I started reading Blood Meridian last summer and savoured it, reading bits on trains, planes and other moving platforms, finishing the last page just into the New year. Incredible energy and the first book I read by Cormack McCarthy, although I’d read about his work in numerous essays, a number of which connected to film and e.g. Sergio Leone. Me and some brothers in noise, even named our new band Blut Meridian.Anyway, I was rather sceptical than to hear that the Coen bros were adapting one of his books to film. His prose is often what you read him for, not for plot lines necessarily or thriller elements that most of the main stream has become addicted to. So when I got a invitation to a preview on Thursday 17 January I had to push other priorities aside to stumble once more into the darkness in hope of something decent the start the year with after last year’s parade of mediocrity.

I liked some of their work, but had no idea what to expect. Won’t go into too many details, as those who haven’t seen it yet deserve a fresh subjective look, but personally for me it was a real treat. It’s the kind of cinema that gets into my bones. Tough men in wild open landscapes, themes of survival, violence and codes of honour, all reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah in some ways, but with an extra Tabasco sauce of subtle sardonic humour here and there.

Seems like the Coen bros are back (like Cronenberg with Eastern Promises), true to form. Proving that you can make films that are genuinely thrilling but take the time to develop it all. Incredible suspense made the air thicker than jam. Very engaging narrative, well paced, acting, everything. And the cinematography by Roger Deakins of course is like always top of the bill, beautiful soft interior lighting with harsh landscapes that stretch out as far and uncertain as fate itself. Superb and already a classic.

Check it out.

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