#230 | Is ’No Country for Old Men’ a Better Novel or Movie? Cormac McCarthy’s Masterpiece vs. The Coen Brothers Oscar-Winning Adaptation
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti introduces the new segment "Novel vs. Movie," focusing on the violent world of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" and its faithful film adaptation by the Coen brothers. Vigliotti discusses the strengths and differences between the novel and movie, highlighting the depth of the book, particularly through Sheriff Ed Tom Bell's monologues, and the bone-chilling antagonist, Anton Chigurh who Javier Bardem powerfully brings to life on the screen. Find out which version Vigliotti prefers and why and weigh in yourself!
Listen to the episode:
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Topics Covered in The Episode:
Introduction to "Novel or Film" (00:09) - Douglas introduces the new podcast segment discussing adaptations of beloved books.
Focus on "No Country for Old Men" (01:22) - Discussion of Cormac McCarthy's novel and its film adaptation by the Coen brothers.
Quote Reflection: Anton Chigurh (01:22) - Vigliotti shares a significant quote from the villain that offers an optimistic perspective on bad luck.
Cormac McCarthy's Background (03:42) - Brief overview of McCarthy's status as a prominent American novelist.
Coen Brothers' Adaptation (03:42) - Discussion on the Coen brothers' successful adaptation and its critical acclaim.
Narrative Techniques in the Novel (06:12) - Comparison of the novel's monologues with the film's storytelling approach.
Visual Medium vs. Literature (07:37) - Exploration of how novels can provide deeper character perspectives than films.
Preference for the Novel (08:47) - Vigliotti expresses his preference for the novel, calling it a perfect work.
Character Distinction in the Novel (09:57) - Highlighting the distinct characters and McCarthy's unique writing style.
Antagonist Analysis: Anton Chigurh (09:57) - Discussion of Chigurh's role as the embodiment of violence and evil in the story.
Theme of Tragedy (11:08) - Exploration of the tragic elements and themes revealed through the characters' journeys.
Ending Comparison: Novel vs. Film (12:45) - Vigliotti contrasts the endings of the novel and film, emphasizing the novel's depth.
Conclusion and Feedback Invitation (13:57) - Wrap-up of the episode and invitation for listener feedback on the adaptation.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I have a real treat for you. It is the first ever edition of the new segment that I am going to be testing out for at least the first few months of the year, and it is called Novel or Film, where I look at one book that I loved that also was adapted into a movie, and I share what I like about each of them, and also which one I prefer and for what reason. I don't fall into the camp of the book always being better than the movie like many people do. I think that there could be a novel that's really great at being a novel. And then there is a movie that's really great at being a movie. And when you look at it through that lens, it's possible that the movie is indeed better than the novel, even if it is the source material. Having said that, today's book is probably one of my favorites in both novel form and on the screen, so I thought it was going to make a good starter.
01:22 - And that's “No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy. And of course, the film was adapted by the Coen brothers. So there are so many great lines and little tidbits and nuggets of wisdom that come from this book and story and movie in general. But I wanted to start with something the villain, Anton Chigurh. I believe that's how you pronounce his last name, says at the end of the novel, or the story in general, because it's also in the movie. And he says, “You never know what worse luck your bad luck saved you from.” And the reason why I wanted to start with this is because I think often, we have a tendency to look at our bad luck in such a negative light because after all, it's bad luck and we have a bad outcome from it. And this quote represents possibly the most optimistic way that you can look at a bout of bad luck and however you experience it. And I think this aptly comes at the end of the novel because, like all tragedies in this story, does have a tragic arc to it.
02:32 - Having an optimistic viewpoint on negative experiences and negative stories is sometimes the only outlook that is beneficial for you to have, because it's impossible to know what the outcome would have been. Especially when you consider the second-order, third-order, and fourth-order of events that occur. Now, I don't want to get too far off the beaten path here talking about this quote specifically, but I did want to share it at the beginning of this episode because I thought it was something that one, I didn't want you to overlook. And two, because I think that it comes at the end of this novel for a very specific reason. Having said that, let me share a little bit more about the author of the book, Cormac McCarthy. I'm not going to do too much here because I did a whole episode on the road. Another great tragic novel, and you could go back and listen to that. It's in the archives, but he's one of the great American novelists, or at least widely considered to be so. And he's one of my favorite novelists, so I tend to agree with those people.
03:42 - And the adaptation, as I already mentioned, was done by the Coen brothers. Who are these fun and zany filmmakers? Movies like “Raising Arizona”, “Fargo”, and “Big Lebowski”. Interestingly, for as great as their catalog is, this adaptation is probably their best movie. And that's not just my opinion, but also it is the movie that they won Best Picture for and received a lot of critical acclaim. So while this is totally subjective, it's interesting to me that this story, of all their stories, is the one that has stuck out in that fashion. It sticks very closely to the text, which for me is one of the reasons why it works so well on the screen. Originally, McCarthy wrote this book as a screenplay before he turned it into a novel. What's funny is I've heard people say that the best novels are ones that are hard to adapt, and I just don't think that is true at all. And this novel is sort of a testament to that. Every story, to me, has a through line in the best storytellers.
04:58 - Find it and amplify its essence. That's sort of my general theory. And for as great of a novel as this was, it didn't need to be tampered with at all on the screen. And I think the Coen brothers were really smart in telling the story straight, as I would call it. Not detouring too far from that and only amplifying the elements that would make it more resonant. So in case you don't know much about the story, it is a novel set on the Texas-Mexico border about three men Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam vet who stumbles upon a bunch of cash from a drug deal that's gone wrong. The previously mentioned Anton Chigurh, a vicious hitman sent to recover it, and an aging Ernest Simple detective investigating the crime. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. He also is the narrator of this story in the book. He has monologues that break up each of the chapters. Whereas the movie doesn't feature as much of that monologue only at the beginning and the end. This is one of the things that makes the novel a lot different.
06:12 - The monologues are a lot of fun to read. They highlight perspective in a way that the movie doesn't. At least in my viewpoint. Not that the Coen brothers do a poor job at articulating the viewpoint of Ed Tom Bell, but having these monologues written in such a compelling way is a super strength of the novel in general. Novels have that advantage over a movie's meaning on the page, an author can show perspective in a much deeper way because they have the room to use words to go into the mind of that character. whereas movies being the visual medium that they are. Don't utilize this as much. Not to say that they don't ever use narration or point of view. Obviously, that's in all storytelling. It's just a much different thing on the page, and I think this novel is a great example of how you could really benefit from going deeper into the true protagonist of this novel. Ed Tom Bell. I could talk about that in a moment as well. One thing to pay attention to when you're watching a movie is to see how much actual words are being utilized in the story that is being depicted to you.
07:37 - You'd be surprised at how few there are in some of the great movies that we have, right? Because it is a visual medium. They're utilizing music and cinematography and scene and all of these things without saying actually anything. Naturally, the great filmmakers display perspective quite well with that. One of my favorite examples is the Paul Thomas Anderson movie “There Will Be Blood”. If you watch that the first 20 minutes, there are no words exchanged at all. There's just Daniel Day-Lewis digging in a well, essentially. So ultimately, for me, this is one of the reasons why, as great as this movie is, I actually do prefer the novel version only because to me, this is and I'm gonna make a bold statement here. It is a perfect novel. Why do I say that? Mostly because I think it's accessible, but it has so much depth in it. Line for line. It's just so great. And somehow it's also shot out of a cannon and then holds that tone and pace for the entire way through.
08:47 - There are many people who prefer Blood Meridian or some of Cormac McCarthy's other work. All of it heralded, of course, but I really love it for the reasons that I just mentioned. I think that it's more accessible than any of those, but still contains that depth, as I just alluded to. The other thing about it, that while he maintains this steady voice, the characters are so distinct, meaning you know each one so well, even though the novel has this consistency through of aesthetic and vibe and how the book is written, all Cormac's writing challenges grammatical norms. He doesn't really adhere to them at all. This is sort of stylistically what makes it Cormac McCarthy like if you've read one, you read another, but that accessibility piece doesn't always transfer over. Not that those other works aren't as powerful. It's just this really gets set apart because it blends all of those things together in a really compelling way. The second thing about this story that is so remarkable, and I've already kind of mentioned it a few times.
09:57 - Here is the villain Anton Chigurh, who Javier Bardem brings to life in the cinematic version. But because the novel is more extended, you just get more of him in the book. And I want as much Anton Chigurh as I could possibly get, because his thinking and thought process and dialogue is something that you just don't forget. It's essential to this story because he is the representation in the most extreme way of the violence, the evilness, the “No Country for Old Men” aspect to this story. Of course, the title refers to that violence and evilness, and it's “No Country for Old Men”. This is one of the ways that, you know, the true protagonist of this story is perhaps Ed Tom Bell, although it sort of masks as Llewelyn Moss, the Vietnam vet who stumbles upon that bundle of cash as the protagonist. And it works on that level, really, because it is a tragedy. And if you look at it on that level, he can't resist his own flaw, which is keeping the money, and he ends up dying.
11:08 - And I won't spoil the ending. But other bad things happen, which is just a brutal depiction of the overall theme and ultimate truth that this tragedy reveals as all tragedies reveal some type of truth. Something that I talk about in Aristotle for Novelists and you've heard me say on this podcast before, is that's why tragedies actually work. Because even though they end off on a bad note or the protagonist ends up worse off, they reveal that truth. And with this one, it is quite simple, there are people out there who live by a completely different code than normal people do. Most of these people are men of extremely violent principles, and ultimately, no matter what happens, evil will persist. This is where I harken back to how I started this episode with the quote. “You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” So while this story does work, if you look at it through the lens of Llewelyn Moss's journey as a tragedy, it's really the story, as the title would suggest, of the struggle of Ed Tom Bell, to come to terms with this violence and the ultimate truth as this tragedy unveils by the end and again, the movie does a great job at getting to the essence of this, which is why it is so amazing on the screen that in the shooting and the cinematography and the acting is phenomenal.
12:45 - Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Tommy Lee Jones they're all amazing in this, and the ending does a great job at delivering the point of the movie. But when I look at the ending of the novel, it's drawn out in a way that is just so much more satisfying. Whether it's the dialogue of Chigurh and Llewellyn Moss's wife, or Llewellyn Moss's encounter with the girl on the side of the road, which is only briefly mentioned in the movie. These elements are amplified in a way, on the page that makes the ending of this novel hit even harder than it does on the screen. It's almost like Cormac McCarthy sticks the knife in and twists, and instead of pulling it out, he just keeps on twisting. That's the way it feels on the page. So for the sake of time, I will wrap this episode up. There will be plenty of quotes from this book in the newsletter at the end of the month, but as I've started with one from the end of the book, I will start with another from the beginning of the book.
13:57 - That comes from an Ed Tom Bell monologue that I think foreshadows what this book is all about. And he says, “They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I don't know what them eyes was the windows to. And I guess I'd as soon as not know. But there is another view of the world out there, and other eyes to see it. And that's where this is goin.” All right, so that's a wrap on the first-ever edition of Novel or Film. Of course. I'd love to hear what you think about, “No Country for Old Men”. Do you like the novel or the film better? Of course. To answer that, you've got to consume both and be open-minded. But yeah. Reach out to me on either of the two ways that you can via email or contact form on my website, DouglasVigliotti.com, or on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. I want to remind you that I have a brand new book out titled “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”.
15:02 - And if you want to find out more about that, you can visit Aristotle for Novelists dot com. The link for that will be in the show notes. Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, please remember to click subscribe and rate this podcast on whatever podcast platform you're listening to it on. It is the best way to get it in front of more eyeballs and ears and in return, inspire more men to read. Lastly, of course, if you want more information on this podcast, which includes signing up for the newsletter that I just mentioned, which features key quotes, episode summaries, and all of the stuff that comes from these episodes. Then all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
