No Country for Old Men..

[pmsummer]

Originally Posted by markthefixer

Of course we don't know for sure the wife's fate, but she had actually gotten herself to the coin toss stage, an accomplishment in that context. And then probably blew it.

Read the book. Her fate is clear and slightly different from the film, but not ultimately.

[Agent928]

Originally Posted by Robie

I ignored this film when it came out. Saw it at home on Friday night and I'm still thinking about it. Kind of like Fargo but "No Country" had fewer moments of normalcy, everything was even more surreal.

I'm down on graphic/gratuitous violence. But this film (like Fargo) had to have it to punctuate it's message. Regardless, in the end, I was numb to it, as absurd as it was.

Been thinking about it the last couple days and I thought I figured it out: Villain and hero switch places somewhere through the film. Looks like Agent928 came to the same conclusion.

Very tough for me to get through the first 20-30 minutes. Truly riveting thereafter.

A great film.

Aren't I awesome? and so humble too.

[Kegger]

I thought the movie was pretty good, but also thought the ending hurt it as well to.
It didn't need some big hollywood ending but at least continue on like the rest of the movie.

I saw all of the movies up for best picture and kinda sheeply have to admit it but Juno was best!

I love the Coen brothers and there movies but felt they fell just a bit short for me here on this one.

[bluelake07]

I saw it at a theatre with only five other people in the audience. I wasn't in the mood at the time for the talky parts in the latter portion of the film, but I'll rent it and listen to it again for more insight. Liked the movie.

[Snade]

Watched it on DVD last weekend.

It was good, but Fargo was a much better picture.

I'm a fan of the Coen brothers, but this was not their best.

Several riveting scenes (dog chasing the guy in the river), but the overall plot and character development are not up to "best picture" standards.

Guy stumbles on the remains of a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican border - seems like I've seen this movie many times before.

I thought about Fargo for days and it was a completely original movie experience. Not with this movie.

My two cent review. Snade

[pmsummer]

Originally Posted by Snade

Watched it on DVD last weekend.

<snip>

My two cent review. Snade

Read the book. You'll be glad you did.

[twitch54]

Please tell me this stupid movie did not win best picture ????

This movie was a two hour and two minute waste. Hollywood gets worse by the hour !

[reggaenaut]

Originally Posted by Snade

Watched it on DVD last weekend.



Guy stumbles on the remains of a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican border - seems like I've seen this movie many times before.

He returned to give water to one of the severely injured drug dealer. This was out of character when viewed against his initial reaction to the man. His yield to the humane side led to his lost of a fortune and his life.
This film is making some serious statements.

[pilotputz]

Originally Posted by reggaenaut

He returned to give water to one of the severely injured drug dealer. This was out of character when viewed against his initial reaction to the man. His yield to the humane side led to his lost of a fortune and his life.
This film is making some serious statements.

It certainly is!
The most important being man's need to assert concepts of good and bad on a world that operates on a level far exceeding our arbitrary moral judgements.

William Blake once wrote:
"The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy seas, and the destructive sword are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man."

[arrow 68]

Originally Posted by pilotputz

It certainly is!
The most important being man's need to assert concepts of good and bad on a world that operates on a level far exceeding our arbitrary moral judgements.

William Blake once wrote:
"The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy seas, and the destructive sword are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man."

I still won't pay a cent to see it.

[arrow 68]

Originally Posted by twitch54

Please tell me this stupid movie did not win best picture ????

This movie was a two hour and two minute waste.

[pilotputz]

Originally Posted by arrow 68

I still won't pay a cent to see it.

Point well taken!

[shrinkboy]

>read the book, you'll be glad you did< pmsummer

i believe that those evaluating the film before seeing it are doing so out of a frame of reference that can't apply to this particular film. that being 'film as entertainment'...this particular movie absolutely cannot be seen as 'entertainment' because it goe so much farther and deeper in its meditation on the processes of good and evil. and it is mccarthy, the author of the novel, who creates the scale of the story. summer recommends reading the novel, i second that by recommending that posters here read any mccarthy novel. he is the author of last year's pulitzer prize for fiction winning The Road. this book had the literary world on its knees gasping for air at its sparse, utterly gripping prose; its simplicity, its darkness with the faintest ray of light shining through. as fine a novel as i've ever read.

but back to NCFOM. the coens successfully translated almost the entire depth of the book into the movie, failing by choice it seems, to fully reveal the kind of struggle and the nature of it that the sheriff was in with himself. in the book, he carries a secret knowledge about a failure of his own past which he knows to reveal a character flaw in himself which he cannot forgive himself for. we are only given a taste of this in the movie.

but the coens are staying true to their fascination with the faulty wages of crime: from Blood Simple, through Raising Arizona, Millers Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn't There, Oh! Brother, Where Art Thou, Fargo, and now this movie, they continually explore the comedy and tragedy of intentional or unintentional crime and the way the human heart can always find a way to justify getting something for nothing.

to me, NCFOM takes the movie far, far beyond a few hours of light entertainment into an incredibly deep, complex meditation on the propensity of all of us for evil. here we have a good guy who steals, fails to report a crime, becomes insanely connected to the idea that he can prevail and retain the million odd dollars he has found. this notion costs him everything. when he made the decision to steal, he connected himself to his own fate, in the finest tragic storytelling tradition of the last 3000 years of western culture. from homer through shakespeare, faulkner and mccarthy.

the movie is saying 'this is what you get when you make this decision; these are the forces you unleash'. moss' hubris connects him to his fate. this is a very old notion. it is the central device of tragedy-- achilles makes the decision to attack troy, certain of his ultimate triumph, unaware of his one weakness, the heel his mother neglected to wet in the river styx, and this is the one place of his vulnerability, and naturally the place where the fatal arrow will fall. the 'achilles heel' has become over the ages the metaphor for all in ourselves that we neglect and overlook when making that judgment that says 'I am different, I can rise above my own human nature and the laws of the universe'...Moss' achilles heel is his failure to understand when appraising the scene that there is evil at hand that he could never overcome. at the very beginning, he crosses over the river styx, chased by the hound of hell, and as we go on, we see that he will never return.

this is a morality tale at the deepest level possible of storytelling. how could it get any deeper? it asks us to look into our own hearts of darkness and say whether or not we would find there our own Llewellyn Moss who would try to get away with the impossible, gripped by the dream of something for nothing.

and a review of the coen movies will show that in each one, they explore this theme over and over again, sometimes comically, sometimes tragically, often both at the same time. they are the authors of some of the blackest, most enduring and unflinching humor in film you'll ever see. because when you watch these films, you are seeing your self and your own human failings portrayed on the screen.

[pmsummer]

Originally Posted by shrinkboy

because when you watch these films, you are seeing your self and your own human failings portrayed on the screen.

Uh oh. Who am I?

I must be the old guy running the gas station. ;-)

[shrinkboy]

call it...just...call it

what am i callin'?

everything...