Mcarthy to film

The hermitic 'man' of living writers has recently cashed in on film options for 4/10 books and one play.  Mcarthy would never bother but I believe he is thinking of his young son in his recent successes in Hollywood.  I wish to discuss the success of No Country for Old Men and failure of The Road and possible failures of Blood Meridian and Cities on the Plain, both due out soon in theaters.

When I read No Country I saw the film version inevitable.  This tells me-and a little digging supports- that Mcarthy began the story with a film in mind.  He offered the work as a script at first and it was passed over.  He then just submitted it to his publisher in book form and the rest is Oscar history.  When Ethan Coen held the Oscar for Best Script and passed Mcarthy he said, "I didn't do anything, but I'm keeping it.".  The story is plot driven, well designed and it made itself.

The Road was a great tender book.  Yet when put on the screen I found it boring and drab.  Why?  Mcarthy's writing finds its force in evoking images- we see the leaden skies and ravaged lands in this story.  The plot of The Road was too simple for filmic story telling- it is linear as the road they walk.  The filmed image immediately steals the visuals that Mcarthy brilliantly painted with his words and deflates the book.  It's a shame Hollywood has to pounce on any whiff of a seller.

Todd Field is filming Blood Meridian and Andrew Dominik is doing Cities on the Plain.  This worries me as each book was similar in its simplicity (in regards to plot) to The Road.  They just entail characters taking long journeys through the harsh wilderness of Southwestern America.  Granted Blood Meridian does have many layers of deep moral questions but those will be hard to translate I think.  Ridley Scott was supposed to do Blood Meridian and backed off saying it was better left a great book.  I think I agree.  But I will go see it nonetheless.  

Hollywood has a terrible habit of damning best selling books, or just great books, to that filmic graveyard that extends all the way back to the Bible.