Overall, I think the student did a great job with a budget of only $50. Although the judge is not this monstrosity of a figure, he does have the same pale bald skin along with the black cowboy hat that McCarthy’s depicts the Judge wearing in the novel. Focusing on the scalped Indians epitomizes the gruesomeness of the storyline and the Judge is definitely the most defined character within the book. This trailer displays the violence of the film without actually showing any blood, which I believe supports the notion that this novel can become a movie.
I do like the ending line of, “Every man has a scalp.” The saying contributes to the notion of war being the ultimate game and your “scalp” being what is at stake. As for things I would have changed, I probably would have put the gang or a group of horses in the far background on a hill but of course the producer probably didn’t have access to such things.
The director of this teaser trailer does a great job at capturing the simplicity of violence depicted in McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian. There are so many graphic and gruesome scenes from the novel that the director could have used, but rather he kept it simple; only showing the black hair of a Native American and later a man walking away with presumably the Native American's scalp. By not actually showing any violent acts, the director is correctly implying that violence need not be seen to be understood in Blood Meridian. To put this in other terms, I believe the director is attempting to show his audience that horrific violence can be displayed in such a quick and precise way that we barely even recognize it. Perhaps this director wants us to notice violence more often in everyday life, but this is just my own opinion, and I may be looking too deep into the trailer. All in all, I believe this book can certainly be made into a movie; and this trailer should definitely be considered by Hollywood executives when/if a movie is made.
ReplyDeletePretty close to the right tone. The slow motion thoughtfulness of the action of the faceless character (likely the Judge because of his bald head) create a dream-like effect that the book has.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you posted this as I had it queued up the day we talked about film.
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