The movie, No Country for Old Men is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same title. I confess I have not yet read him, but make a premature New Year's Resolution to do so. He perhaps is the current most important American novelist. (yeah, I know, that title doesn't mean as much as it did) Biography here. Harold Bloom regards him as one of America's most important contemporary writers.

McCarthy's novels look unflinchingly at human evil and violence, but not in ways that glorify these things. So say the critics.

His latest novel is The Road, and I recommend this review, by the consistently good James Vanden Bosch.

Other movies made out of Cormac McCarthy novels-- All the Pretty Horses, as well as Blood Meridian and The Road, both in production.