Questions for Michael White

[vivico1]

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MichaelCWhite wrote:
I never thought of Clive Owen as Cain, but I love his work and I think you might have something there. He is rugged and complex, and seems to hold a great deal behind his eyes. Yes, yes.

Michael

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Thats who I pictured the whole time I read the book .

[IBIS]

My personal vote for Cain would be Daniel Day-Lewis... although English, I'm sure he could manage the Southern voice. He's multi-layered, amazingly complex, and he could capture the moral ambiguity of Cain.

IBIS

[Wrighty]

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vivico1 wrote:

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MichaelCWhite wrote:
I never thought of Clive Owen as Cain, but I love his work and I think you might have something there. He is rugged and complex, and seems to hold a great deal behind his eyes. Yes, yes.

Michael

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Thats who I pictured the whole time I read the book .

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For some reason I tend to make up the character's looks as I go along. I don't seem to picture someone else in that role very often. After finishing the book when we are having a discussion like this I can easily think of actors that would be good for the part. It's always fun to talk about too. How do others imagine the characters looks?

[vivico1]

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IBIS wrote:
My personal vote for Cain would be Daniel Day-Lewis... although English, I'm sure he could manage the Southern voice. He's multi-layered, amazingly complex, and he could capture the moral ambiguity of Cain.

IBIS

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I keep thinking of Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans years ago, I don't know if I have seen him in anything recently, probably, just dont remember. He was a "pretty" Indian. But I didn't find him very complex. What has he been in lately IBIS that would give me a good pic of him today and how old is he now? Maybe something more current would trigger my mind.

[IBIS]

Vivian, here is a link for Daniel Day-Lewis. I think of Daniel Day-Lewis as the thinking-woman's sex symbol(!)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000358/

Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for playing the writer Christy Brown who suffered from muscular dystrophy in MY LEFT FOOT (1989).

He was a gorgeous Hawkeye in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992).

He was in Martin Scorcese's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993), Edith Wharton's novel as Newland Archer.

He was in Martin Scorcese's GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002), where he played Bill (the Butcher) Cutting.. Very intense role.

He was in THE CRUCIBLE (1996) as John Proctor.

Coming soon is THERE WILL BE BLOOD, where he plays a oil speculator in the early 20th century.

IBIS

[ENG267]

For the moment, my vote for Rosetta is Michael Michele. She's a pretty and talented actress, and I think she has blue eyes. She's about 30, so is perhaps a little older than the "actual" Rosetta but, heck, that's why Hollywood has makeup artists.

[vivico1]

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IBIS wrote:
Vivian, here is a link for Daniel Day-Lewis. I think of Daniel Day-Lewis as the thinking-woman's sex symbol(!)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000358/



IBIS

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Hey now! LOL, I consider myself a thinking woman and actually, I don't find Daniel a sex symbol at all. Now that he is older tho, a couple of those pictures did make me think of him for the Preacher hehehe. I'll stick with Clive Owen for Cain myself lol.

Message Edited by vivico1 on 11-17-2007 06:58 PM

[IBIS]

Michael,

At the end of the novel, you left Cain in Sharpsburg, right before the battle of Antietam.

More men were killed or wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, than on any other single day of the Civil War. The Union lost 12,410 men, and the Confederates lost 10,700 soldiers.

Because Antietam suffered such enormous losses in that one day, is it reasonable to assume that Cain was killed there? Was that your intention?

IBIS

[ENG267]

Michael:

On p. 387, Cain meets with Pettigrew for the first time and says, "John Stone said you could help me." Prior to this, Stone is referred to only as a man by the name of Stone. How does Cain know Stone's first name?

[MichaelCWhite]

Ibis,

The reason I picked Sharpsburg (or for the North, Antietam) had to do with the fact that it was the bloodiest single day of the war, and also because after that the South was doomed. Does Cain perish? I don't think so. I've never even remotely thought of taking main character from one of my novels and continuing his/her story. I always felt that when I finished a novel, that story was over and I was usually in the midst of another story. Having said that, however, I find Cain such a complex and interesting character that I'm not quite sure if I'm "shut" of him yet. So perhaps he's survive Antietam, the War, and pop up again somewhere.

As for who would play him, I do like Daniel Day-Lewis (Natty Bumppo and all that) but I also like clive Owen. So I'm flexible.

Hope all have a great Thanksgiving.

Michael

[vivico1]

Do you remember all the Spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood. I thought about some of those while reading this book. Some people really didnt like those movies but I thought they were good gritty westerns and the one the comes to mind a lot is The Good The Bad and The Ugly. I think about Cain in the Mexican War, and altho this one scene is the Civil war, I still see it in my mind as an over all feeling about the book. The scene is where they show all these soldiers, on either side of one river, both sides fighting for the bridge and it pans out and there are hundreds and hundreds of dead, dying, confused and tired soldiers, so young too. The music is intense of course and Clint and, oh who played the Ugly, were together and are in the POW part of the camp because they hid in Confederate Uniforms trying to get around all this, and got caught by the Union. I think the character The Bad, was a Union Officer who would torture some of these soldiers while playing a wind up record player.When the soldiers heard this, they knew what was going on. The Good and The Ugly, need on that other side and Clint is tired of seeing these young men being sent out on that bridge again to just die. So they wind up blowing up that little bridge I think. Anywayyyy, the scene of all those soldiers, hurt, dying, dazed, and just working on autopilot, while other cruelties are going on and the way the camera pans back to see how many are involved in this one battle, for some reason makes me think of this book. Those westerns were not romantic ones at all, they were just gritty. So many westerns were and are romantic westerns. I think sometimes the hard core westerns are the best. I think The Good The Bad and The Ugly was a really good western. Anyway, dont know why I think of that one so much while reading this book but maybe because you brought some of that grittiness of the reality of things going on, while telling the inner story of the characters you present. I like the combination. Now, if you hate those spaghetti westerns, you will not find the compliment in this LOL, but there is one .

[IBIS]

Sergio Leone directed it. Lee van Cleef was the bad; Eli Wallach was the Ugly.

What I loved about the whole spaghetti westerns was not the "look" of the movies as much as the music. As a music student at Juilliard in NYC, I loved Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western music.

My professors were aghast at my bad taste (!)

Ennio Morricone's theme is very recognizable. His hoofbeat rhythmns, whistling themes, and the use of the human voice as an instrument is now a standard for knockoffs and derivations.

His simple, haunting tunes filled gaps between dialogue. They also punctuated action, accelerated chase scenes, or drove showdowns to its conclusion.

Today, (I hope my music professors read this post!), Morricone's coordination of action and music has prompted some music scholars to compare Leone's films to opera.

If you wait long enough, anything becomes art.

IBIS

[ENG267]

Cain popping up again somewhere--what a concept! The rest of us can only wait and watch for future developments. I, for one, hope to meet Cain again one day....

[vivico1]

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IBIS wrote:
Sergio Leone directed it. Lee van Cleef was the bad; Eli Wallach was the Ugly.

What I loved about the whole spaghetti westerns was not the "look" of the movies as much as the music. As a music student at Juilliard in NYC, I loved Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western music.

My professors were aghast at my bad taste (!)

Ennio Morricone's theme is very recognizable. His hoofbeat rhythmns, whistling themes, and the use of the human voice as an instrument is now a standard for knockoffs and derivations.

His simple, haunting tunes filled gaps between dialogue. They also punctuated action, accelerated chase scenes, or drove showdowns to its conclusion.

Today, (I hope my music professors read this post!), Morricone's coordination of action and music has prompted some music scholars to compare Leone's films to opera.

If you wait long enough, anything becomes art.

IBIS

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Yeah thats who it was, ty. Just reminded me too that I recently purchased the hard core one of Once Upon a Time in The West. Sergio Leone film where, as far as I know, Henry Fonda plays his only really nasty (and utterly believable) bad guy that doesnt think twice about killing women or kids. There are no pretty boys in Leone's movies and yeah the vocalized music is a big part of his movies. As a matter of fact, that one scene I am thinking of, with all the soldiers has that woman's haunting sad vocalization set to it that actually, when I saw Once Upon the Time again, it is the same musical piece he uses in it too at places.