Ridley Scott talks about Cormac McCarthy's Western, Blood Meridian, and Tripoli

Ridley Scott has been interviewed by Empire magazine recently. He spoke about Body of Lies but also gave some news about his adaption of Cormac McCarthy's Western, Blood Meridian, and the difficulties of adapting a book that is steeped in violence and which deals with seriously un-PC topics.

"It's written. I think it's a really tricky one, and maybe it's something that should be left as a novel. If you're going to do Blood Meridian you've got to go the whole nine yards into the blood bath, and there's no answer to the blood bath, that's part of the story, just the way it is and the way it was. When you start to scalp Mexican wedding parties that'll draw the line. One scalp of coarse black hair is pretty well either Mexican or Indian, and there was no difference to the scalp hunters in Arizona at that time, who didn't draw the line."

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West is a 1985 novel by Cormac McCarthy. Wiki states, "The novel tells the story of a teenage runaway named only as "the kid", who was born in Tennessee during the famously active Leonids meteor shower of 1833. He first meets the enormous and hairless Judge Holden at a religious revival in Nacogdoches, Texas: Holden falsely accuses the preacher, Reverend Green, of pedophilia and intercourse with a goat and incites a mob to chase him out of town.

After a violent encounter with a bartender establishes the kid as a formidable fighter, he joins a party of ill-armed U.S. Army irregulars on a filibustering mission led by a Captain White. Shortly after entering Mexico, they are attacked and massacred by a band of Comanche warriors. Few of them survive. Arrested as a filibuster in Chihuahua, the kid is set free when his acquaintance Toadvine tells the authorities they will make useful Indian hunters for the state's newly hired scalphunting operation. They join Glanton and his gang, and the bulk of the novel is devoted to detailing their activities and conversations. The gang encounters a traveling carnival, and, in untranslated Spanish, each of their fortunes is told with Tarot cards. The gang originally contract with various regional leaders to protect locals from marauding Apaches, and are given a bounty for each scalp they recover. Before long, however, they devolve into the outright murder of unthreatening Indians, unprotected Mexican villages, and eventually even the Mexican army and anyone else who crosses their path.

Throughout the novel Holden is presented as a profoundly mysterious and awe-inspiring figure; the others seem to regard him as not quite human. Like the historical Holden of Samuel Chamberlain's autobiography, he is a child-killer, though almost no one in the gang expresses much distress at his committing these acts. According to the kid's new companion Ben Tobin, an "ex-priest", the Glanton gang first met the judge while fleeing for their lives from a much larger Apache group. In the middle of a blasted desert, they found Holden sitting on an enormous boulder, where he seemed to be waiting for the gang. They agreed to follow his leadership, and he took them to an extinct volcano, where, astoundingly, he instructed the ragged, desperate gang on how to manufacture gunpowder, enough to give them the advantage against the Apaches. When the kid remembers seeing Holden in Nacogdoches, Tobin tells the kid that each man in the gang claims to have met the judge before he joined forces with Glanton."

Scott also passed on a few tidbits about the background and setting for another proposed film, Tripoli, a William "Kingdom of Heaven" Monaghan-scripted tale of high adventure in 19th century North Africa, as a US diplomat teamed up with the dispossessed heir to the throne of Tripoli to challenge the heir's usurper brother.

There is lots more to read in the interview over atEmpire.

Have any of you read Blood Meridian? No Country for Old Men was a brilliant movie and The Road was a great book, so I imagine Blood Meridian is a cracking read and seems to be another movie in the slow Hollywood build up of Westerns in recent years. I also like the sound of the mysterious Holden being viewed by some as not quite human (a bit like Anton Chigurh played by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men). Who could you see playing the monstrous and hairless Judge Holden?
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008 - Movie Review of Woody Allen's Latest

Director: Woody Allen

Starring: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall

Running Time: 96 minutes

Score: 6.5 out of 10

This review from ZeMightyGorilla

Vicki Cristina Barcelona (VCB for short) is a nice return to form for Allen after Cassandra's Dream, which was entertaining throughout but totally uneven and unsatisfying. VCB is pretty classic Woody Allen— an intimate look at doomed relationships and unsatisfied people who can't seem to find true happiness. The movie is not as depressing as that sentence might make it sound—it is full of life, humor and energy, and it reads like a love letter to Spain. The performances are all pretty great, especially Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall. The movie is not without faults, but it is smart and fun and interesting and entertaining.

Plot (minor spoilers): 2 best friends from America are visiting Barcelona for the summer. One is Vicki (played by Rebecca Hall), who is the type of woman who looks for stability and trust in relationships. She is engaged to a nice "safe" guy in NY and is pretty happy/content with life. Her best friend is Cristina (played by Scarlett Johansson). Unlike Vicki, Cristina always seeks out torrid, fiery relationships, which are high on passion and low on stability.

The two are staying with a couple (Patricia Clarkson and Kevin Dunn) who take them to an art show; at the show, Cristina immediately makes eyes for Juan Antonio Gonzolo (Javier Bardem), a successful Spanish artist who was nearly stabbed to death by his last girlfriend (or did he stab her?—the rumors floating around about Juan Antonio are a bit unclear). Upon hearing these rumors, Cristina immediately decides that Juan Antonio is the guy for her. While at dinner with Vicki, Cristina flirtatiously stares at Juan Antonio, causing him to approach their dinner table with an interesting proposition. He invites Cristina and Vicki to accompany him to an island where all three can eat, drink, enjoy nature, and make love together.

Vicki is disgusted and offended by his offer, but Cristina is turned on, and Woody Allen fast-forwards to the two women on a small island-bound plane with Juan Antonio. After a day of wine-drinking, Cristina immediately agrees to go to bed with Juan Antonio, but she becomes nauseous and is in no shape to seal the deal. As Cristina spends the next day in bed with a hangover, Vicki hangs with Juan Antonio who takes her on an intimate tour of the island. Vicki's barriers break down; she falls for Juan Antonio and winds up cheating on her fiancé and sleeping with the artist.

Vicki never tells Cristina about this indiscretion, but she is shocked when Juan Antonio pursues a relationship with Cristina over her. As the summer continues, Cristina and Juan Antonio grow extremely close, and in no time Cristina moves in with him. Meanwhile, as a result of her earlier fling with Juan Antonio, Vicki grows increasingly dissatisfied with her relationship with her fiancé and with her life in general. Meanwhile, Cristina is as happy as can be until Juan Antonio's ex-girlfriend Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) moves in with the couple to recuperate from a failed suicide attempt.

I don't want to go too much further into the plot. Suffice it to say, all four leads find themselves in dire straits—Vicki is hung up on Juan Antonio and is questioning her engagement. Cristina is freaked out by the return of Juan Antonio's ex-lover and doubts that she will ever be an equal to the two great artists. Maria Elena is still in love with Juan Antonio and is not too fond of the new woman in his life. And finally, Juan Antonio is just plain confused at how to handle the two fiery women in his house.

Problems: As I noted before, the film has some problems. Woody Allen relies too heavily on narration throughout the movie. Sometimes this works well, but many times it seems like a cheap shortcut—why show two characters falling in love when the narrator can just tell you that they have? Why show the development of a rift in a relationship when the narrator can just tell you that a rift has occurred? Also, the character of Juan Antonio begins as a fairy tale (he's a supremely confidant, wealthy artist who drives sports cars, pilots planes, and is the toast of Spain), but then suddenly shifts to a more realistic character (he is artistically challenged, he cannot hold on to the women he loves). I think this shift plays to Allen's message that no relationship/lover is perfect , but it seems a bit abrupt—one moment Juan Antonio is every woman's dream, the next moment he's a fragile, stressed-out dude.

Overall, Johansson does a really good job, but every once in a while she starts speaking in that trademark nervous Woody Allen-style. I found this to be really distracting— it seems like at least one actor in every Allen film does this. It totally takes me out of Allen's movies whenever this happens.

My last fault is a bit juvenile, but I feel I must share it. I was really hoping for some hot sex scenes with Cruz and/or Johansson, but the movie is fairly conservative when it comes to showing the action. Except for a little bit of kissing and some side-boob, there isn't much to get excited about. I guess I was expecting Woody Allen to push the boundaries a bit on this one, and I was disappointed that he left most of the sex off-screen. Some of you will no doubt roll your eyes at this complaint, but I'm just trying to be honest here.

Great stuff: The acting is top-notch! Except for my minor complaint about Johansson mimicking Woody Allen in a handful of scenes, the rest of her performance was great. ALL of the characters are extremely likeable, which is no easy feat in a movie like this. Bardem is awesome— the scene where he first approaches Vicki and Cristina with his island-getaway offer is a tour-de-force. Rebecca Hall is so beautiful and really emotes well throughout the film, as her character goes through the most on-screen turmoil. I've never really heard of her before, but I'm now totally in love with her. And Penelope Cruz is soooo loveable, despite being batshit crazy.

As dark as it is, I really respected the film's message about love. People enter into relationships with different hopes and desires, and it is really rare when both parties can have their needs met. Anyone who has been through a heartbreak (as either victim or cause) can find someone to relate to in this movie.

Also, this film made me fall in love with Barcelona. Having never even been to Spain, I am now seriously thinking about heading there on my next vacation.

I really recommend it, and I think Woody Allen deserves a ton of praise for turning out such diverse, interesting work in the past few years.

Discuss in the forum.

No Country for Old Men, 2008 - Review

Director: The Coen Brothers
Starring: Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald
Running Time: 122 minutes

Here is another great review from Steven.

Let me start by saying that No Country for Old Men is not your typical movie. It is not your typical thriller and it’s not your typical plot setup. Nothing can prepare you for its onslaught of biting reality, in a world where people do get fucked over by the bad guy, in a world where nothing is sacred. It’s a vast, reaching masterpiece by the acclaimed Coen Brothers, (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), and it is by far not only their most mature work, but it will be their masterpiece for all other films to look up to and aspire on all paradigms. Not only on the dramatic level, but No Country breaks ground in cinematography, characterization, sound and storytelling. You have never seen a film quite like it, and you probably never will until you take the plunge into No Country for Old Men.

No Country for Old Men is the twelfth effort from Joel and Ethan Coen, directors of The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and Barton Fink. They’ve adapted the novel by the same name into a film that breaks all boundaries. If you’ve read the book you’ll be happy to hear that it follows almost to the letter, exactly what occurs within. The first thing that No Country does right is that it’s a faithful adaptation, something several films strive for.

The movie is about Llewelyn Moss, Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, and Anton Chigurh, three characters with different agendas, who are all after something different. The film starts with Llewelyn, a Texan Vietnam vet who lives his life like any Texan does. It begins with him finding a stockpile of cash from a heroin deal gone wrong. He takes the cash and runs, with Anton Chigurh a hired hitman from hell, crawls out and seeks to take what is rightfully his. Ed Tom Bell is the catch-up, he attempts to figure everything out before it’s far too late.

The movie isn’t about what happens, it’s about why it happens, it’s about things deeper than the surface. In order to enjoy this movie you need to dig deeper than the surface of things and think about why which characters made the wrong and right decisions. It’s not something you can simply follow casually and hope to understand, it’s a beast that challenges you as much as the on screen characters, and if you do, you will be rewarded for a message deeper than the general populace can comprehend. It’s expertly written and shot, it’s why it won the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at this years Academy Awards.

The camerawork is superb, providing sweeping, gritty brutal shots of the American south-west in the 1980’s. There is very little music in this film, only about 12 minutes total for the 122 Minute run time, but what’s here is sound. Not “Bang” “Kazam!” but sounds like you would hear in the situation. A gunshot is heard shuddering throughout the neighborhoods, boots clod, metal clangs, and wood breaks with a nice crisp. The sound may seem like something that shouldn’t be given such a priority, but it helps build the tension and suspense that’s required for a story such as this.

Josh Brolin does a faithful job with Llewelyn, playing the American everyman who makes the choices that you might make given the circumstances. Tommy Lee Jones is a natural fit for Ed Tom Bell, and he does it with gusto. Sorry, but the real star of the show is Javier Bardem in his now iconic role as one of the most intimidating, ruthless, and now infamously parodied Movie Villains of All Time, Anton Chigurh. Anton is meant to be a figure for Death incarnate, his tone of voice, to the way he walks exhudes darkness. He is a sociopath that only believes in fate, and decides on the flip of a coin. His performance as Anton nailed him the first Acting Oscar given to someone from Spain, and with good reason. He is simply terrifying, everytime he appears you fear for your life, as well as the innocent animals, women, children, men and gods that are present in the room. He has a creed, but one that doesn’t allow him to kill on the level of other gung-ho icons of the past. He has a method; he uses it, and lives it to the finest degree.

Overall, No Country for Old Men is a stunning, visceral masterpiece, and if you don’t enjoy it than you may not be mature enough to embrace the world for what it is, because this should be the way films are made.