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| Messages 1 - 77 of total 77 in this topic |
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 1, 2007 - 10:12pm PT
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Just got home, excellent film, but dark as the night.
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Nick
climber
portland, Oregon
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I just got home from seeing this as well. Brilliant film. The most serious Coen Bros. film yet. Riveting.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 1, 2007 - 10:46pm PT
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Dad, younger than son, riding on ahead to start a fire in the darkness ... quite a word-picture to end with.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Cormac McCarthy's other books are incredible and climbers would "enjoy" them, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses for example. Recommended!
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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I wandered into that film the other day, not knowing anything about it(I do that; there's a 25 screen theatre on 42nd street, and something is always about to start).
It definitely had my attention. Very good work, though not what you'd call a feel-good film.... Really good acting in that film.
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wildone
climber
Where you want to be
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Maybe my favorite movie. Very dark. Very serious.
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Very trippy indeed!
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Karen
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes
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It was too dark for me. When it ended I was like? huh?????
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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'Blood Meridian' is the most brutal book I've ever read, not gratuitous, and McCarthy truly a master of dry and sparse prose. The Judge is the best conceived of and written characterization of archetypal evil I've read - beats anything other American writers have put out. Wonder if they'll make that one into a flick.
It's a trip to read the Border Trilogy, Meridian, No Country, etc and then go back and read Suttree, one of his earlier books: it's funny as hell and has none of the darkness of these.
Damn it sucks to be home at my computer working right now.
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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Read the book and saw the flick last night with Karen. Oh well, I paid for her ticket.
Blood Meridian is a nightmare read and based somewhat on actual events. The man can write. I wonder if he sleeps hanging upside down in a cave.
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James
climber
A tent in the redwoods
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I liked when Sugai leaves the wife's s house, bends over, and looks at his boots. A little later when the kids are fighting over the hundred dollars is pretty funny too.
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Standing Strong
Trad climber
the only coast
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my dad loved cormac mccarthy, so i checked out his work awhile ago. i've read the border trilogy but havn't seen this movie. i was struck by the bleak landscape and heartbreak... kinda blocked them out... i need to reread it tho. i like his style.
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Dickbob
climber
Colorado
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Great show. I will read anything Cormac writes. Suprised no one has mentioned The Road yet. Even Opra recommended that one.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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The Road was good, though Blood Meridian is the masterpiece. The only book I can think of that has shocked basically everyone I know that has read it. Rumor is that Ridley Scott is scheduled to direct a movie version.
I was less impressed by No Country as a book than many of his others, but the movie was very good.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2007 - 01:43pm PT
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I want to see it, if for no other reason than I saw Josh all the time when his kid went to my daughter's school.
Josh does fine work in this one, it oughtta be his breakthrough. And Tommy Lee Jones does Tommy Lee Jones. But it's Javier Bardem who will walk behind you as you leave.
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Broken
climber
Texas
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Cormac's weakest book. Yet, when I read it I thought "this will make a great movie." In fact, I wonder if Cormac wrote it with that in mind. When I heard that Coen Bros / Tommy Lee Jones were doing the movie and I became very excited.
I was not disappointed.
Making Blood Meridian into a film would be fantastically difficult. Several attempts have been made at it in the last 15+ years. I also read that Ridley Scott was currently working on it.
I loved Suttree, and while it might not have the "darkness" that some see in Cormac's work, it has a poignant sadness that resonated with me beyond all of his other books.
There has been talk of a film of The Road. I'm not sure how that would be approached, given the lack of dialogue in the story. It was quite a book, though - it sits third on my personal ranking of McCarthy's work (behind BM and Suttree).
Someone should do a short art-film version of Child of God. Or maybe not.
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darod
Big Wall climber
South Side Billburg
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great story, great acting as well, Tommy Lee is his usual amazing, Javier Bardem is just unbelievable....
Loved the ending as well, loved the "what?", "this is it?", "is this the end?" reactions from people around me.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Frickin' brilliant movie. It was dark enough alright--they left the movie lights on and you could still see those black eyes.
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bradthatclimbs
Big Wall climber
vancouver, bc, canada
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Great pace.... when he is following the dear he shot, finds the shootup, follows the money to the shaded tree, and then waits ... most directors would cut "boring" scenes. Loved to see that kind of pace, and was pissed off to see people next to me being so impatient! Just gives you a feel for how these characters think.. really talented film makers.. has Fargo beat in my mind.
And a chase sense with a dog in a river... knowing his gun won't fire wet.. stays calm, etc. Thats some great writing and even better acting. Josh has come a long way since the goonies in 85!
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hobo
climber
PDX
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Dec 28, 2007 - 02:17pm PT
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Probably on my top five favorite movies ever, if not the best. Children of Men may have it beat, I haven't decided.
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crusher
climber
Santa Monica, CA
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Dec 28, 2007 - 02:59pm PT
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Wow - Broken - is someone trying (Scott or ?) to make Blood Meridian into a film? I read the book a long time ago and have re-read it several times. I always hoped someone would take a stab at it (no pun intended) in terms of a film but it would have to be just that - a film - not a "movie" and definitely something of an acquired taste. Probably would have to go unrated. I am always surprised to meet people who have read it.
I haven't gotten to the movies yet to see "No Country" but am looking forward to it.
Another actor who would do well in collaboration with Cormac McCarthy is Daniel Day Lewis. Not to change the subject but I hear he's incredible in There Will Be Blood.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Dec 28, 2007 - 04:35pm PT
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Maybe the best movie with the weakest ending I've ever seen. If you read the book maybe you could explain it better than the Cohens. Love their work, but I was surprised Tommy Lee let that ending slide.
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Redwreck
Social climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Dec 28, 2007 - 04:42pm PT
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I thought the ending was perfect, and reflective of how the world really (often) works. No catharsis, no neat resolutions, no tying up of loose ends. Just a frightened look into an uncertain and probably dangerous future. I know mileage varies wildly on this, but I thought it was masterful.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
Redmond, OR
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Dec 28, 2007 - 04:56pm PT
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Reading the book, I thought much of the time , "this reads more like a screenplay," almost like a script.
Seeing the movie, I sat in the fourth row, center seat, for extra action effect, and was not disappointed. I was appreciating how the movie was true to the powerfully sparse "script" I had read. The cinematography was killer, the pace haunting, the acting breathless, but then the close-heeled "script" was abandoned at the end for a simplified one.
Still, the suspense and artistic power expressing darkness and doom, was mega forceful. Real Christmas-ee!
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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Dec 28, 2007 - 06:13pm PT
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I'll be very surprised to see " Blood Meridian " made into a satisfactory film. It will take a genius to do it. Of course we as film buffs will know if it succeeds; we'll walk out of the theater and try to throw ourselves in front of the first rapidly moving truck that comes by.
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Dec 28, 2007 - 06:15pm PT
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Hey woody, name one movie by Ridley Scott that was a bust.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Dec 28, 2007 - 06:17pm PT
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I thought the ending was perfect...
I started to fad listening to TLJ's monologue, thinking about other things going on in the movie. Then, suddenly, it was over. I was like "What? What'd he say? What did he say??"
Then I got it. Jones had said it before, near the beginning of the flick. He said just what it was all about.
Another thing it was about--How did those Mexicans keep tracking? It was all about tracking...everybody trying to outdo everybody else. Some not doing so well. Insane, you are never safe.
So creepy, so good.
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Geno
Trad climber
Reston, VA
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Dec 28, 2007 - 07:18pm PT
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Redwreck nailed it. It's a real American Western: raw, complex, unresolved. The Cohens pretty much just turned the book into a movie. I guess it was already twisted enough to suit their tastes. The book has a slightly better ending. I thought it was a great read but I have only read this one book by McCarty. Can't seem to get into Blood Meridian. I'll try again.
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bob
climber
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He's a great writer, but at times has lost me in his writings. Just read Child of God not too long ago and found myself laughing at stuff I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have been laughing at. That stuff is whacked, but worthy. Outer Dark was and epic journey complete with all the goods as well.
Haven't read No Country, but am interested for sure.
Bob j.
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho
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In a caged death match who do you think would win?
Anton:
Or Blondie
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 1, 2008 - 11:59am PT
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No Country made most critics' "10 best" lists as they wrapped up 2007. Ty Burr in the Boston Globe writes vividly of its message:
"No Country for Old Men" A masterpiece of apocalyptic pessimism. The Coen brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel delivers the bad news with magisterial force: Evil walks the earth, dramatic closure is for fools, human life hangs on the flip of a coin, and - the hardest pill to swallow - cowboy heroism is just a bedtime story to soothe grown men.
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2007/12/30/ty_burrs_top_10/
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billygoat
climber
3hrs to El Cap Meadow, 1.25hrs Pinns, 42min Castle
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The ending is more or less the same, as is the entire film, as the book. It's pretty neat to see it done so well--a rarity among books made into movies. I remember reading it think about how it could make a great movie. I just read "The Road" and that would make a great movie too. I haven't been disappointed with any of McCarthy's writings. He's a master. His earlier stuff is definitely less dark, and there's moments where I'm sure he intended to get his readers to laugh.
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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I don't remember my source; however, "Blood Meridian" is based, with some modifications, on actual, historical events.
I can't remember all Ridley Scott's films. Enlighten me so I can deliver an opinion on whether or not I feel he failed with one.
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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LE Boomp
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Fluoride
Trad climber
Hollywood, CA
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I saw NCFOM the weekend it came out in limited release last fall. I worship the Cohen Bros, love Cormac McCarthy's novels and the cast is so amazing. I don't think I could ask for more in a movie. It was like Christmas came early.
It did not disappoint. Yep, it's dark but it's supposed to be.
A friend of mine went to a screening of it with the Cohens and the cast at a Writer's Guild screening just before the flick came out (pre-strike as well). He said someone in the audience asked them how they went about adapting the screenplay and Ethan said "I just held the book open while Joel typed." In other words, they stayed painstakingly true to the book. So good to see in this day and age. It didn't get a "Hollywood" treatment.
On another note, Kelly McDonald - the actress who plays Llewellyn's wife in the movie - is actually Scottish. Speaks with a thick Scottish brogue. But she nailed the west Texas accent in the flick. The Cohens were looking for someone locally to play that role so the accent sounded authentic but their casting director insisted they audition Kelly. She blew them away and the rest is history.
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GOclimb
Trad climber
Boston, MA
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Jan 24, 2008 - 12:29am PT
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Holy sh#t, you're kidding? She was superb!
Just watched it tonight. Really good movie. A very disturbing take on life (and death), but very, very well done.
Edited to add - as I think about the movie, it keeps reminding me of a post Radical made a few days ago: That life has a nasty surprise waiting for all of us at the end.
GO
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dlintz
Trad climber
Neebraskee
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Jan 24, 2008 - 02:11am PT
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No Country was the best film I saw last year. My girlfriend didn't like the ending but IMO it was genius, much like many of the subplots of The Sopranos series...no tidy endings.
Ever since I read All The Pretty Horses many years ago I have been an unabashed fan of Cormac. Despite what some may think I've always felt that McCarthy is a more interesting and complex version of Hemingway (a longtime favorite). Regardless it'll be interesting to see how Blood Meridian turns out.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jan 24, 2008 - 03:45am PT
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I'm all for spartan, terse and unresolved endings. My criticism of the ending (absent of reading the book) wasn't that it was poorly conceived, but rather that it was extremely poorly exectuted and inconsistent with almost every other aspect of the body of the film. The writing, photography, editing, directing and acting completely fell off a cliff as far as I'm concerned.
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survival
Big Wall climber
arlington, va
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Jan 24, 2008 - 07:08am PT
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The baadaaaasssesst badass bad guy, in a weird bad hair day kind of way! Just the way that he never changed expression or tone (Robot like) was awesome.
I have always loved the old crusty of the sage, Tommy Lee did a great job.
Most definitely not a neatly wrapped, tidy Hollywood ending. I love the ones that kind of leave me squirming at the end.
Best Picture vote!
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 24, 2008 - 12:47pm PT
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anyone care to take a stab at why they named the movie after yeat's "sailing to byzantium?"
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees -
Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
-- William Butler Yeats
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Mar 12, 2008 - 08:20am PT
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I think its obvious Bob.
Its a rough world, then you die.
Just saw it DVD). Liked it same as all the other Cohen Bros films.
But why must Hollywood always mis-portray guns (and climbing)?
A silenced shotgun?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
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Loomis
climber
Lat/Lon: 35.64 -117.66
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Mar 12, 2008 - 08:44am PT
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But I am the old man.
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Mar 15, 2008 - 12:18pm PT
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Callit frendo
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WandaFuca
Gym climber
San Fernando Lamas
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Mar 15, 2008 - 02:50pm PT
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Just saw it last night.
It is one of my favorite movies.
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MisterE
Social climber
My Inner Nut
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Mar 15, 2008 - 03:17pm PT
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Just watched it last week. The locator beacon was a bit of a stretch, and the ending a little bit confusing but I liked the rest of it.
The most important lesson is: if you steal $2mil from a herion dealer in the desert, don't go back to give the dying mexican water!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Mar 15, 2008 - 04:52pm PT
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And throw away your boots, and don't take the HK, and hole up in another state after changing vehicles and directions a few times, and,....
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ha-ha
climber
location
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Mar 16, 2008 - 07:42am PT
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great movie, but it's no Lebowski or Fargo.
the reveal in the book of the death of Moss and his little girly friend was much better than in the movie, imo. i wish the bros would've stuck to the book a little closer. great flick nonetheless.
"Whatcha got ain't nothin new. This country's hard on people, you can't stop what's coming, it ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."
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atchafalaya
climber
Babylon
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Mar 16, 2008 - 05:14pm PT
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just saw it. great movie, I couldnt turn away. But the hollywood style ending sucked. Still a great movie though.
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rockermike
Mountain climber
Berkeley
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Mar 16, 2008 - 05:19pm PT
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Saw No country a month ago or so. I liked it even if too dark. Had nightmares for a few days afterwards.
But I just saw another (also with tommy lee jones) that I liked even better. Three Burials from 2005 or so. neo-western. I won't say more. see it.
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cintune
climber
Penn's Woods
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Mar 16, 2008 - 05:27pm PT
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MisterE: The most important lesson is: if you steal $2mil from a herion dealer in the desert, don't go back to give the dying mexican water!
 I think the more important lesson is to always transfer the cash to a new pack asap. That's what I always do, now.
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the Fet
Knackered climber
A bivy sack in the secret campground
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Mar 17, 2008 - 11:23am PT
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After all the hype and awards I thought it was weak. Watched the DVD last night, I fell asleep 15 minutes before the end, boring. Then my wife woke me up and she watched the end again, looking for something she missed. Nope nothing there.
You don't need a clean hollywood resolution, but for cripes sake have something. Have it end in some kind of irony, or reveal. No character development. No subtext.
This is just a unimaginative "and a bunch of sh#t happens." leaves you thinking "what's the point?" movies. The acting and action were good, not great.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Mar 17, 2008 - 11:48am PT
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Could it be that the "point" is there is no point?
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John Mac
Trad climber
Littleton, CO
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Mar 17, 2008 - 11:54am PT
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Watched it this weekend and thought it was a great movie with great acting. I was totally absorbed in it and then bang, it was over. Watched it the 2nd time before returning the DVD to McDonalds. Definately got my dollars worth on this one.
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the Fet
Knackered climber
A bivy sack in the secret campground
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Mar 17, 2008 - 12:21pm PT
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Could it be that the "point" is there is no point?
Yes. But why would I be interested in something with no point. I guess it appeals to some people. But that just seems like a cop out to me. At least when forrest gump did it, they made it interesting.
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yo
climber
The Eye of the Snail
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Mar 17, 2008 - 12:38pm PT
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There's somebody lookin for me. Not police. Just call me if anybody else checks in tonight. And by anybody I mean any swinging dick.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 23, 2008 - 07:15pm PT
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I liked it, for all its bleakness. It would be easy to try to read too much, or too little, into it - it wasn't that tidy, and neither is life.
Perhaps it was all about sin. Even Moss, at the start of the movie, 'sins' - he chooses to follow the dying dog to the drug crime scene, rather than the antelope he'd shot. And his attempt at redemption - with water, at that - went sour. Javier Bardem in the role of Satan, punishing them all.
Kelly McDonald was the schoolgirl in Trainspotting - she was a real surprise, not to mention her accent.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Mar 23, 2008 - 10:02pm PT
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I want to get a Javier Bardem wig and a quarter and go to the local convenience store and say, "call it, friendo".
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 24, 2008 - 12:54am PT
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Don't forget your compressor!
But if your convenience store rents movies, you may get more for your quarter than you're thinking.
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rockermike
Mountain climber
Berkeley
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Mar 24, 2008 - 01:26am PT
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Just saw another (evidently) related movie. The Seventh Seal (1957 Bergman). I'd heard about it my whole life but somehow never saw it. Great film, perhaps best in my life in very '50s, existentialist, heavy intellectual way. Death and meaning issues set against the backdrop of the plague. But anyway, the film prof that did the intro commentary said that the bad guy character in No Country for Old Men was a takeoff on Bergman's "death" character. He points out various parallels (flat facial expression; chess game in Bergman, flipping coin in No country, and others).
Now I'll have to watch No Country again to see if I can find a deeper story line. ha
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Mar 24, 2008 - 10:01am PT
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Everybody says the same thing, "You don't need to do this."
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wildone
climber
Where you want to be
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Mar 24, 2008 - 12:35pm PT
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Where'd you get tha pistol, Llewellyn?
-At the gettin' place.
or,
"That's all right, son. I laughed too. Sometimes there nothin' to do but laugh"
Since seeing No country, I've been on a Cormac fan.
I've read
The Road
Blood Meridian
The Orchard Keeper
All the pretty Horses
And I'm reading the Crossing right now.
I thought The Orchard Keeper was some pretty goddamned powerful stuff. I'm really glad that I came upon Cormac at this time. If I'd been alive in the mid sixties, when he debuted as a writer with The Orchard Keeper, I'd have been pretty pissed to have to wait 40 years for 9 more books. Or I'd appreciate them more, maybe.
In any case, he's one hell of a writer. I'd make the comparison to Melville and Faulkner, but it's already been done. Besides, I think the only Faulkner work that holds any water in this comparison is the Sound and the Fury, and for Melville, well, Moby Dick. Aside from "The Road", I haven't read a McCarthy that didn't seem to "fit", and even in the aforementioned book, I still enjoyed it immensely in all it's confounding complexity. Well, enjoyed it as much as I could enjoy any book about post apocalyptic starvation and cannibalism, etc. And I really appreciate how, in the border trilogy, there will sometimes be whole pages of primarily spanish dialogue. And not text-book spanish either. Real, slang ridden, colloquial-ridden spanish like my grandfather speaks. A counterpart to the "fixin-to" and "reckon", and "kindly" southern english you would be hard-pressed to find in a english-spanish dictionary.
Blood Meridian. Holy jesus. When they were on the run from the apache marauders, out of gunpowder on worn-out horses, and they went up to the smoking caldera, and under the advancing killers, had the wherewithal to make gunpowder...whoa. And I was right there with that gunsmith who refused to saw off that beautiful, priceless english double barrel. I'd have wanted to shoot that heathen for asking me to.
The whole time I was reading it, I was thinking of a book my dad had me read when I was kid called, "The Travels of Jaime McPheeters", a pulitzer-prize winner from '58 by Robert Lewis Taylor. Not so much in similarity of brutality of subject, but more in similarity of breadth of scope and commentary on humanity. And skill as a wordsmith. Like Twain.
Soon, I'll have read all of Cormac's works, and then what?
Anybody have some favorites I should check out? I don't care what genre or style so much as the fact that they have talent and aren't full of sh#t.
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wildone
climber
Where you want to be
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Mar 25, 2008 - 05:55pm PT
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Little known fact: Tommy Lee Jones owns the movie rights to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Nov 29, 2008 - 01:05am PT
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just saw the video tonight... very dark... good movie but not one I'm likely to watch again and again.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 29, 2008 - 01:07am PT
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I believe "The Road" will be coming out sometime in the next few months. It will be interesting, but bleak.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 29, 2008 - 04:31am PT
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Right up there with Slingblade. Bardem is as good as it gets. He has an incredible face.
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noshoesnoshirt
climber
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Nov 29, 2008 - 08:48am PT
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"The most important lesson is: if you steal $2mil from a herion dealer in the desert, don't go back to give the dying mexican water! "
I thought about this. The conclusion I came to was that it actually helped him. If he hadn't taken water to the Mexican, he wouldn't have been chased and wouldn't have left his home pronto. Meanwhile the crazy shotgun guy was homing in on the beacon.
So the water delivery trip helped him in the short? long? run. Either way he dead dude.
So as far as Coen bros. movies go, any comments on Miller's Crossing?
Sweet! My North Carolina Wren is working on her nest on my porch as I type.
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wildone
climber
GHOST TOWN
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Nov 29, 2008 - 11:27am PT
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So-anybody read my comment five posts above? Anyone have any suggestions as to a competent writer (knows his subject matter) who doesn't shy away from ripping your heart out? I've exhausted McCarthy's bibliography (loved the play "The Stonemason").
I've already read all the published works of Faulkner, Hemmingway, Kafka, etc, ad nauseum. I want someone like Cormac!
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 29, 2008 - 12:04pm PT
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My first exposure to McCarthy a few years ago was listening to 'The Road' driving to Chicago. My wife told me he had a reputation as a great writer. I thought it was unimaginative and mechanical, devoid of any art. I spent the last 200 miles guessing which new sort of depravity would show up in the next stop along the road.
When 'No Country for Old Men' came out I watched it and thought it was well made, with a few interesting story bits such as the role of the coin tossing and Lewelling's ultimate betrayal of his wife. But the story was muddled in making me care about the old men that had lost their country.
Sometime later I had a discussion with a young PhD of literature who commented that some details of the movie were much better put together than the novel. She also mentioned that Harold Bloom thought 'Blood Meridian' was the best American novel since 'Moby Dick.' With those observations I read 'Blood Meridian' and then 'No Country for Old Men.' 'Blood Meridian' is very good in every respect-just hard to read. It helped me to know that it was based on actual events in 1848-50 with the Glanton gang. I ended up reading several books of critical essays on the novel.
I also found it very interesting that the Coen brothers had improved the story telling of 'No Country for Old Men' in several unexpected ways-the coin tossing theme, leaving out 'sugar's' I-need-a-job scene, and 'sugar' inspecting his boots on the porch, in addition to the normal economizing. There was still no resonance with the old man theme, and after reading 'Blood Meridian' I can believe that McCarthy was only interested in the evil side of the story anyway.
I intend to read McCarthy's earlier novels, but with 'No Country for Old Men' and 'The Road' he seems more interested in writing for the movies.
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maldaly
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Nov 29, 2008 - 05:58pm PT
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Hey wildone,
Read Stegner if you haven't. More of historical novels than fiction but extremely good.
Also, I think James Galvin is one of the most under-rated western writers around. Start with The Meadow and then read the sequel, Fencing The Sky. They are part natural history, part local history and part adventure story and I keep coming back to them. Maybe it's because I spent so much time up on the CO/WY border but i feel like I know the characters. Galvan is a much gentler writer than McCarthy but he nails the moods, the weather, the dialog and the cadence just as well as McCarthy does.
I just read Dick Dorworth's "Night Rider", or perhaps I should say, re-read because most of it was in past editions of the Mountain Gazette. Wonderful, eloquent and powerful storytelling from one of us. I remember when I first read "Coyote Song" in the late seventies I laughed so hard while reading the last page that I had to get a drink. When I read it again a few months ago, I laughed so hard, again, that I needed vodka, again.
Enjoy,
Mal
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 29, 2008 - 06:06pm PT
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wildone, the books of Halldor Laxness are well worth reading. Many have recently been re-published. Generally about Iceland, with strong elements of history and natural history, and interesting characters. Independent People may be the best - he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for it. Iceland's Bell is also good. Somewhat black humour, but extremely well done.
Laxness died about ten years ago, but some of the things he says have considerable relevance to what has happened recently in Iceland.
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wildone
climber
GHOST TOWN
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Nov 30, 2008 - 10:48am PT
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Thanks so much guys. That may keep me busy for a few weeks.
Stegner I've read. He and E.O. Wilson are in a class to themselves.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 30, 2008 - 11:15am PT
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Best novel I've read lately, not at all in a western vein, was The Terror, Dan Simmons' scary, complex fictionalization of what happened to the Franklin Expedition.
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Redwreck
Social climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 30, 2008 - 12:54pm PT
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The Terror is an amazing book. Simmons is a fantastic writer. If you're into science fiction, I can't recommend his Hyperion series highly enough.
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5br
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Nov 30, 2008 - 01:01pm PT
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The part where he pulls the guy over and tells him to stand still "why I punch a hole in your forehead" part was a little bit un believeable, I mean who who just stand there, doh, and take that?
I guess Josh is a rel nice guy, he was crying on the shoulder of his co partner everynight, "I don't think the Coen Bros like my performance today" sensitive guy in real life.
I kept getting distracted by the cow puncher thing, I have wanted a Beaman recoiless air rifle for ages, they run on a compressed mini tank that you fill off a scuba bottle.
No spring, no piston, so no hold sensitivity.
If you put most air riffles in a vice, they will shoot four inches low.
That is how much the rifle moves when you shoot it due to all the shifting metal.
Feinwerkbau 124, now thats a rifle.
Give it a Macari tune and a Tarantula spring you are dead eye dick.
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UncleDoug
Social climber
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Nov 30, 2008 - 01:39pm PT
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"The part where he pulls the guy over and tells him to stand still "why I punch a hole in your forehead" part was a little bit un believeable, I mean who who just stand there, doh, and take that? "
If the movie were set in the present day I'd agree.
I think that scene adds to the character Tommy Le Jones plays and the position his character holds in the movie.
Remember this movie is set in the early 80's.
Tommy Le jones is a sheriff from another time.
A time when people where more trusting and naive compared to todays standards.
It's funny to talk about situations like this in a way that seems to hold them as special. Even though the same thing has been characterized by every generation as it passes along in time. Every generation is different than the previous. And change is usually viewed as bad. Just like it is viewed in the movie by TLJ's character..
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