In the novel, Sheriff Bell says of the dope-dealers, “Here a while back in San Antonio they shot and killed a federal judge.” Cormac McCarthy set the story in 1980. In 1979, Federal Judge John Howland Wood was shot and killed in San Antonio by Texas free-lance contract killer Charles Harrelson, father of Woody Harrelson (Carson Wells).
Wtf
While on-location in Marfa, Texas, the movie There Will Be Blood (2007) was shooting nearby. One day, while filming a wide shot of the landscape, directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen had to halt shooting for the day when a gigantic cloud of dark smoke floated conspicuously into view. Paul Thomas Anderson was testing the pyrotechnics of an oil derrick set ablaze on the set of his film. The Coens resumed filming the next day, when the smoke finally dissipated.
Heath Ledger had been in talks to play Llewelyn Moss, but he withdrew to take “some time off” instead. Ledger would eventually portray a Chigurh-like sociopathic killer role, as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). His posthumous Oscar win for that film would succeed Javier Bardem’s turn as Anton Chigurh for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
I read an unconfirmed rumor that Javier Bardem would get drunk enough the night before filming his scenes so he would have a raging hangover, forcing him into the character of Chighur. Now that’s method
I know that Ledger could have pulled that part off, but boy oh boy I wouldn’t trade Brolin for him after seeing what we got out of Brolin in that role. Just way too weird to imagine any of the big three in that movie being swapped out, even for elite talents.
Right and if I recall correctly Heath was in the running because he looks a lot more like the book description of Chigurh.
From IMDb
Despite Anton Chigurh being described in the novel by the central character Carson Wells (and other characters) as both a “peculiar man” and a “psychopathic killer”, in his 30s, with “exotic-looking” features such as a dark-tanned complexion, with eyes as “blue as lapis. At once glistening and totally opaque. Like wet stones”. Javier Bardem’s portrayal is still a peculiar and psychopathic Spanish-American male in his 30s, but has been uniquely redepicted into having a 1960s-style dark-brown bowl-cut, a light-tanned complexion, and dark-brown eyes that shows both lack of sleep and barely any emotions.
I’m with you on the casting from top to bottom. I keep hoping the Coens will make another of equal quality. Closest we might ever get was True Grit, which was amazing, but I’ve only revisited it once or twice and read the book once, whereas I’ve read and seen NCfOM more times than I can count.
Charles Harrelson was a wild character. In addition to killing the Judge, there is a VERY small but nonzero chance that he was involved in the Kennedy assaasination (and he might also be Matthew McConaghey’s father)
Don’t care. I’m excited to see it with my son. He loooooves FNaF. My daughter wants to go, too, but it’s her birthday weekend, so we might have to put it off for a bit (the movie, not her birthday).
I watched it last night on Peacock. It’s very well done and creepy as hell. The only thing I thought was unacceptable was casting Josh Hutcherson as one of the leads, but that’s a matter of taste, and tbh there are so many flashbacks and side scenes without him that there was still lots to enjoy.
NOTE that I have never played the game, but my significant other was a big fan of the game and enjoyed the movie too
Heath Ledger said that he had actually come up with the character of “Joker” before he was cast as the actual Joker in The Dark Knight. It was just a moment of serendipity that the character he was holding in the chamber was such a perfect fit for Nolan’s movie.
Now I am going to sit here imagining what NCfOM would have been like if Heath had given that same dynamic and line delivery for Chigurh instead of TDK.
Yeah, Stuckmann in the video I posted above said similar, and I tend to trust his reads on a majority of movies. We will have to see, my son and I are watching tonight.
Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove is one of my favorite modern novels. I haven’t actually seen the foreign adaptation of it, but I did see the Tom Hanks adaptation, A Man Called Otto, back during its theater run. Though I can’t give it the superlatives that I give the book, I do think the film adaptation did a very respectable job of bringing it to life. I struggle to know exactly how I would have felt about it if I hadn’t already fallen in love with the source novel, but since I already had a great attachment to the character and I always enjoy Tom Hanks (let’s set aside his weird performance as Elvis’s manager), it had me hooked.
I admit it’s possible that a grumpy old man who lives with his cat and mutters to himself about everyone else being an idiot might have been custom-made to relate directly to me*, and therefore others might not care quite as much, but it did do good box office and has positive reviews even if it didn’t seem to make a huge cultural imprint.
(*Disclaimer #1: Though I relate strongly to Ove/Otto, I don’t share his thoughts of self-harm - only a spoiler if you count things that get revealed during the first 10 minutes as spoilers; disclaimer #2: while I am emotionally an old man, Tom Hanks is much older than me.)
Anyway, I give it a 4/5, though it’s possible I’m being a half-star generous. I admit it’s pretty emotionally manipulative, which I’m not really dinging it for as I sometimes would. It seems to be camped on Netflix for the long term.
I saw this on a cruise ship and had close to zero expectations but came away pretty much loving it. I did not read the book but thought the movie was a nuanced, yet entertaining, view of old age and how it’s never too late.
Myers increasingly angrily demanding that the bellhop stay for a nightcap in his hotel room on his wedding night, until he’s full-on screaming, “STAY FOR A NIGHTCAP!” is tremendous. I was disappointed that it didn’t draw a mention on that Rewatchables.
