No Country for Old Men

[Coach McGuirk]

Great points. He, Chugurh, delivered that line so well,

Carla Jean Moss: You don't have to do this.
Anton Chigurh: [smiles] Everybody says that.

looks so simple on paper but when delivered....

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by Coach McGuirk

Great points. He, Chugurh, delivered that line so well,

Carla Jean Moss: You don't have to do this.
Anton Chigurh: [smiles] Everybody says that.

looks so simple on paper but when delivered....

Yeah, I think I will have to catch a Javier Bardem pic or two now. I knew he was highly regarded, having been nominated for best actor, but now I am curious to see what kind of range he has.

[8ballrollin]

I watched NC last week. I thought it was near perfect. My take on some its Cormicness…

[spoilers]

I agree with Mike's assessment that Chigurh is death. In fact, it struck me that maybe his haircut was intended to be a play on the grim reaper's hooded head. His character transcend the story. "Are you going to kill me? That depends, can you see me?"

Moss is a throwback and a man of some skills and attributes. But in this 'country' he lives in a trailer. Grabbing the money is his escape - his rebellion. But it's his self-lamented moral act which triggers the events leading to his end. As Mike said, he tries to cheat it, but there's no stopping it. "You know how this is going to turn out, don't you?"

Bell is Bergman's knight playing chess with death. Like the knight he is disillusioned with the crusades and the devastation of the plague on his homeland. He is also Yeats' old man; afraid of being a only a scarecrow and lamenting change. As Yeats says, "Whatever is begotten, born, and dies." But unlike Yeats, Bell doesn't look for meaning in far-off Byzantine. He's peace comes with acceptance in the twilight of his life.

The seminal moment of the movie is Bell going through the door. It's after this act he accepts what coming. He retires.

He dreams of those who have gone before him carrying a flame in the darkness. "You can't help but compare yourself to the old timers." He is like them. And there is real darkness.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by 8ballrollin

I watched NC last week. I thought it was near perfect. My take on some its Cormicness…

[spoilers]

I agree with Mike's assessment that Chigurh is death. In fact, it struck me that maybe his haircut was intended to be a play on the grim reaper's hooded head. His character transcend the story. "Are you going to kill me? That depends, can you see me?"

Moss is a throwback and a man of some skills and attributes. But in this 'country' he lives in a trailer. Grabbing the money is his escape - his rebellion. But it's his self-lamented moral act which triggers the events leading to his end. As Mike said, he tries to cheat it, but there's no stopping it. "You know how this is going to turn out, don't you?"

Bell is Bergman's knight playing chess with death. Like the knight he is disillusioned with the crusades and the devastation of the plague on his homeland. He is also Yeats' old man; afraid of being a only a scarecrow and lamenting change. As Yeats says, "Whatever is begotten, born, and dies." But unlike Yeats, Bell doesn't look for meaning in far-off Byzantine. He's peace comes with acceptance in the twilight of his life.

The seminal moment of the movie is Bell going through the door. It's after this act he accepts what coming. He retires.

He dreams of those who have gone before him carrying a flame in the darkness. "You can't help but compare yourself to the old timers." He is like them. And there is real darkness.

What strikes me about the enormous positive response to this film, is that the film is about as exact a facsimile of a novel as any film could be. Here the novel is indeed better than the movie, as the old saying goes, but not by much, because the movie so closely tracks the book. I've always said that McCarthy's writing is so cinematic he almost makes the movie redundant, and that's the case here. As you read the novel the projector in your mind depicts those barren landscapes, the carnage, the characters, the downtrodden west Texas towns, almost exactly as the Coens have. Moreover, all those creepily profound lines that people keep quoting from the movie, all that "great writing," is McCarthy's writing verbatim, taken from the novel. I actually found Chigur in the movie a little disappointing, though.

But people are going ape over this film like it's some phenomenon. It's old hat if you're a McCarthy fan. People nowadays are damn near incapable of reading. The funny thing is that when the novel came out the critics were uniformly very patronizing, calling it McCarthy's first "stripped down thriller" and not at all in the class of his other stuff. I thought the critics under rated No Country, but it's nothing like Blood Meridian and The Road. I heard Ridley Scott is making Blood Meridian into a movie. I can't imagine that; I'm not sure it's possible.

[MikeWaters]

My review was better and more profound than both the movie and the book.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

My review was better and more profound than both the movie and the book.

When the physician resets your broken arm, let us know.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

My review was better and more profound than both the movie and the book.

Edge to 8ball's review.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

My review was better and more profound than both the movie and the book.

Now I am very confused. Is this you being perfect, as you are burdened to be, or is this you being an arrogant jerk so we can tell you aren't perfect?

[myboynoah]

Isn't this movie rated R?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

Isn't this movie rated R?

All good movies R.