Mariana

Great article. I wondered about your inclusion of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as “the indulgent, money-hungry Star Wars of the 21st Century,” though. I’d definitely say the latter is true, but I’d consider The Lord of the Rings a much more sincere venture along the lines of the pretty money-indifferent original Star Wars, which you also mentioned. It’s a nitpicky thing, I know, but it made me wonder what kind of criteria you’re holding these movies to. Do you think they shouldn’t be made at all or just that they should be less greedy?

It’s pretty hard to take in. On the other hand, McCarthy wrote a book that is legitimately unlike any other in the genre. It’s absolutely worth reading for that alone, I think, and really, the way he writes is just so incredible that it really makes you feel like the suffering he put you through was purposeful and not just for spectacle. Thanks for the comment!

True, but keeping the visuals from seeming over-symbolic would be another challenge…thanks for the comment!

Aw man, agreed. I have no doubt that there exists a perfect team that could make a really incredible Blood Meridian movie or miniseries. Really, the main problem is financing and marketing. A big studio will NEVER fund this movie without major debilitating changes to the story, so someone very powerful, very rich, and probably very eccentric would have to be the main force behind this. Those people exist, but even so, they still would have to sell the film to a distributor, which would probably require more paring down of the brutality, which as we all know is crucial to the point of the book. Even if they managed to get something good funded and made, the film will almost certainly be NC-17, which is almost never shown in theaters or sold in movie stores. It’s an almost idiotic risk on the part of the industry, no matter how revolutionary a good Blood Meridian movie would be. I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. If it does, I doubt it will do the book justice. Maybe someday… 🙁

Thanks for reading!

Maybe. In some ways, I think the book relies on its readers’ imaginations to visualize an amount and kind of violence that I doubt we’ll ever see on screen, whether it be because of censorship, queasiness, impossibility to shoot (the many animal deaths come to mind), or otherwise. It’s a weird effect- you can look away from a movie that offends you, but reading McCarthy’s descriptions of violence it’s impossible to avert your mind’s eye. You may as well have seen it happen.

Also, thanks for reading!

Yeah, there’s gotta be a filmmaker that can do it justice somewhere. My only concern is that the violence in Blood Meridian is truly ever-present, unlike most violence in most works of art, including American Psycho. I might just be saying so because I’m not a huge fan of that book, but in American Psycho it seems more important that there be violence somewhere so it can support the ultimate “meaning” of the book than in Blood Meridian, where the point of the book depends on there being violence literally everywhere. I actually think American Psycho works much better as a movie. The satire comes across better that way, where in the book the violence just came across as self-indulgent and sensationalist to me.

Definitely. I’d even specify that statement as “ALWAYS carelessly, heartlessly.” McCarthy’s brand of violence is completely devoid of any purpose or justification. It’s such a strange thing to see in a story, which I think is part of what makes his books so beautiful (in such a horrible way). Thanks for the comment!