What the fuck went wrong?

Cameron Diaz was the ONLY weak link in this 9/10 film.

>>80890055

I thought it was fantastic. Under it's surface it's really about race relations between Latino's and whites in 21st century America.

>>80890055
I could explain in exhaustive, autistic detail what went wrong. I don't think you actually want that, though.

>>80891078
Please do

>>80890055
Nothing. Amazing kino.One of the greatest ever. No one understands what it is actually about. (and the press buried it)

It didn't help that they censored the diamond dealer scene from the theatrical release (which is key to understanding the film). You have to watch the DVD version.

>>80891078
>>80891112
yeah, let's hear it. I'm all ears.

>>80890262
>latinos and whites
the only latino/a in that pic is Cameron Diaz and she is white. Bardem and Cruz are Spaniards and not latinos.

>>80891112
Alright.

For starters, the script is a play and should never have been made into a movie. But Ridley Scott wanted those No Country for Old Men bucks, I guess. The story is mostly a bunch of disconnected dialogues with little continuity or framing to connect them all together. It had even more in the deleted scenes. The dialogue itself is theatrical and philosophical and most of it isn't pertinent to the plot. It's also pretty dry and unmemorable.

What is the plot? Cameron Diaz wants to play a gangster girl because it's fun and she's a psycho. Michael Fassbender wants to make money, fool the cartel, and have a perfect marriage, all because of his ego. Simple enough. Too bad neither have character arcs or growth.

What actually happens in the movie? A couple of guys have a bunch of conversations about how the cartel is gonna kill them, and then it happens exactly like they said it would. Michael Fassbender loses his wife in the worst way possible and Cameron Diaz wins. The audience learns nothing, except that cartels are super duper dangerous. Honestly, this could still be cool.

What's the real problem? The Third Act is pointless. None of the characters learn anything or show that they've been paying attention. Javier Bardem brings up a cartel killing device called a boledo, which gets wrapped around Brad Pitt's neck. How badass and compelling would it have been if Brad Pitt had proven he was prepared for it and managed to get it off somehow? No subversions like that happen at all. It's just an exercise in violence. This might have been compelling on a theater stage as a spectacle, but Scott's direction was so procedural that it took out all the drama. Though I will say Brad Pitt has an amazing 'Fuck you!' in that scene. All of the deaths are boring because they're rushed, shot naturalistically, and utterly predictable. The only interesting death was the motorcycle decapitation and that involved literal nobodies.

The only thing I enjoy about this movie is bardem's bizarre pronunciation and frequent use of the word 'counselor.'

CHAWON-SS-LERR

I heard McCarthy wrote it over the weekend to take a break from his novels.

>>80892119
Nope. Malkina is supposed to be from an island (forgot which one)

.>>80890262
>Under it's surface it's really about race relations between Latino's and whites in 21st century America.

no, it's not

>>80891872
Yep. Here's what it's really about, and why the press buried it.

>DEALER: There is no culture save Semitic culture. There. The last known culture before that was the Greek and there will be no culture after that…The heart of any culture is to be found in the nature of the hero. Who is that man who is revered? In the classical world it is the warrior. But in the western world it is the man of God. From Moses to Christ. The prophet. The penitent. Such a figure is unknown to the Greeks. Unheard of. Unimaginable. Because you can only have a man of God, not a man of Gods. And this God is the God of the Jewish people. There is no other God. We see him–what is the word? Purloined. Purloined in the West. How do you steal a God? The Jew beholds his tormentor dressed in the vestments of his own ancient culture. Everything bears a strange familiarity. But the fit is always poor and the hands are always dripping blood. That coat. Didn’t that belong to Uncle Chaim? What about the shoes? Enough. I see your look. No more philosophy. And perhaps Schiller is right. When gods were more human men were more divine. The stones themselves have their own view of things. Perhaps they are not so silent as you think. They were piped up out of the earth in a time before any witness was, but here they are. Now who shall their witness? We. We two.

>>80892183
>For starters, the script is a play and should never have been made into a movie.
Untrue. It was always a screenplay.

You don't understand the film at all.

>>80892488
I've read it fuckstick. It's a play. You're just too dense to understand that someone can sell a play as a screenplay. You've probably never written anything in your life.

Pretentious shit trying to bask in the wake of other "cartel" themed movies like Blow, Havoc, Scarface, Savages, etc. etc.

>>80892629
No fuckstick it's a screenplay. You have the unfortunate combination of being ignorant and being a gasbag.

McCarthy wrote 3 screenplays. The Gardner's Son, The Sunset Limited and The Counselor.

The Sunset Limited was also a play. One of two McCarty wrote. The other being The Stonemason.

>>80892409
Yes.

>The truth is that anything you can say about a diamond is in the nature of a flaw. The perfect diamond would be composed simply of light.

McCarthy flew over everyone's heads.

>>80892788
fuckstick, good one. Never heard that before.

You realize the fucking Sunset Limited proves my point, right? My argument is that The Counselor is actually play. You know you can turn plays into movies, right?

Got anything besides wikipedia entries for an author you're too stupid to understand?

>>80893169
No dipshit. One more time, The Counselor was a screenplay, It was always a screenplay.

>>80893169
>Got anything besides wikipedia entries for an author you're too stupid to understand?

How about the actual screenplay with camera directions? Good enough for you fuckstick?

https://panmacmillanaustralia.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/the-counselor-by-cormac-mccarthy-extract/

>>80893169
Dude, think for a second. How in the hell could The Counselor have ever been done on a stage? It was always a screenplay.

>>80892409
>>80892979

I don't get it.

>>80893717
In essence....'The Jews run the world and have so since the Greeks. And there will be nothing after that.' (assuming he's is referencing the Samson Option).

Given that, the world we see is not the real world, and is in fact a projection of that corruption. i.e: a diamond being a flawed version of pure light. The Counselor is attempting to navigate between these two worlds.

Basically like Kafka said, 'We live in false belief'.

Frankly I'm amazed this film got made at all.