The second Javier Bardem movie I had seen was Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It was weird. I kept waiting for him to take out the air gun... But it never happened.
No Country for Old Men
- Thread starter lizavet8
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I wouldn't necessarily say no possible way, it just takes the right approach/angle/take to do it right. I've only read The Road, I hear the adaptation of that isn't stellar, but yeah, I'd think McCarthy stuff is challenging to adapt. But not impossible.
I think the problem with the NCFOM film is that McCarthy has this striking, utterly distinct style that is undeniable, no matter how you approach and adaptation, and then the Cohens also have their own very distinct, unique and inescapable style. I don't think them taking something McCarthy and then infusing it with their own style really worked. It's like bleak and strange + bleaker and even stranger. And it doesn't mix well, kwim?
I think it takes just the right combo of McCarthy + screenwriter to get it a film of one of his books right, and it also takes right combo the Cohens + adaptable material to get it right. Neither the author or the filmmakers are ones who have flexible styles imo.
I've seen The Road. You should pass on it. It had its moments of greatness, but not enough to make it worth watching. It was neither a good accompaniment or adaption of the novel.
Which director do you think would have been appropriate to direct The Road in Mccarthy's vision or generally capable to handle his work?
Which director do you think would have been appropriate to direct The Road in Mccarthy's vision or generally capable to handle his work?
No Country for Old Men was his first novel that he wrote in very plain and understandable language. Try reading his other books such as Blood Meridian or Suttree, it's very challenging to follow. For this reason I think a lot of his fans that didn't like NCFOM as much as his other novels.
But ironically, the novel that won him the Pulitzer was The Road, which was written in the same simple style.
It's good for me because I struggle to read anything, let alone something you have to be a literary genius to understand.
But ironically, the novel that won him the Pulitzer was The Road, which was written in the same simple style.
It's good for me because I struggle to read anything, let alone something you have to be a literary genius to understand.
I have not read the book, but I'm nosey - what happens between Chigurh and Carla Jean in the book?
SPOILER:
In the movie she heroically denies his request to call a side. In the book she picks tails, and it turns up heads. She begs him not to take her life. She pleads several times and he shoots her.
Carla Jean was only 19 in the book.
I wouldn't say it applies to everything, but...... THE SIMPLER, THE BETTER!
I've also read All The Pretty Horses, which was also simply written, but not quite as much. There were point at which it was hard to follow. Something that compounded this was the fact that there were no quotation marks, and nothing to indicate who was speaking. If the other person started to speak, you'd only know since it was on the next line. Was The Road like this? Either way, ATPH was harder follow.
Yeah, no quotation marks. But it's very easy to follow, I've read parts of it. No confusion.
Btw, our director best able to capture Mccarthy's vision: Terrence Malick
Btw, our director best able to capture Mccarthy's vision: Terrence Malick
No Country For Old Men, was done well, such a great movie and superb acting. I saw Javier in Vicky Christina Barcelona, I loved him in that too!
Have you seen the movie?
Spoiler:
Sheriff Bell quit. So the title implies that he quit and he don't have the drive anymore cause he was old. Chigurh was about half his age. In both novel and movie he was unable to track down Chigurh but got very close and he knew he was going to find him eventually if he kept at it. And he wasn't willing to try to confront him again. So he quit.
The difference between the novel and film was that Javier Bardem was this air-gun-shooting maniac that would have loved to air gun the hell out of Tommy Lee Jones. In that motel room he had the complete jump on him. Tommy Lee Jones goes inside and Chigurh was never there. Michelle, perhaps you can explain the symbolism of that scene to me, because I still don't get it.
In the novel, they miss each other also, but they were very close. Sheriff Bell got very close. He tried to catch him but he missed. Chigurh didn't want to confront him just as much as Bell didn't want to, but Bell tried and he missed. Chigurh got away. I'll detail what happened between them more closely later. After their close brush Bell didn't want to go through it again. Only in Clint Eastwood movies does the good guy shoot all the bad guys and ride off into the sunset. I remember reading an article somewhere that an entire small police force in Texas quit because of all the violence going on in their town related to drug trafficking and they couldn't handle it anymore.
The same thing happened to the Compton police here in LA during the peak of post-Rodney King in the 90s.
There's an idea. I don't know if Malick has ever done anything with quite as much a sense of underlying doom or darkness, but I think he could do. I'd like to see him try, that's for sure.
He could do Suttree, it's perfect for his style. Suttree was a modern, or a somewhat relatively modern Huckleberry Finn, I think he would have a lot of fun with it.
What was All the Pretty Horses about?