The late authorCormac McCarthywas one of the preeminent chroniclers of the American condition. His novels, often filled with harsh violence and bleak outcomes, left a scorched path of uncompromising works that detailed the depths of humanity and the moral compromises taken to get there.McCarthy’s books have been reveredfor their dense, often philosophical prose and unflinching content. That style bled from his novels into the cinema, as several ofMcCarthy’s most searing works were adapted into films.
The individual success of those adaptations is variant, but they all share some aspect of the author’s unique voice, which isn’t afraid of the dark. Each of the films based on the work of Cormac McCarthy, at the very least,touch hands with the notion of evil and tragedy, and some go further to make bedfellows with them.A marathon of McCarthy films would be an endurance test of one’s moral fortitudeand how far one’s willing to dive into nihilistic uncertainty. These are the six films by Cormac McCarthy, listed based on the darkness of their content.
6’All the Pretty Horses' (2000)
Directed by Billy Bob Thornton
All the Pretty Horsesholds the distinction of being the first filmed adaptation of McCathy’s work, and that’s about the only distinction it holds. The author’s vivid tale of two cowboys who travel over the Mexican border to find work and love istransposed into a bland romantic thrillerthat loses much of the melancholy present in the text.Matt Damonleads as John Grady Cole, a farmhand gone wayward who falls for the daughter of a Mexican rancher, played byPenélope Cruz, and who is subsequently imprisoned, along with his fellow cowboy, for crimes they did not commit.
McCarthy’s novel isn’t as grim as his most apocalyptic works, but the prison section delves deeper into the hearts of darkness than the film can commit since the adaptation leans more on heavy-handed melodrama, which drains the impact and leaves it dramatically inert. The fault isn’t that of directorBilly Bob Thornton, who had proven his mettle with moral relativity inhis previous effort as director withSling Blade.The blame for the dramatic neutering of McCarthy’s work goes instead to infamous producer and scum blobHarvey Weinstein,who butchered the adaptationby editing it into oblivion and plastering a generic musical score onto it.It’s a vision compromised that fails to capturethe heartbreak for a lost way of life inherent in McCarthy’s text.
All the Pretty Horses
5’The Sunset Limited' (2011)
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones
A few years removed fromthe success ofNo Country of Old Men, starTommy Lee Jonesrejoined McCarthy fora television film adaptation of McCarthy’s playThe Sunset Limited. McCarthy adapted the text himself, and the film maintains the sparse single setting of the stage play, which amounts to a prolonged philosophical debate between a Christian ex-con, played bySamuel L. Jackson, and a suicidal Atheist professor, played by Jones. Physical violence is never made flesh on screen, instead kept within the descriptions of the characters, and Jones, as director, is confident in letting the performances drive the dark subject material.
Jackson and Jones trade barbs, wits and stories as they battle on a philosophical impasse over the nature of man, God, and ultimate salvation. In short,The Sunset Limitedis a heady mix of profound wordplay from the always-pondering McCarthy that the two actors handle with veteran skill.The ending is bitter and nihilistic, fully divorced from the hope that can sometimes infiltrate McCarthy’s darkest of works. There’s a whole lot of demon wrestling to be had in the match-up of the film, but the final blow isa gut punch to anyone who had maintained optimism.
4’No Country for Old Men' (2007)
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
A match made in hopeless hell, theCoen Brothers’uncompromising adaptation of McCarthy’s most cinematic novel,No Country For Old Men, isa pretty much perfect thrillerthat plays out the twisted ways that fate and circumstance violently intertwine. In the aftermath of a desert drug deal gone wrong,Josh Brolin’s Llewellyn Moss takes advantage of an opportunity that unleashes hell across West Texas inthe personage of the psychotic Anton Chigurh, played byJavier Bardem. Tracking it all is Tommy Lee Jones as a county sheriff who can’t take the measure of the crime and violence he sees perpetrated.
Plenty of blood is spilled throughout the runtime, but it’sthe unrelenting pace and dark tonethat the Coens approach the material with that gives it the narrative weight that sinks into the stomach of the viewer early on and doesn’t release until well after the credits roll. Just as in McCarthy’s text,death doesn’t wait or discernwhen it comes to guilt or innocence; it just washes over everyone, leaving a trail of bodies filled with bullets behind.No Country for Old Menis anihilistic masterpiece that resuscitated the cinematic career of McCarthy, laying a path for even further destruction to follow.
No Country for Old Men
3’Child of God' (2013)
Directed by James Franco
One of McCarthy’s more horror-adjacent novels,Child of Godconcerns an isolated, insular man who lives a violent, feral life in Appalachia. It’s rife with details of murder, assault, and necrophilia, making it a difficult read. The film doesn’t flinch in its depictions of corpse defilement, but directorJames Francodoesn’t have the directorial nerve to make any of it stick to the viewer’s hippocampus. To be sure, the movie is often grotesque, but the novel could simmer for days on one’s conscience whilethe adaptation boils over and is quickly wiped from memory.
The best of the film lies inScott Haze’s committed performance as Lester Ballard,a man whose only language for the living is violenceand who can only find companionship with a corpse. Haze inhabits Ballard in a way that gives glimpses of interiority to the character, which eludes Franco in his direction. Under a steadier hand,Child of Godcould have becomea Southern Gothic classic, but instead falls prey to its lofty ambitions. Both too literal in its adaptation and not secure enough to fully grapple with its ideas, its result isa downbeat series of events that Franco plods throughwithout leaving any emotional footprint.
Child of God
Directed by John Hillcoat
It doesn’t get much darker than the fall of civilization, which is what has occurred inMcCarthy’s post-apocalypticThe Road, which charts a father and son’s journey of survival across a ruined America that’s populated mostly by roving gangs of cannibals. Far from the pulp energy ofMad Maxor similar film dystopias,John Hillcoat’sadaptation of McCarthy’s novel isharsh and unforgiving, a gray world of violence and ash.Viggo MortensenandKodi Smit-McPheegive haunted, hollow-eyed performances as they attempt to reckon with the leftovers of humanity, Mortensen always clutching close a revolver with enough rounds to end their lives before becoming some other’s next meal.
The novel was even more explicit and disturbingin its depictions of violence, but Hillcoat and screenwriterJoe Penhallpreserve its bleakness and slow-burn narrative.There’s no purchase for levity or humor in the film, nor does it inject needless action or thriller tropes. What conflict there is comes quickly and leaves ugly, not allowing even for the gritty thrills like those in the highly similarThe Last of Us, which was clearly inspired by McCarthy’s opus. Despite the horrors that draw out,The Roaddoes end on a note that could beinterpreted as hopeful, if not bittersweet. It comes down to one’s beliefs, but the more hopeful may choose to believeMcCarthy was appealing to the better side of human nature.
1’The Counselor' (2013)
Directed by Ridley Scott
McCarthy’s only original screenplay wasthe forgotten thrillerThe Counselor, a pitch-black crime saga that charts the fallout from a drug deal orchestrated byMichael Fassbender’s titular character. It shares DNA withNo Country for Old Menbut differs in that the moral compasses of all parties involved here are well and truly broken. Cartel executions are only the tip of the damned iceberg in what may be the most underrated andstrangest film of directorRidley Scott’scareer. Much like McCarthy’s seminal novelBlood Meridian, the initial reactions were unkind, but time and distance have slowly seen estimations grow forThe Counselor.
With no heroes andfilled with long stretches of poetic dialogue,The Counselorisa nihilistic, risk-taking film, the likes of which are hardly ever seen in mainstream cinema. That risk will never be repeated with McCarthy’s passing, but he left behinda dark cinematic message that’s a fitting epitaph.The Roadfound hope in humanity after the world went up in flames;The Counselorshows why it needed to burn in the first place.
