A Walk Among the Tombstones, as many of you no doubt already know, is based on the novel by Lawrence Block, the tenth in his series about alcoholic/recovering alcoholic (depending on what book) private investigator Matthew Scudder. Scudder is unlicensed, occasionally doing “favors” for “friends” who sometimes give him “gifts” out of gratitude for his favors.
AWATT launches when Peter (Boyd Holbrook), who knows of Scudder (Liam Neeson) from Alcoholics Anonymous, asks him to come talk with his brother, Kenny.
Kenny’s wife Carrie has been kidnapped, then murdered despite him paying ransom. Despite this harrowing tale, Scudder at first refuses to help, in part because Kenny is a narcotics trafficker. Needless to say, Scudder does get involved, and away we go.
If you’ve read any of the Scudder novels, you know what a Scudder novel feels like–the atmosphere, the darkness, the general ugliness of the universe he inhabits. Director Scott Frank, shooting his own script, captures that ably. AWATT is a Matthew Scudder movie, not just a movie based on a Matthew Scudder novel (as, reportedly, Eight Million Ways to Die is). I have not yet read the novel (I’m reading them in order and not there yet), so I can’t say how close the script hews to the source material plot-wise, but it hews very closely to the spirit of the series*. That in itself, as exasperated Parker fans know, is quite an achievement.
The always excellent Neeson is perfectly cast as Matthew Scudder, and the supporting actors also do a fine job. A friendship between an older white man and a black youth has a high risk of corn (“You’re the man now, dog!“), but there isn’t a kernel of it in Scudder’s relationship with T.J. (Brian “Astro” Bradley).
Scott Frank’s script and direction are similarly top-notch, perfectly paced for the brooding thriller this is. The man knows how to do crime right, which may mean we missed out when the TV pilot he wrote and directed based on Charles Willeford’s Hoke Mosely for FX did not get picked up. (Can we please see it, at least?)
Unfortunately, A Walk Among the Tombstones underperformed at the box office, possibly because it was wrongly perceived as Neeson doing Taken again without actually calling it Taken, meaning a sequel is unlikely. It also means it won’t be in theaters for much longer, so get out there and see it while you still can. And if you miss it, put it at the top of your TBW pile when it comes to video and streaming. It’s a film worthy of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder novels, and that’s high praise indeed.
*There is one important change (and if you haven’t read the series or seen the movie, I promise this isn’t a spoiler). Scudder’s origin story is condensed and altered due to filming book ten of the series. In the novels, Scudder’s accidental killing of a seven-year-old girl leads to his descent into alcoholism, or at minimum takes him much deeper into it. Scudder does not give up booze until several entries into the series. In the movie, it is the child’s death that inspires him to kick.
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I’ve read the original novel, but not seen the movie. It was very good as Bloch usually is. There are some interesting things. The novel depicts computer hacking in the time personal computers are just becoming common. It makes the book a bit dated, but it is also kind of interesting view of the period.
For the most part though its a very good book.
I saw this today and really enjoyed it. Not being familiar with the Scudder novels I can’t speak to its accuracy, but I thought it was a top-notch crime film with a great central performance. And as Trent pointed out, the atmosphere was spot-on.
The one thing I did think was noteworthy was how unusual it felt to be seeing this kind of story in a cinema. Sadly, crime movies seem to underperform across the board at the box office – even in Australia, where we currently seem to be making a lot of them – and so they’re often sent direct-to-DVD here. But also, this kind of gritty crime story seems to be much more something that television does these days. A number of people I spoke to after the screening commented that it felt more like the opening installment in a HBO-style crime series than the kind of thing we see at the movies.
Which only makes me all the more depressed that we’ll probably never see Scott Frank’s Hoke Mosely series.
Tony: Have you read any of Garry Disher’s Wyatt novels? Wyatt is as close to Parker as I’ve found, anywhere. Roger Hobbs’ “Jack” from Ghostman is a lot like Parker, but there are some differences (Personally, I see GREAT things for Hobbs, this guy can write crime like nobody’s business. He’s already one of my all-time favorite writers, and he’s only published one novel).
Disher is right up there with him: Wyatt is Disher’s homage to Parker, and there are little hints in the books that make it clear Disher is respectfully paying tribute to Westlake.
David, I picked up all of Disher’s Wyatt novels after reading about them here (from what I know he’s a Melbourne-based writer, and pretty much every second hand bookshop I looked in here had at least one book by him). But I haven’t found time to read any of them as yet – I really should get onto that…
Trent: Check out 8 Million Ways if you can on cable; it was being shown quite regularly a few months ago on IFC. You may be pleasantly surprised. I still say 8 Million is the better of the two, even though Tombstones, yes, is truer to the source material.
Tombstones was actually advertised as Taken 3 in some countries. I posted a comment on Block’s FB about how much I love Mick Ballou (hey, I have a thing for criminals, what can I say?) and he stated Ballou would probably be in the sequel, if Tombstones performed well. Well, we know that it didn’t, unfortunately, because it was a very good film.