Cormac McCARTHY :: Shakespeare advises The Counselor (2013)

The standard criticism of Ridley Scott's film is that normal characters do not talk as do in The Counselor. Indeed the dialogue is almost Shakespearean, for example, the telephone conversation between the Counselor and Jefe. There is also the sense of inevitable tragedy in the sense of Greek theatre. Here is my favorite excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's screenplay (which also summarizes the moral content of the film):

JEFE: "The world in which you seek to undo your mistakes is not the world in which they were made. You are at a cross in the road and here you think to choose. But here there is no choosing. There is only accepting. The choosing was done long ago."

So what about our choices into the future? Here the Diamond Dealer (played by Bruno Ganz) informs The Counselor as follows:

"At our noblest, we announce to the darkness that we will not be diminished by the brevity of our lives."

... yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. The baseless fabric of our revels shall inevitably unravel in ways totally unforeseen.