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Absolutely terrible. One of the worst films of 2014

posted 9 years ago by jeffdrollins
4 replies | jump to latest

http://www.cutprintfilm.com/features/worst-films-of-2014/

Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God is one of the greatest American novels. Even counting the fact that it contains graphic necrophilia, rape, and murder — it should still be required reading for high school students, because it contains some of the most beautifully constructed prose ever written. There is nothing hyperbolic about those last two sentences, and there is nothing hyperbolic about the one you are about to read. James Franco’s assault on Child of God is more atrocious than any of the crimes committed by Lester Ballard, — it is simply put, a crime against humanity. It seems like the film was slapped together in about a week, rushing through all of the significance of the novel with the finesse of a spackle-scraper. The worst part is that Scott Haze actually delivers a powerful performance as Lester Ballard, and under the watchful eye of someone like David Fincher, this could have been an instant classic. Instead, Franco made the worst directing decisions, such as cutting the novel’s extremely powerful epilogue. Here’s to hoping one day someone is hoisting his dress-clad corpse into an attic for safe keeping.

[–] Strawberry_Typhoon 9 years ago

I'm not going to say that I loved this movie but by making this claim, and even further explaining that it's not hyperbolic, you make a liar of yourself. There is no crime in hyperbole, but at least own up to it.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] thomblackburn89 8 years ago

I disagree about Scott Haze's performance. The ticks with his teeth and his inability to speak well suggest other unrelated mental illnesses. Though it's not his fault since franco's direction probably had a lot to do with it but it was especially disappointng to see lester treat the dead girl as anything other than an object. In the book the disturbing dark comedy of it all was lester realizing the practical limitations on trying to build a human out of something that is no longer human and the futility of it. His speaking to her and pretending she can hear him seems like they dumbed down those interactions to ensure to the audience that the actions of lester are not that of a sane man. I don't like that they've exaggerated lesters delusions to include talking to stuffed animals too. All the nuance of that character was lost.

McCarthy books are too special to me to say that if give James Franco another crack at it.

[–] mileafly 7 years ago

Totally agree. I just watched this after finishing the novel and it was the worst thing I have ever seen. This adaptation is just disgusingly bad in every way. I am so happy that this idiot Fincher did not get to make Blood Meridian into a movie. I would assume Mcarthy saw what mistake he did to sell the rights to Child of God to this clown and thus did not give the licence to Blood Meridian.