Diamonds, drugs, and the digital age: Global capitalism in Cormac McCarthy’s The Counselor

This article examines the critique of global capitalism in Cormac McCarthy’s 2013 screenplay and film The Counselor. McCarthy’s economic views have been critically understudied, and The Counselor offers key insight into his critique of capitalism, and his critique of the failure to imagine any alternatives to capitalism, or to neoliberal justifications for value systems imposed by a free market, in Western nations. Through its evocation of distasteful Jewish stereotypes and gratuitous violence and sexual predation, McCarthy’s “trashy” film exposes the monstrosities of late global capitalism. Specifically, the Sephardic Jewish diamond merchant, the Tarantino-esque violence of the cartel, and the seductive, predatory Malkina all invoke the looming crisis of global capitalism. McCarthy’s gore-drenched film brings to vivid life a monstrous and exploitative market system that may be lurching toward its own demise.