Hello all, I have recently been completely enamored with Blood Meridian as a work of art, and have attempted to synthesize a movie trailer for it. I was particularly inspired after seeing Franco's adaptation of the gunpowder scene (I was appalled at how poorly it conveyed the atmosphere of the book).
I took 6 different movies and went through each one 3 seconds at a time, noted down scenes I thought I could use, and then strung some together to make a more cohesive whole. For music, I chose Swans, because their primal, chantlike, terrifying drones remind me of the vast American sunbaked waste that is so prominent in the book. I also chose to use a slightly (10%) toneshifted and trimmed version of the monologue on war that the Judge delivers , courtesy of the audiobook. I hope someone here likes it and can give some opinions on how close/far this hits the mark!
thanks user, other user was kind enough to link it bane's voice honestly would've been better for this, I was unhappy with the narrator's timbre/intonation at times thanks user! nope, just because I wanted to make it made me really unhappy when I watched Franco's version, thanks friend Frankie M by Swans!
Isaiah Jackson
there's an album based on it called blood meridian on electric guitar or something like that. it's on bandcamp
Jeremiah Bell
Pretty good. I don't think the music fits though. Definitely does capture the book's tone better than Franco's abomination.
Justin Hughes
Thanks for watching!
Can you be specific on why you think the music doesn't fit? I actually came up with the idea while listening to it. Personally, I felt that the tribal, long, mournful drones, and then the frenetic, brutal, terrifying, and relentless squall fit in very well. Other albums on the soundtrack would be Hex by Earth, F#A# infinity, The Seer, etc.
Christian Cruz
Swans have that apocalyptic feeling more than any other band I can think of, especially their recent stuff
Landon Parker
So who do we think is the best possible director for a film like this? Coen Brothers?
Elijah Nguyen
>Frankie M by Swans! >tfw i witnessed the first ever performance of that song
Landon Brooks
Michael Gira actually mentioned Cormac McCarthy as an influence
Grayson Bailey
The Earth album Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method is directly inspired by Blood Meridian, as well.
Benjamin White
>vice.com/read/james-francos-blood-meridian-test-656 Haven't watched it yet, but why the hell is he calling McCarthy's prose 'terse'? That's such an inappropriate description. God I hate Franco; he already butchered The Sound and the Fury, one of my favorite books.
Also, OP, it looks really good. Nice job. I think that the Swans track fits well
Andrew Smith
he butchered as I lay dying too
Ian Murphy
Yes!! I had listened to Hex a few years ago and read about the titles and forgotten completely about it until I read Blood Meridian this last month. Coen Brothers, Terrence Malick, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Alfonso Cuaron are commonly thrown out names. Ridley Scott and John Hillcoat as well. I'm seeing them next month, hyyyyype That first performance must've been unreal Yes, he talks about Blood Meridian firing off his synapses! thanks man, I hated the Franco adaptation, and terse is a terrible overall descriptor of McCarthy's writing.
Kayden Johnson
>I'm seeing them next month, hyyyyype >That first performance must've been unreal To be honest, it was a terrifying experience. They played some Johnny Cash songs before they came on and then started playing improvisational noise over Johnny Cash, which eventually got to ridiculous volumes that climaxed when Gira began his incoherent screaming into the microphone. I couldn't tell you whether he was actually saying real words because of how loud it was. My advice is to bring the strongest pair of earplugs you can find, or you will regret it.
Jack James
Nuri Bilge Ceylan would be a dream director for me. But I doubt he would ever be considered. Otherwise Paul Thomas Anderson is an obvious choice based on There Will Be Blood. Andrew Dominik or John Hillcoat could also be great. Purely based on their modern 'westerns'.
Chase Lewis
It's like the man is on a quest to ruin all of the South's greatest novels.
After watching about five minutes of Franco's Blood Meridian before turning it off (DUDE HANDHELD CAMERAS LMAO), and seeing how badly the dude playing the Judge fit the character, I realize that Brando would have probably made for a really good Holden. Brando always had tremendous presence, which is what you need for the Judge. Only bit lacking would be that his voice didn't have the right timbre/tenor.
Zachary Roberts
i recognize scenes from bone tomahawk
Matthew Jackson
faggot
Michael Brown
Really nice. I think if anything the dialogue was too fast/not enough spacing. Music fit well I thought.
What film(s) are the gory scenes taken from?
Jaxson Davis
...
Lucas Rivera
The music just sounds cheesy to me. I don't know how else to put it. I'm biased since my ideal soundtrack for an adaptation would be as minimalist as possible and wouldn't use any modern instruments.
Kevin Rodriguez
i mean you're not wrong
yes! it was an okay movie I thought, not fantastic, but well done
yeah i'm buying special earplugs for that haha
Yeah I was struggling to figure out how to split up the dialogue, that's good to know, thanks! Bone Tomahawk/The Burrowing/The Proposition were the bulk of the gory stuff I think, mostly Bone Tomahawk. It's really hard to find visually good material of scalping, much less settlers hunting down natives.
fair enough, use some singing bowls like in No Country for Old Men? That was an auditory fuckin experience.
Andrew Gonzalez
Who is this man? I like his face.
Brody Wood
Yeah I mean some sinister minimalist Native American drum or something would be nice. But as modern music goes, I was ok with this.
James Wilson
Agreed. No Country For Old Men was an unbelievably good McCarthy adaption. If anyone makes Blood Meridian I would hope it's the Coen Brothers or at least someone who takes note from them.
Parker Moore
>there will never be a Blood Meridian film adaption worth watching
Good job, but it just reminds me of what will never be.
