No Country For Old Men
Went to see No Country For Old Men Tuesday night.
I really liked it.
No Country is visceral with a dark and distant mood. The cinematography is great, a trademark of the Coens' films. It has a straightforward filming style without all the bells and whistles (i.e., handheld, grainy film, CGI, flashbacks, etc.), also very Coen brothers. That in itself is refreshing. The dialogue is great too. I'm eager to read the book to see how much of it was preserved in the film.
The characters often speak in metaphors, telling stories to get their point across. I'm told that is true of the characters in McCarthy's novels. The tricky thing about that is not everyone can relate. And there are times in No Country where I wondered if I got the point. That maybe I didn't quite understand the metaphor. But it wasn't so frustrating that I didn't enjoy the movie. And the main characters seem to know more than they let on. That is interesting too. It seems as if the characters know more about what's going on than you do. That is the opposite of what they teach you in filmmaking classes. I find that intriguing.
It is a violent and bloody movie, and it's all pretty much gratuitous as far as I can tell. It's got the same kind of excess that Tarantino films are famous for, but at the same time feels more controlled and calculated. A social comment on violence and our reactions to it? I'll have to think on that a bit more.
The film also had a habit of dropping the "hero" (and the viewer) into the middle of situations without any explanation of what had happened or how it fit into the "big picture". There is a feeling of randomness and missed connections and unfulfilled expectations. It keeps you off-balance, but I think that may have been the point. That sometimes there is no point. That sometimes life is senseless and leaves you wanting.
The enigmatic ending ties up all the loose ends, in its own way, and doesn't answer any of the questions you are left with. Not your typical Hollywood ending. I love that!
You know that saying, "Life is hard and then you die." That's what No Country is saying. There's even a line in the movie, "This country is hard on people." And you can't help thinking about the dual meaning of country. Country could mean the desolate areas in which much of the film is set. Or does it mean this country, this nation? Could the outback of Texas be a metaphor for some aspects of our own culture, our morality, perhaps. Food for thought.
All in all I loved the movie. It's one of those where you can sit and talk about it for hours and invites you to look at yourself in the process. One of those movies that you're still thinking about a week, a month, a year later.
I really liked it.
No Country is visceral with a dark and distant mood. The cinematography is great, a trademark of the Coens' films. It has a straightforward filming style without all the bells and whistles (i.e., handheld, grainy film, CGI, flashbacks, etc.), also very Coen brothers. That in itself is refreshing. The dialogue is great too. I'm eager to read the book to see how much of it was preserved in the film.
The characters often speak in metaphors, telling stories to get their point across. I'm told that is true of the characters in McCarthy's novels. The tricky thing about that is not everyone can relate. And there are times in No Country where I wondered if I got the point. That maybe I didn't quite understand the metaphor. But it wasn't so frustrating that I didn't enjoy the movie. And the main characters seem to know more than they let on. That is interesting too. It seems as if the characters know more about what's going on than you do. That is the opposite of what they teach you in filmmaking classes. I find that intriguing.
It is a violent and bloody movie, and it's all pretty much gratuitous as far as I can tell. It's got the same kind of excess that Tarantino films are famous for, but at the same time feels more controlled and calculated. A social comment on violence and our reactions to it? I'll have to think on that a bit more.
The film also had a habit of dropping the "hero" (and the viewer) into the middle of situations without any explanation of what had happened or how it fit into the "big picture". There is a feeling of randomness and missed connections and unfulfilled expectations. It keeps you off-balance, but I think that may have been the point. That sometimes there is no point. That sometimes life is senseless and leaves you wanting.
The enigmatic ending ties up all the loose ends, in its own way, and doesn't answer any of the questions you are left with. Not your typical Hollywood ending. I love that!
You know that saying, "Life is hard and then you die." That's what No Country is saying. There's even a line in the movie, "This country is hard on people." And you can't help thinking about the dual meaning of country. Country could mean the desolate areas in which much of the film is set. Or does it mean this country, this nation? Could the outback of Texas be a metaphor for some aspects of our own culture, our morality, perhaps. Food for thought.
All in all I loved the movie. It's one of those where you can sit and talk about it for hours and invites you to look at yourself in the process. One of those movies that you're still thinking about a week, a month, a year later.