I’ve never understood why Blood Meridian is considered unfilmable and the success of The Revenant convinces me that it could be done well and be financially successful.
The Revenant has a similarly brutal story, graphic violence and long stretches without dialogue. Unlike that film, Blood Meridian has no admirable characters, only degrees of evil and innocent victims. It’s been argued that this makes it too big a risk for a big studio to touch it, but There Will Be Blood had the same ‘fault’ and did pretty well.
I just don’t see a major studio trying to produce an adaptation of Blood Meridian. Even if the screenplay takes out half of the violence that’s in the novel, it would still be far more violent than either The Revenant or There Will Be Blood. There are dozens of deaths, some of them quite gruesome, and other acts of incredibly explicit violence; if you take some/most of those out in order to film it, you’re left with something that’s not really anything like the book.
It’s been a number of years since I’ve last read it (and I’ve read it twice – I do like the book, despite its depravity), but I recall the story of Blood Meridian being much better suited to the page than the screen. It’s an incredibly slow burn of a novel, and there’s not much character development. The best aspect of Blood Meridian is how to consider the nature of Judge Holden, and I’m not sure how that would translate to the screen.
Considering the setting of the American Southwest, it’d be a beautiful movie (when people weren’t getting horrifically killed); it might also make an interesting graphic novel.
If you’re lookin’ for a violent western, by the way, check out Bone Tomahawk. I saw it via Amazon Prime a couple of weeks ago. It’s got a surprisingly deep cast with great performances (especially by Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins) and beautiful cinematography, but man-oh-man is it bloody.
Raping grandmothers, babies on spikes, shooting puppies in a bag thrown in a river. Not to mention The Judge is a cartoonish villain. Not unfilmable, but perhaps a little too gruesome to attract A list stars and grab Acadamy Awards.
I’m not sure there has been a good movie yet made from a McCarthy book. No Country received some acclaim - but I thought it one of his worst books. A book like Suttree, or Orchard keeper would be more filmable.
I was amazed by All the Pretty Horses when it came out. Immediately read everything else by him - did not appreciate the ceaseless brutality of Blood Meridian. Didn’t care for much else he wrote after.
I loved Blood Meridian (after a few tries), but I don’t think it would make a good movie for the reasons above. The other movies you list had brutal violence committed against individuals, but Blood Meridian had brutal violence against entire classes of people, sometimes seemingly for no reason. That’s harder to watch.
I think The Crossing would make a better movie. It has a sympathetic and likable main character, and a good story line.
The Revenant is a fairly straightforward story. The guy has to survive and get revenge onthe bastard who wronged him.
Blood Meridian is, shall we say, unorthodox.
Honestly, I’m not even sure why the two stories are even compared. The Revenant is more similar in narrative to “Die Hard” than it is to Blood Meridian. Hell, it’s closer to “Jingle All the Way.” Blood Meridian is weird and highly unorthodox, and unless you changed it beyond recognition would not follow the sort of story arc most moviegoers would be comfortable with.
I thought The Road was pretty good as adaptations go. But I believe I’ve outgrown wanting to see every book I’ve ever loved receive a film treatment. Too many disappointments. Books are books and films are films. I don’t care if I never see another adaptation.
No Country received some acclaim - but I thought it one of his worst books. A book like Suttree, or Orchard keeper would be more filmable.