Ending scene from The Sunset Limited.

[DarkView]

I'm not quite there yet, but I imagine that as the degrees of reality get sharper year after year, I will be.

YouTube

[Auditor]

Great movie, watched it for the first time about a week ago. I wanted to tell White to speak the #### up throughout the whole thing, but that ending murdered.

[Druidic]

Thanks for posting this. It's a joy to see two fine actors performing it.
I admire McCarthy's work. I'm in the minority, not feeling "Blood Meridian" is his best work. It's a major American novel but the reiterative violence and visceral horror soon dulls. I'd vote for "Outer Dark," one of my favorites, an underrated work that I think is his finest novel.
Sunset isn't a play; it's a sermon of bleakness and, without googling, I bet the critics tore into it. It reminded me of how smart Ligotti was to put TCATHR into the form he did. Not a novel or play or short story. Ligotti chose the most effective form and ran with it.

I loved Child of God but few readers seemed to.

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[DarkView]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

Thanks for posting this. It's a joy to see two fine actors performing it. I admire McCarthy's work. I'm in the minority, not feeling "Blood Meridian" is his best work. It's a major American novel but the reiterative violence and visceral horror soon dulls. I'd vote for "Outer Dark," one of my favorites, an underrated work that I think is his finest novel. Sunset isn't a play; it's a sermon of bleakness and, without googling, I bet the critics tore into it. It reminded me of how smart Ligotti was to put TCATHR into the form he did. Not a novel or play or short story. Ligotti chose the most effective form and ran with it. I loved Child of God but few readers seemed to.

As far as giving a pure and articulate voice to pessimism and bleakness, The Sunset Limited is the best I've seen. True Detective also has the same themes but they are only incidental to the action and plot, so for all its digressions into pessimism, it's still a cop drama, and the good guys get their man in the end.

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[Druidic]

I don't disagree with anything you wrote, DarkView, and, again, I thank you for posting this. It's just I have a problem with Message--any form of the Didactic really--taking precedence over the art. True Detective did the reverse of McCarthy's play and I thought it a good work. Of course, a dark vision can be pulled off without compromising the art. Conrad's Heart of Darkness is as good an example as any.

Art can try to subtly persuade but it should never be tempted to instruct. I'm too much of a nihilist and literary hedonist for that. That's what essays are for.

[Kevin]

Liked "Sunset," love McCarthy's "Tennessee Novels," mostly Suttree but also Outer Dark and Child of God.

[DarkView]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

I don't disagree with anything you wrote, DarkView, and, again, I thank you for posting this. It's just I have a problem with Message--any form of the Didactic really--taking precedence over the art. True Detective did the reverse of McCarthy's play and I thought it a good work. Of course, a dark vision can be pulled off without compromising the art. Conrad's Heart of Darkness is as good an example as any. Art can try to subtly persuade but it should never be tempted to instruct. I'm too much of a nihilist and literary hedonist for that. That's what essays are for.

Oh, I'm not saying True Detective wasn't good work. It was dark and engrossing aside from the bleak monologues and philosophy of Rust Cole, and I'm pleased to see pessimism portrayed on a TV show that isn't a caricature of the philosophy. I also agree that art shouldn't be just blatantly didactic. On the other hand, like in this final scene, I can't help but approve of hearing White just lay it out with nothing in the way.

[Auditor]

Other than some refreshing themes, I thought True Detective was utter crap. Completely predictable. Fargo was a much better cop drama that year, in my opinion.

[miguel1984]

I have just finished reading The Sunset Limited. Pretty powerful stuff.