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.
It's extremely violent, borderline-surreal in some places, excruciatingly slow in others (by design), occasionally has two or three levels of story-within-a-story. Unlike some of his other novels, it's more of an epic than a story, which is usually very hard to put on film. The closest I can think of is something like Ben-Hur or Apocalypse Now (which adapted Conrad's Heart of Darkness); both were famously plagued by production issues.
I haven't seen Yellowstone but I'd be amazed if it comes at all close to Blood Meridian for violence. I can't think of any movie or TV show that would.
edit: American Psycho might have if they'd stayed faithful to the book
WSJ: People have said "Blood Meridian" is unfilmable because of the sheer darkness and violence of the story.
CM: That's all crap. The fact that's it's a bleak and bloody story has nothing to do with whether or not you can put it on the screen. That's not the issue. The issue is it would be very difficult to do and would require someone with a bountiful imagination and a lot of balls. But the payoff could be extraordinary.
Eh, I don't think you have to take a silly, fun 633 Squadron remake with cool practical FX as nationalist propaganda. It may as well have been a Star Wars movie.
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.
Hillcoat made The Proposition, which is a very McCartyesque film in its bleakness and violence. It's a great movie, written by and scored by Nick Cave.
I thought his adaptation of The Road was fine (though maybe a book that doesn't need an adaptation), and he hasn't done anything interesting since then, in my opinion. But Blood Meridian may be better material for him.
I would hope any good director would have the sense to know that it probably isn't for them. I can't imagine Spielberg picking this up. Gangs of New York is about as close as Scorsese could get but still too Hollywood. The Cohens did a great job of No Country but don't seem like a fit for Blood Meridian.
And hopefully nobody would offer it to somebody second rate.
I think some books just don't adapt to movies well. Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books and I was shocked to learn it was being made into a movie, it just didn't seem like the right format. Despite a lot of talent and money going into it, the film didn't turn out that great and was probably an impossible task.
Idk, I feel like HBO (or any mainstream tele studio) might butcher it by trying to hamfistedly make it a revisionist Western along the lines of “White Man Bad” without catching the actual point about evil being inherent in everything. Thats undoubtedly a part of the reason as to why it hasn’t made it to screen yet - it’s not a story that fits nicely into the sort of Hollywood trope oriented storytelling that dominates mainstream TV.
Agreed. Its not even that a "white man bad" reading of Blood Meridian is wrong per se, its just woefully incomplete. It'd be like if Apocalypse Now was just John Wick in the jungle, or Blade Runner was just a police procedural with flying cars. Like, yes, that is the skeleton on which the piece is hung, but it is not at all what makes the piece great.
Is it merely a coincidence that Judge Holden was described as "face destitute of hair" and the director, John Hillcoat, is also bald and devoid of both eyebrows and facial hair?
Because nobody could handle the judge, that, and would take such a particular style of photography to capture the prose. I think mostly because of the complex characters like the judge, and the violence.
Glenn Fleshler, the main villain from True Detective S1. As soon as I started reading Blood Meridian, he was the first guy that popped into my head. He has that surreal quasi-supernatural energy.
While he might look right, there's a lot more to the judge than looks. I'm unfamiliar with his acting experience but i think the movie will 100% fall flat if the judge isn't right. I'm not sure kane has the range
I'm gonna be brave and say Dave Bautista. I haven't seen Knock at the Cabin yet, but it looks like he's got the range from the previews. He's big enough and imposing enough as well.
Clancy Brown or Glenn Fleshler (True Detective season 1) probably come closest in my view. Another one, if he were younger and bulkier, and hairless, who I think fits best with the book's overall description of the Judge would be Sid Haig.
The important aspect of an actor for the Judge wouldn't just be his physicality and baldness, it would also have to be a certain very particular type of sinister air. Few large actors have that.
It's hard to say why, but Clancy Brown is the one person I can see with the physicality of The Judge. Maybe it's because of his role as The Kurgan in Highlander.
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