No Country For Old Men

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Who has seen this stellar film by the illustrious Cohen Brothers? A fantastic film and certainly my favorite film of 2007. The cinematography, acting, and symbolism of it was just absolutely mind blowing.

If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it. It would be a crime to miss out on this film.

[GrubbTheFragger]

saw it about umm 3 months ago and loved it. My girlfriend hated it and said it had no point

[Radical Dreamer]

I have this movie sitting on my bedside table waiting for me to watch it. XD I probably will this weekend, I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[bigsleepj]

You know my thoughts on the ending, but still this is an excellent movie. But CERTAINLY not for anyone's tastes.

[Kkun]

I want to see it. I'm going to try to get to it this week.

[Tarnish]

I saw it maybe a month ago. I'll be honest, I had to watch it twice before I really understood what was going on. Once I did, I was pretty blown away.

I loved the slow pace of it, but everybody else I know couldn't make it through the movie because of that. Kind of a shame.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

It also took me two watches to understand most things, and even then, I had to read some interpretations written by other people to fully understand it.

A marvelous piece of work, I'll say.

[Danderson]

Though I haven't wacthed it, here's an amazingly funny spoof on the bowling scene from the movie....(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_HddDpgAbo)

I'M THE POKEMON MASTER!!!

Part of me wants to see this and part of me's not sure it'll be worth watching, considering the coroption of the two main characters......But who knows....I'll probably get around to it one of these days....

[Tarnish]

Oh, yes. The amazing bowling scene. I heard it was all done in one shot! And would you look at the spectacular use of--...


wait, what?

[Radical Dreamer]

Though I haven't wacthed it, here's an amazingly funny spoof on the bowling scene from the movie....(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_HddDpgAbo)

I'M THE POKEMON MASTER!!!

Part of me wants to see this and part of me's not sure it'll be worth watching, considering the coroption of the two main characters......But who knows....I'll probably get around to it one of these days....

(That's from There Will Be Blood. This thread is about No Country for Old Men.






Just saying.)

XD

[Mr. SmartyPants]

There's a spoooooooooooillllleerrrrr here in the source video.

Thanks for letting me know. D:

[Danderson]

(That's from There Will Be Blood. This thread is about No Country for Old Men.


Just saying.)

XD

........................

Dang it!!! I did it again!!! For some reason I always get these two mixed up just becuase of their titles and their Oscar nominations!!!

My bad......

[Kkun]

Still, having watched There Will Be Blood yesterday, that Pokemon spoof WAS pretty funny.

>_>

[Stephen]

Loved it!

[Blitzkrieg1701]

I wanted to like No Country more than I did. The acting is great, and there's a lot of great individual scenes. Still, I don't think it came together very well. I know the film's narrative is intended to communicate the moral ambiguity and existentialism of the story and all that, but I don't think that's an excuse to have bad editing and no momentum.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I thought the ending was a rather powerful one. Not too much closure, but just enough for us to understand what's to come.

[spoiler]Anton Chigurh is a physical representation of the unstoppable evil. Not only that, but he kills anything that he deems to have a petty or trivial existence with his "oxygen tank". The gas station owner and the the man whom he carjacks are both representative of this. The gas station owner lived a simple and passive life, which Chigurh sees as a mundane life. Recall that the "oxygen tank" that he carried was used for cows, which are generally passive creatures. In essence, Chigurh saw these people just as passive as cows.

Continuing on with a quote of someone on the IMDB forums: "When the owner is about to reflexively drop the quarter in with the rest, Chigurh’s strong reaction is key: the man has just escaped death by making the most vital choice of his life, and yet there he is, about to drop what that coin represents in with the rest - which have as their only significance the fact that they’re insignificant. Chigurh’s managed, through sheer intimidation, to get the guy to wake up; now he wants him to remember, to use the event to keep himself awake.

The scene also does double duty by introducing Chigurh’s working philosophy, in which he avoids taking responsibility for murder and assumes that he’s justified as an agent of fate. It’s a perfect example of invisibly providing exposition through conflict."

The only two main characters that actually "wake up" are Sheriff Bell and Carla Jean Moss. Both of them realize their own mortality, and that they have the ability to be destroyed by the "unstoppable evil". Unfortunately, Carla Jean does die by Chigurh's hands simply because of his deal he made with Ewelyen. Bell "wakes up", realizes that A. He was always one step behind Chigurh (Evident by the milk and television shot), B. That there would be no way he could stop this evil, and C. That he ought to give up before his own life was lost. Recall that most people who "See" Chigurh end up getting killed, which is why he tells the two boys in the end "You didn't see me". Also remember that Wells was surprised that Ewelyen Moss saw Chigurh but was still alive. Note that Bell does not even fully understand these type of killers, evident by the opening monologue in the film.

When you're just a sliver away from death, but manage to escape it, I imagine that you'd feel more alive than ever. Not only that, but you'd tend to make better and smarter choices in life that reflect your satisfaction with living. Sheriff Bell realizes when he's in the room where Ewelyen was killed. Since he does not see Chigurh, (i.e. see death in a personified form) he is allowed to continue on and live. To quote another user from IMDB: "This is the last scene we'll see Bell before he decides to retire, the implication being that he in investigating he has crossed his own moral line and is no longer suitable for police work in an increasingly dangerous and evil world." Now you can sort of understand why the title is called "No Country for Old Men.

The car crash which Chigurh was in symbolizes the randomness and unpredictability, which is directly opposite of how Chigurh views himself. He views himself as in 100% control of whether or not other people get to live or not. Whether or not he understands that he does not when he is hit by a car is uncertain. Regardless, Chigurh is hit by a car, which may at least an attack on how he views himself.

As for his dream at the end of the movie, it simply represents his knowledge that he will soon die one day (The whole "following his father towards the light" idea) just like his father. He escaped death by retiring and never once seeing Anton Chigurh, so the time between then and his death is prolonged.[/spoiler]


And on a very interesting note:
[spoiler]Did you notice that Bell, Ewyeln Moss, and Chigurh never share any screentime together? That and the only character that ever talks to all three of them face-to-face is Carla Jean?[/spoiler]

[GrubbTheFragger]

I thought the ending was a rather powerful one. Not too much closure, but just enough for us to understand what's to come.

[spoiler]Anton Chigurh is a physical representation of the unstoppable evil. Not only that, but he kills anything that he deems to have a petty or trivial existence with his "oxygen tank". The gas station owner and the the man whom he carjacks are both representative of this. The gas station owner lived a simple and passive life, which Chigurh sees as a mundane life. Recall that the "oxygen tank" that he carried was used for cows, which are generally passive creatures. In essence, Chigurh saw these people just as passive as cows.

Continuing on with a quote of someone on the IMDB forums: "When the owner is about to reflexively drop the quarter in with the rest, Chigurh’s strong reaction is key: the man has just escaped death by making the most vital choice of his life, and yet there he is, about to drop what that coin represents in with the rest - which have as their only significance the fact that they’re insignificant. Chigurh’s managed, through sheer intimidation, to get the guy to wake up]

The only two main characters that actually "wake up" are Sheriff Bell and Carla Jean Moss. Both of them realize their own mortality, and that they have the ability to be destroyed by the "unstoppable evil". Unfortunately, Carla Jean does die by Chigurh's hands simply because of his deal he made with Ewelyen. Bell "wakes up", realizes that A. He was always one step behind Chigurh (Evident by the milk and television shot), B. That there would be no way he could stop this evil, and C. That he ought to give up before his own life was lost. Note that Bell does not even fully understand these type of killers, evident by the opening monologue in the film.

When you're just a sliver away from death, but manage to escape it, I imagine that you'd feel more alive than ever. Not only that, but you'd tend to make better and smarter choices in life that reflect your satisfaction with living. Sheriff Bell realizes when he's in the room where Ewelyen was killed. Since he does not see Chigurh, (i.e. see death in a personified form) he is allowed to continue on and live. To quote another user from IMDB: [i]"This is the last scene we'll see Bell before he decides to retire, the implication being that he in investigating he has crossed his own moral line and is no longer suitable for police work in an increasingly dangerous and evil world." Now you can sort of understand why the title is called "No Country for Old Men.

The car crash which Chigurh was in symbolizes the randomness and unpredictability, which is directly opposite of how Chigurh views himself. He views himself as in 100% control of whether or not other people get to live or not. Whether or not he understands that he does not when he is hit by a car is uncertain. Regardless, Chigurh is hit by a car, which may at least an attack on how he views himself.

As for his dream at the end of the movie, it simply represents his knowledge that he will soon die one day (The whole "following his father towards the light" idea) just like his father. He escaped death by retiring and never once seeing Anton Chigurh, so the time between then and his death is prolonged.[/spoiler]


And on a very interesting note:
[spoiler]Did you notice that Bell, Ewyeln Moss, and Chigurh never share any screentime together? That and the only character that ever talks to all three of them face-to-face is Carla Jean?[/spoiler]

Wow very in depth MSP and i gotta agree with everything on that spoiler it all makes alot of sense when laid out like that. Thats kinda one of the cooler things about that movie the unconventional story telling and dealing with the themes

[Slater]

Where does he work?

I watched this movie this week. It was great.

The scary thing was that I was able to resonate with Chigurh so well. I tried to explain it to my gf but I ended up scaring her.

Hmm...

[Peanut]

After reading the book beforehand, no, I'm sorry, regurgitating a half and half version of a book is not how you make great film. Sure, it's got charm, the film is well done visually and the acting is spot on but the thoughts of the book are lost in translation. You either make a film exactly like the book or you build onto an idea established within a work, don't make something pretty and fun to watch with an inbetweener message that film buffs can claim to get and those of us who read the book can at.

While I definitely understand your pain, I have to disagree with you on your idea of a great film from a book. The truth is most books don't translate well into movies since with movies you are showing your plot to your audience. Anything that can't be seen, like almost all introspective moments, are eliminated. Since many books delve into a character or characters minds in order to give the reader a better understanding of them, it makes creating a film which is exactly like the book impossible. Also, I think screenwriters should be allowed to add their own ideas to the work because sometimes it works really, really well. Dr. Strangelove is a great example of this, it was originally supposed to be a film adaptation of a book called Red Alert, but then Kubrick thought "hey, this would make a great dark comedy." And, well, he was right...sure he "butchered" the book he based it off of but that doesn't immediately mean it was a bad movie. Also, the quality of any movie (based on a book or not) has to be judged on everything that has been put into it, not just it's screenplay. You can have the greatest screenplay in the world but if your actor(s) are horrible then it doesn't really matter (I'm looking at you War of the Worlds...).

Edit: *realizes he didn't mention how he liked No Country...*I loved it, the ending at first was a little disappointing but after watching it again, discussing it with MSP, and thinking about it for a little bit, I ended up growing to like it. This was definitely one of the better movies I've seen.