The Unfilmable Movie: 24 Years of Failure | Video Essay (feat. Benjamin August Literature)

“Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.” - Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is widely considered to be one of the Great American Novels. And yet, over the 24 years that the film rights have been available, it’s never had a film adaptation that reached completion. Why? Well, one thing’s for sure: It’s certainly not for lack of trying.

Huge thanks to Benjamin August Literature for collaborating on this project with me! Check out his channel here for more Blood Meridian content:

Follow us on Social Media!

Special thanks goes out to our patrons for making this possible! Thank you so much to Rachel DeLisio, Ethan Rudder, Peter DeLisio, Lisa DeLisio, Mariah Helm, Samuel Copeland, John DeLisio, Jeanette Clark, Heather & Michael Clark, & Hero.

Another big thanks to KaiAfterKai and Afterthoughts from the Essay Library for proofreading and giving me amazing script feedback!

Music Used (in order):
New Equipment (Firewatch OST), Full Steam Ahead (Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks OST), Stay in Your Tower and Watch (Firewatch OST), The Lumpy Pumpkin (Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword OST), Serenity - Prof. Riddman, Tranquility - Prof. Riddman, A Quiet Time (Red Dead Redemption 2 OST), rose - lukrembo, More Gun (Team Fortress 2 OST), Lonesome Town (Red Dead Redemption 2 OST)

Sources:
Adapting Cormac McCarthy: Tracking Blood from Page to Screen - Stacey Peebles, 2017
Blood Meridian- Screenplay - William Monohhan, 2004

[judgeholden]

If someone complains that Blood Meridian isn't an authentic western, that's a deeply ironic claim from a complete lack of historic education. It was painstakingly written from countless primary historic sources McCarthy spent 7 years studying. You could say it's the "only" authentic western, lol. If you read "Notes on Blood Meridian", you come to the horrific realization that its a shockingly accurate work of historic fiction. Even small characters are usually real life people.

[davidmcbryde]

It's not unfilmable, but it's probably un-Hollywoodable. This story reminds me that those who hold rights without producing the goods should lose those rights.

[pod]

The violence would absolutely have a place in modern media but the problem there would be that most people who are into violent things today are in it for the pure exhibitionism. Those people are not Cormac’s intended audience. He is not showing all this violence because it gives him a kick. The purpose of the violence, I believe, is to highlight the horror of the fact that this is existence. That you are alive, living your one life, and this is how it is spent. Surviving unimaginable horror despite being surrounded by so much complex fascinating beauty.

[sixstringer]

The Judge in cinema needs to be exactly like he was in the novel. As Tobin told the Kid, "He appeared to be a lunatic, and then not." The Judge should appear almost reasonable, someone you'd want to root for, and then turn on the audience, revealing his true colors. If he's too cut and dry, it would come across as cheap.

[ParkerTJames]

If wendigoon could only condense it down to 5 hours, any attempt by a film maker to half that would be spitting on art.

[PersonaNonGrata]

If you read the book, the kid is never mentioned amongst the group who scalp their enemies. The story only mentions the kid afterwards, after the rest of the gang does their thing.

The kid is a perfect impression of the reader. Detached, yet present. Like a reader of a story. Or when you dream. If the kid scalped people in the story in your mind, then he did. But since it's never mentioned, I feel it says more about the reader as to what the kid partook in other than what the story explicitly says.

[carlocoppola]

One of the main appeals of blood meridian is the style and beauty of it's poetic prose. Every page is full of beautiful sentences presented in an epic biblical structure, there's hardly any plot to justify making a film and without Mccarthy's language it would just be a boring mess. Cormac Mccarthy's writing is just amazing. Profound, powerful and poetic. Truly a genius of our times.

[fatherflavor]

James Franco thinking he has the chops to pull off Blood Meridian is pure hubris, like he makes a few stoner movies and thinks he can film one of the greatest American novels ever written

[barrymoore]

As intimated in the video, the spirit of McCarthy's novel has been adapted for the screen. The 2005 Australian drama 'The Proposition', directed by John Hillcoat to a screenplay by Nick Cave, a McCarthy admirer, captures much of the flavor and existential dilemmas of McCarthy's modern masterwork.

[scribbly]

Everyone watch Wendigoon’s video on this book it’s awesome and well worth it despite the video length. He goes into more detail of the plot/characters/etc of the book

[klausweasley]

You know who should direct "Blood Meridian"? Robert Eggers.

[chickencharlie]

This is so fucking cool, I'm so glad Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian is getting more and more popular even outside us book nerd clan.

[Melissa-twgp]

Man. I would kill for a Scorsese Blood Meridian. Even if it wasn’t perfect, you know at least some of the scenes would be amazing.

[HobGungan]

So hear me out: Blood Meridian as a fully cell-animated or stop-motion feature. Yes, it would take two to three times as long to make and animated features for adults are still a hard sell, but you could capture both the beauty and the surrealness without it seeming out of place, the violence could be stylized without feeling sanitized, and you could open up casting to people who have good vocal presences if not necessarily physical ones.

[MadastheHatter]

It would have to be a vanity project.

Made by a millionaire fan who doesn't care about critics or profit but is literally just making the movie for themselves to watch and any others that might be interested.

[piratemccall]

The greatest movie that can never be made. To do it right:
1. NC-17 rating
2. At least 5 hour runtime
3. Huge budget and insane cinematography. Simple shots of men on horseback won't cut it, every scene would have to be surreal and horribly beautiful.
4. Actually sorting out the plot and true meaning of each scene, ESPECIALLY the ending. The ending is one of the most debated in literature, and interpretations of the ending effect how you recall the entire book. In truth, there are 4 or 5 versions of Blood Meridian in my head depending on how you interpret the ending. That would be near impossible to recreate on camera.
5. Casting the judge near impossible.
6. Doing justice to the prose.

[markcarey]

The only person who I think could probably have done it would have been prime Alejandro Jodorowsky. The level of violence and philosophy in El Topo is the only filmic parallel to McCarthy's vision of the Old West I can think of.

[madman]

Someone else mentioned Robert Eggers as a potential director, which I believe is a grand choice, but I also believe Paul Thomas Anderson would be an exquisite selection. Much as he's not particularly big on overt violence in his works I very much imagine that he would be willing to cross that line for the sake of a faithful adaptation of this book.

[Manman]

Not a fan of the prospect of a mini-series. We need a precisely and poignantly written, aggressively produced yet intricately directed 3 hour cinematic experience and NO LESS.

[luisadrianlara]

Does anyone truly think Franco could do this book justice????