Now I have time to write reviews again

[illdrinn]

No Country for Old Men: This is a movie with a fine pedigree; based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, produced and directed by the Coen Brothers and starring a plethora of the better Hollywood actors including Tommy Lee Jones and one of my favourites Scotswoman Kelly Macdonald. Nonetheless I went into this film very wary, it was bound to be good

Comments

[indigopurple]

Re the ending: I actually really liked it. I wish more movies had the courage to end when they were thematically complete rather than stick around to tie together useless narrative threads. Sooo many movies are about a quarter hour too long, it's awful.

[illdrinn]

I think that's the problem for me, I felt this movie was in that category and limiting the story to Llewellyn's would have made for a better movie.

[indigopurple]

Yeah, maybe. I liked Tommy Lee Jones' character as a sort of framing device, but I see where you're coming from.

[fengshuiguy]

Yeah, I'm with indigopurple here. For my money, the film ultimately is through the eyes of Jones' character. Llewellyn makes an excellent character to watch through the film though. Watching both him and Chigeur/Woody's character is great, because they're all so sharp. The attention to detail in how they move through their worlds and see things so clearly is incredible

[bunnitos]

I was just about to post before I saw your comment, now it sounds like an echo so I'll keep it brief. I'm in agreement, I don't think it was a film for heroic or emotional death. It was more hard reality. It reminded me a bit of Joss Whedon's throw-away deaths with Wash in Serenity and Anya in Buffy. Not giving you the emotional hook or the heroic fanfare lets you think about what's happened a bit more from a distance. I particularly liked his wife's death, how she wouldn't choose and you didn't know until he checked his shoes that she was actually dead. No heroic moments, no life altering speeches, just death.

[fengshuiguy]

Also, on the genre front, to go blah blah blah very quickly, I'd probably consider it to be more a post-modern Western than film noir (just noted your point about genre) Would you agree, or not?

That being said, Millers Crossing is fucking fantastic film, and they're both huge feathers in the cap. And there's a lot of similarities - both films are full of emotionally castrated, exceptionally capable men.