Hacker Cinema
Blood Meridian
Film
Directed by John Hillcoat
On the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, a 14-year-old Tennesseean nicknamed The Kid stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.
5 positive1 mixed6 neutralfrom 12 commenters
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12 comments on Hacker News
I hope, at least, you managed to watch the films before you had an opinion on them. Tarantino's, I mean.
The Road is not a violent or pessimistic book, tho there is violence and pessimism in it. Don't confuse the set and the setting.
Why write about, 'the worst among us'? Some art (and Cormac tottered over the line between wrought and overwrought plenty) is about finding meaning in the margins, in the edge cases. The statistical noise at the outerbands of anything might make it an impossible endeavor for meaning-making, but that's why art. You try anyway. Some writers are skilled enough to make the mundane sing and that's great, but McCarthy obviously didn't seem to care for that approach.
I think I can see why Child of God put you off enough for the thoughts of others to prevent any further effort, but I'd suggest you give him another go.
I'd save blood meridian for later tho; If you don't get too distracted by the setting of the road, it's a perfectly optimistic book.
As the poet said, something in us does not erode (free pun!)
Blood Meridian as "rewarding"? I do agree it is a jaw-droppingly well written book, but it is excruciating to read and experience. This is on a par with recommending Irreversible as more rewarding for French cinema if I put in the time. Please stop destroying young minds. /s
As others have mentioned here, John Hillcoat (director of the film adaptation of "The Road") is taking a crack at filming the "unfilmable" "Blood Meridian".
I'm stoked to see how he handles BM, especially who he casts as Judge Holden. I feel like Philip Seymour Hoffman would have been perfect for the role, but I'm confident Hillcoat will find someone equal to the task.
My favorite Judge quote from BM:
“This is an orchestration for an event. For a dance, in fact. The participants will be apprised of their roles at the proper time. For now it is enough that they have arrived. As the dance is the thing with which we are concerned, and contains complete within itself its own arrangement and history and finale, there is no necessity that the dancers contain these things within themselves as well. In any event, the history of all is not the history of each, nor indeed the sum of those histories, and none here can finally comprehend the reason for his presence, for he has no way of knowing even in what the event consists. In fact, were he to know, he might well absent himself, and you can see that that cannot be any part of the plan, if plan there be.”
RIP.
Whenever someone wishes for a film adaptation of Blood Meridian, I recommend The Proposition. I'll be amazed if any Blood Meridian movie is as good.
From my reading and working in editing movies:
The point of the book is not at all the visual, most of it is very subtle. One commentary that I heard that was very astute pointed out that many parts of the book are specifically not detailed, one big example being that we rarely if ever witness the Kid killing or partaking in the murder/general viciousness of the gang.
This means that a large part of the book is emulated in your brain while reading - did you infer that the kid is doing all this, and is just as bad as them? Is he an observer, like you, and doesn't leave because he doesn't know better? Does he actively try to avoid unnecessary violence?
Your reading of these things will affect your reading of further parts - like the accusations of Holden, saying that the Kid was always a traitor to the spirit of the gang, which are not specific enough to be factual, but you absolutely know what he means while reading (depending on how you characterised the Kid).
All this means that any one expression of the story would betray the oeuvre (in my mind), which aims to get you in the boots of these horrible men and understand that they are part of you (between other things).
The stark writing and purposeful lack of factual descriptions of some key points make Blood Meridian a very evocative work, rather than descriptive. Half of it is and remains in your mind, and that's simply not what movies do.
All this to say - you can do a movie showing what happens in the book, and it would be good! But it would contain very little of why the book is so beloved and respected.
Looks like they are finally working on a film version as of April 2023:
> it was announced in April 2023 that New Regency is set to produce a feature film based on the novel, with McCarthy and his son serving as executive producers and John Hillcoat serving as director.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian
Why do you suppose Blood Meridian hasn't been put to film yet?
Yes. If you enjoyed it, a film adaptation for another of McCarthy's novels, Blood Meridian was recently green lit.
https://deadline.com/2023/04/new-regency-cormac-mccarthys-blood-meridian-john-hillcoat-1235340998/
Blood Meridian is like a poem, that is movie but in a form of a sculpture and in prose.
Side note but I am so excited for his new books later this year. It's been so long since he wrote a new book, and statistically these are almost certain to be his final novels given his age (88).
I found the prose of Blood Meridian and The Road absolutely extraordinary, so I'm eager for more of it. I haven't read his other past novels yet, don't ask why. Maybe because I saw the movie of No Country For Old Men, and I wasn't sure if the horses trilogy would interest me.
Are the most enduring and popular works of fiction, of film, or of music produced primarily on the Internet, or are they released commercially with IPR protections?
I don't doubt the Internet's ability to produce cartoons and memes, but I wouldn't trade all of them together for Blood Meridian or Nevermind.
McCarthy's novel "Blood Meridian" [1] is one of my all time favorite novels and continues to be a source of inspiration. Its almost biblical in its prose and unrelating in its pace and violence. I even wrote a song based off it (shameless plug) [2]. The villain of the story, Judge Holden is up there with the Joker for me in sheer evil. I would love to see a movie adaptation of it although I doubt it will ever happen. Too bloody. Too violent. I highly recommend it if you aren't easily put off by its dark tone.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Meridian-Evening-Redness-West/dp/0679728759
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45jPip11_j8