Triumphrat

3Moons · 03-24-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catenaccio

I'm a big fan of Cormac McCarthy books. Superb writer. He captures the intensity of a place's geography like no other. My son gave me The Road for Christmas. I found myself drawn to the father figure both as a metaphor of my own father and of myself. My son said he thought the father's actions and mentality would mirror my own if I were in the same situations. Fascinating how one generation can understand the previous or the next through the word's of an author. I must admit, however, I have seen neither movie mentioned. My bad.

Received The Road as a Christmas gift from my 37 year old daughter. First Cormac McCarthy book that I read, although I had certainly heard of his others. Really wanted to see why he won a Pultizer for this book since I aspire to win the same some day.

I was baffled. It was a nihilistic, paragraph-after-short paragraph, bare bones (pun intended) description of how a boy and his slowly dying father cross the decimated country after something has destroyed 98% of humanity, and the 2% left are beasts that attempt to eat them. Redemption occurs ar the very end after almost every conceivable emotional and physical hurt can be felt/shared (with some minimal flash backs) by the boy and the man.

I have met or spoken with, over the years, Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird - National Book Award), Kurt Vonneight, James Baldwin, and other powerful writers who have written texts of terrible bleakness and greath strength.

I am baffled that The Road received this recongition. But, what do I know?

rodburner · 03-24-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mancha

Hi All,

And can you believe Llewellyn is the same kid from "The Goonies"!?

Mancha

What I find amazing is Capt. Stottlemeyer on Monk is the killer in Silence of the Lambs.

crosstie · 03-24-2008

Hopefully I can give my opinion on books/movies even though I ride a triple

I thought The Road was amazing - which just goes to show, different strokes for different folks. What sort of writing/story appeals to you is obviously a very personal thing - kind of like your choice of motorcycle...

3Moons, I would quibble with your description of it as 'nihilistic'... While it's certainly bleak almost beyond description, the central characters are (IMO) defined by their humanity in the face of that bleakness. The world he's created may be nihilistic, but book (and its central themes) are not.

At least, that's my take.

I thought No Country... was good, it stuck pretty close to the book (which was also good, but not as good as The Road). Not from Texas myself, but it is hard to imagine it set in too many other places. The combination of all that open space, the border (and the cross-border drug traffic), the mythic, violent history... I guess you could probably make it work in other Western border states (AZ, or even someplace like Montana). In a lot of ways it feels like a Western for this day and age, and there aren't too many places in the US that really have that 'Western' landscape anymore. All those roads... those twisty, twisty roads.

Hedge, Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn't really based on a true story (though it does have elements of 'real life' serial killers like Ed Gein) - they just say that to make it seem more real and scary. That's one of my favorite horror movies (original, not the remake).

My $.02 - worth less every day!

hankmarx · 03-24-2008

I worked On ''There Will Be Blood" for 5 months outside of Marfa. For a 2 week time period,''No Country For Old Men" and "TWBB" were both shooting in Marfa.

And I did one of the Chainsaw Movies, "The Origin".

I work as a set dresser or Leadman in the Art Dept.

I haven't seen any of these movies, I like documentaries.