The Counselor = Cormac McCarthy + Ridley Scott + (Fassbender + Pitt + Cruz + Bardem et al)

I think the early conversation with the Amsterdam jeweler about love and death and fate and god is much longer.

longest Bruno Ganz monologue since Hitler rant

unironically cant wait

psyched

http://www.uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/01/cormac-mccarthys-ex-arrested-brandishing-gun-pulled-vagina-dispute-aliens/

Yeah I'll be checking out the longer cut. Hopefully there's not more of *that* scene.

this was terrible imo. everyone in it is miscast, save maybe penelope cruz. the dialogue is the major problem, a brisk no thank you sir to the extended cut

More like michael miscastbender and javier boredom and brad shit in this one, thanks for nothing boremac mcsharty

so who has watched the expanded version, and...?

Eszterhas scripts are better.

Four-hour commentary track.

HBO Max has the extended version (20 minutes longer), though you have to search under extras to the page to find it. Much better than the original cut.

Reminds me structurally of Gomorrah as far as a collage of how many people have jobs to make a smuggling operation happen.

Yes, that was the most canny thing about the movie: the way that the scenes of abstract philosophical speech were interspersed with scenes of people going about the operation with minimal or functional dialogue, a really striking contrast.
One of my least favourite things in this is the trope of the powerful evil guy who says, "I know you don't want me to do this evil thing, but fate makes it inevitable". There's a lot of interesting stuff in this movie, but I'm not convinced its moral compass is any more evolved than Mötley Crüe's "Dr. Feelgood".

I love this movie. I own the director's cut Blu-Ray. I don't need an evolved moral compass from a movie whose entire message is "fuck around and find out."

I should rewatch this.

I watched the 138 minute cut. Somehow I had completely blanked on both the movie and McCarthy's connection -- total "wait, what?!" when his name appeared.

Cormack McCarthy filmed as a big, expensive capital-G Giallo sure sounds like a great idea, but every director eventually misses threading that needle of misunderstood masterpiece or camp classic. It's manic and feeds off of its own energy now and then, but I think I like the writing about this more than I do the actual film.

"Bardem looks like John Cassavetes in a fright wig." -- I miss Morbs.