, though. The audiobook (I listen to them at work) is only about 7 hours, also. I didn't know he personally wrote The Counselor. I haven't seen it outside the scene where Cameron Diaz has sex with a car, but I haven't heard much good. Of all your descriptions the one that sounds most interesting is Suttree. As we alluded to earlier, not a lot of humor to be found in Blood Meridian, so I'm curious about his brand of funny.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Jun 15, 2023 13:36:53 GMT
I'll also add that have not yet read the dual novels The Passenger and Stella Maris that he published earlier this year. Thank you for the in depth response. No Country is one of my favorite movies of all time, so it being one of his least celebrated novels is a surprise. I've also seen The Road and thought it was solid enough. The scene that stands out the most is the one with Omar from the Wire. Sounds like the book is probably better, though. The audiobook (I listen to them at work) is only about 7 hours, also. I didn't know he personally wrote The Counselor. I haven't seen it outside the scene where Cameron Diaz has sex with a car, but I haven't heard much good. Of all your descriptions the one that sounds most interesting is Suttree. As we alluded to earlier, not a lot of humor to be found in Blood Meridian, so I'm curious about his brand of funny. I think the appreciation for No Country for Old Men as a novel has increased over the years since the film has entered classic status. It's somewhat less dense and, for lack of a better word, literary than some of his other books. In some ways it feels more like a movie than any of his other books, which may be why it attracted the Coens to adapt an author for the first time. But I think that was the main criticism of it when it was published. Interestingly enough McCarthy originally wrote it as a screenplay years earlier but couldn't sell it. It's one of the best adaptations from novel to film I've ever seen, in terms of translating the tone and details of the text. There are definitely some changes and some omissions and some condensing, but to me it's essentially as perfect as can be in evoking the book. Even while certain things can't translate they found a way, like how in the novel Anton Chigurh is essentially never described physically. He's a complete mystery ro the reader but you feel his presence, and the Coens approach to that was to just cast and design that character to be this ethereal presence that somehow feels the same as he does in the book. It's really remarkable. But I'd love to find McCarthy's original script and compare the two. Suttree is a big undertaking, but it's a hell of a time. Actually the funniest moment I can remember from that book reminds me a little bit of one of the very few funny moments in Blood Meridian. That kinda just occurred to me. That would be an odd place to start, but kind of a cool entry or re-entry or continuation point. I haven't heard the audio book of The Road, but I could actually see imagine it working fairly well in that medium.
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Jun 16, 2023 3:36:27 GMT
Thank you for the in depth response. No Country is one of my favorite movies of all time, so it being one of his least celebrated novels is a surprise. I've also seen The Road and thought it was solid enough. The scene that stands out the most is the one with Omar from the Wire. Sounds like the book is probably better, though. The audiobook (I listen to them at work) is only about 7 hours, also. I didn't know he personally wrote The Counselor. I haven't seen it outside the scene where Cameron Diaz has sex with a car, but I haven't heard much good. Of all your descriptions the one that sounds most interesting is Suttree. As we alluded to earlier, not a lot of humor to be found in Blood Meridian, so I'm curious about his brand of funny. I think the appreciation for No Country for Old Men as a novel has increased over the years since the film has entered classic status. It's somewhat less dense and, for lack of a better word, literary than some of his other books. In some ways it feels more like a movie than any of his other books, which may be why it attracted the Coens to adapt an author for the first time. But I think that was the main criticism of it when it was published. Interestingly enough McCarthy originally wrote it as a screenplay years earlier but couldn't sell it. It's one of the best adaptations from novel to film I've ever seen, in terms of translating the tone and details of the text. There are definitely some changes and some omissions and some condensing, but to me it's essentially as perfect as can be in evoking the book. Even while certain things can't translate they found a way, like how in the novel Anton Chigurh is essentially never described physically. He's a complete mystery ro the reader but you feel his presence, and the Coens approach to that was to just cast and design that character to be this ethereal presence that somehow feels the same as he does in the book. It's really remarkable. But I'd love to find McCarthy's original script and compare the two. Suttree is a big undertaking, but it's a hell of a time. Actually the funniest moment I can remember from that book reminds me a little bit of one of the very few funny moments in Blood Meridian. That kinda just occurred to me. That would be an odd place to start, but kind of a cool entry or re-entry or continuation point. I haven't heard the audio book of The Road, but I could actually see imagine it working fairly well in that medium. You mean Suttree would be an odd place to start? Even more so than Blood Meridian, haha? In that case I may do The Road and No Country first, the latter feeling like a movie obviously more of a sell than not for someone with my username. And you aren't kidding about the Coens' Anton, he's one of the scariest movie characters I've seen. I didn't respond to All the Pretty Horses, but I remember it coming out and looking like a cheesy romance movie which is apparently pretty far from the book. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back even took a shot at it when Ben Affleck tells Matt Damon "sorry I dragged you away from your movies about gay serial killers who ride horses and play golf".
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Jul 14, 2023 19:30:51 GMT
Thank you for the in depth response. No Country is one of my favorite movies of all time, so it being one of his least celebrated novels is a surprise. I've also seen The Road and thought it was solid enough. The scene that stands out the most is the one with Omar from the Wire. Sounds like the book is probably better, though. The audiobook (I listen to them at work) is only about 7 hours, also. I didn't know he personally wrote The Counselor. I haven't seen it outside the scene where Cameron Diaz has sex with a car, but I haven't heard much good. Of all your descriptions the one that sounds most interesting is Suttree. As we alluded to earlier, not a lot of humor to be found in Blood Meridian, so I'm curious about his brand of funny. I think the appreciation for No Country for Old Men as a novel has increased over the years since the film has entered classic status. It's somewhat less dense and, for lack of a better word, literary than some of his other books. In some ways it feels more like a movie than any of his other books, which may be why it attracted the Coens to adapt an author for the first time. But I think that was the main criticism of it when it was published. Interestingly enough McCarthy originally wrote it as a screenplay years earlier but couldn't sell it. It's one of the best adaptations from novel to film I've ever seen, in terms of translating the tone and details of the text. There are definitely some changes and some omissions and some condensing, but to me it's essentially as perfect as can be in evoking the book. Even while certain things can't translate they found a way, like how in the novel Anton Chigurh is essentially never described physically. He's a complete mystery ro the reader but you feel his presence, and the Coens approach to that was to just cast and design that character to be this ethereal presence that somehow feels the same as he does in the book. It's really remarkable. But I'd love to find McCarthy's original script and compare the two. Suttree is a big undertaking, but it's a hell of a time. Actually the funniest moment I can remember from that book reminds me a little bit of one of the very few funny moments in Blood Meridian. That kinda just occurred to me. That would be an odd place to start, but kind of a cool entry or re-entry or continuation point. I haven't heard the audio book of The Road, but I could actually see imagine it working fairly well in that medium. So I finished No Country and The Road. No Country definitely felt like a blueprint for the movie, of which the Coens didn't have to change much. Even a lot of the quirky dialogue which I figured was their addition ("If I don't come back, tell my mother I love her", "Your mother is dead", "Well, then, I'll tell her myself"). The Road movie was also fairly faithful to the book, though that book didn't feel like a Hollywood screenplay reverse engineered into being one. Despite the bleakest subject matter it's ironically the least nihilistic of the three Cormacs I've read (or listened to). Actually, because it's Cormac, my first reaction to the ending was that those people are luring the kid into a false sense of security, then they're gonna eat his ass and dance, and never sleep, and dance, and say they'll never die, and dance. But apparently that's an unpopular and unlikely interpretation. I have Sutree on my loan shelf though it's longer than No Country and The Road combined. I also ordered All the Pretty Horses but there's a wait list. For what it's worth, the narrator of the audiobooks is pretty good. It was actually Blood Meridian that got me into audiobooks because I found Cormac's actual writing style a little difficult to follow (ie, his lack of quotation marks when characters are talking).
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Post by masterofallgoons on Sept 21, 2023 15:30:55 GMT
I think the appreciation for No Country for Old Men as a novel has increased over the years since the film has entered classic status. It's somewhat less dense and, for lack of a better word, literary than some of his other books. In some ways it feels more like a movie than any of his other books, which may be why it attracted the Coens to adapt an author for the first time. But I think that was the main criticism of it when it was published. Interestingly enough McCarthy originally wrote it as a screenplay years earlier but couldn't sell it. It's one of the best adaptations from novel to film I've ever seen, in terms of translating the tone and details of the text. There are definitely some changes and some omissions and some condensing, but to me it's essentially as perfect as can be in evoking the book. Even while certain things can't translate they found a way, like how in the novel Anton Chigurh is essentially never described physically. He's a complete mystery ro the reader but you feel his presence, and the Coens approach to that was to just cast and design that character to be this ethereal presence that somehow feels the same as he does in the book. It's really remarkable. But I'd love to find McCarthy's original script and compare the two. Suttree is a big undertaking, but it's a hell of a time. Actually the funniest moment I can remember from that book reminds me a little bit of one of the very few funny moments in Blood Meridian. That kinda just occurred to me. That would be an odd place to start, but kind of a cool entry or re-entry or continuation point. I haven't heard the audio book of The Road, but I could actually see imagine it working fairly well in that medium. So I finished No Country and The Road. No Country definitely felt like a blueprint for the movie, of which the Coens didn't have to change much. Even a lot of the quirky dialogue which I figured was their addition ("If I don't come back, tell my mother I love her", "Your mother is dead", "Well, then, I'll tell her myself"). The Road movie was also fairly faithful to the book, though that book didn't feel like a Hollywood screenplay reverse engineered into being one. Despite the bleakest subject matter it's ironically the least nihilistic of the three Cormacs I've read (or listened to). Actually, because it's Cormac, my first reaction to the ending was that those people are luring the kid into a false sense of security, then they're gonna eat his ass and dance, and never sleep, and dance, and say they'll never die, and dance. But apparently that's an unpopular and unlikely interpretation. I have Sutree on my loan shelf though it's longer than No Country and The Road combined. I also ordered All the Pretty Horses but there's a wait list. For what it's worth, the narrator of the audiobooks is pretty good. It was actually Blood Meridian that got me into audiobooks because I found Cormac's actual writing style a little difficult to follow (ie, his lack of quotation marks when characters are talking). Majorly late response... but I think that interpretation of The Road is fairly valid, and not unique. A lot of people have a hard time seeing the light in that story, for obvious reasons, but like you said its bizarrely one of his most hopeful stories even though it guides you through such profoind bleakness. I choose to believe that family has good intentions and the they'll continue to cling to whatever survival is still possible. No Country for Old Men was originally written as a screenplay, but McCarthy was not a success at the time and couldn't sell, so he turned it into a novel years later. He obviously expanded on it and there are omissions in the movie, but like you noted it really feels like a movie...even though the movie feels different from other 'suspense' or chase movies. I'd love to get my hands on that original script but haven't been able to find it anywhere. It would be fascinating to compare both scripts, the novel, and the finished film. I've listened to passages of the Blood Meridian audiobook when I feel like a need a fix, and that narrator does an excellent job. I meant that Suttree might be an odd starting point only because it's a little atypical of his stuff.. sort of a deep cut. And very long, as you found out. Well, I don't know about the gay serial killers (Ripley?), but while it's not The Legend of Bagger Vance, the movie adaptation of All the Pretty Horses is a bit cheesey, but it's not that far from the book. Mostly it seems because the movie was hacked up by the producers. It's not quite the worst thing that Harvey Weinstein ever did, but it still sucks. The frustrating thing is that you can see the movie that should it should be while you're watching, but it's all going by at this weird pace where scenes sort of come and go and the whole thing feels like a montage or something. It's weird. And the romance is definitely a big part of the story, but it's not the only thing. There's a lot of 'romance' of the setting and the characters and everything else, but the love story is sort of a section of the book, amongst many others. I'm still kind of holding out hope that the real version of the movie will be available some day, especially now that Harvey Weinstein doesn't own it anymore... but who knows.. I found some quotes and stuff about that whole ordeal if you're interested at all: Matt Damon said: "Everybody who worked on 'All the Pretty Horses' took so much time and cared so much. As you know, the Cormac McCarthy book is set in 1949 and is about a guy trying to hold on to his old way of life. The electric guitar became popular in 1949, and the composer Daniel Lanois got an old 1949 guitar and wrote this spare, haunting score," Damon shared. "We did the movie listening to his score. It informed everything we did. We made this very dark, spare movie, but the studio wanted an epic with big emotions and violins. They saw the cast, the director, Billy Bob Thornton, and the fact that we spent $50 million, and they never released our movie—though the cut still exists. Billy had a heart problem at that time, and it was because his heart ****ing broke from fighting for that film. It really ****ed him up. It still bothers me to this day." As Damon states, “Billy’s heart was f#cking breaking. [When] he relented, he said, ‘Harvey, I have a chance to do four, maybe five great things before I die. And what I’m hearing you say to me is this isn’t gonna be one of them.” He also said the original version was the best thing he was ever in. Bill Bob Thornton recently said, regarding a director's cut release: “I don't know that that will ever happen, but I wish it would. There's a possibility now that the new guard is in a position that might allow us to do that, so it's something I've always thought about. So, that's really a possibility, and if you heard the original score by Daniel Lanoise, it's pretty spectacular.” And here's a video of Billy Bob explaining the whole downfall of his film:
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