(Untitled)

[biscuiteater]

The worst movie of 2007.
Hi. I just watched No Country For Old Men, and then promptly took a shard of glass to my retinas. So if I make a spelling mistake, you'll have to bear with me. I can't see. Spoilers for the rest of the entry.

Comments

[agloriousday]

You didn't need to see any of those things. The main character died in the hands of the Mexicans as he was cheating on his wife with the pool slut. The money was never to be found because now no one knows where it is, not even the cold-blooded killer, who was still looking for it. The wife was killed because the killer wiped his foot off as he exited the house (he didn't give two shits about her life, duh), and nothing gets resolved in the movie (hello, real life) and leaves you feeling...

...like talking to someone else about it! WEEKS after you've seen it. It was amazing, admit it. What other movie can you say would make stupid people hate being stupid? I want that in a movie, I LOVE that in this movie.

[biscuiteater]

I understood the dream sequence at the end of the movie and what it was ultimately alluding to. But in all honesty, those scenes would have meant more (to me, at least) had they been placed at the beginning or even throughout the movie to give some context for the sheriff (besides the fact that he's a cop and looking for the "bad guys"). AND THEN killing off the main character and shifting focus to the sheriff, would not have pissed me off so much

[uberdionysus]

It's not the Sheriff's age that makes him impotent. He's simply two steps behind. Nothing more, nothing less. He still outsmarts all the other cops, and still gets closer than anyone (other than the rookie cop who is killed).

But the film wouldn't have worked if it was structured as you said. It IS a trick. They want us to identify, at first, with Llewelyn more than the Sheriff. He's the proxy for the All-American Western Hero, and he is one of the archetypes that they (the Coens and McCarthy) want to rip apart.

If you know that Llewelyn isn't the "real" focus, then you won't be as invested in his fate. You need to be as invested in Llewelyn as the Sheriff is, so when Llewelyn dies you feel the same frustration and inadequacy as the Sheriff, and that allows you to understand why the Sheriff gives up.

[biscuiteater]

I see what you're saying. I just feel that they could've taken another route to achieve their pretentiousness or given us the showdown that ended Brolin's chracter or at least spared the wife. Unstead they take it ALL AWAY. All of it

They withheld a little too much for me, which in turn makes not give a shit about Tommy Lee's character at the end of the movie.

I don't like tricks. Tricks are for kids.

Unstead

[biscuiteater]

It's moments like these I wish I had a paid account.

[biscuiteater]

At first I thought he didn't find the money. But then the scene were gives the boy a hundred bucks for his shirt made me rethink it. Where else in the movie did he give anyone anything? He MUST have had the money.

[agloriousday]

hmm... maybe he traced back the steps. Remember when he was walking around the bridge and trying to think like the "good guy." Was that him? Yeah, i think so. Like, he enver found out from anyone, but maybe him driving and looking into the rear-view mirror and stuff was him getting paranoid WITH the money, coming from having just found it?

[biscuiteater]

Yeah, it is possible. I wish I had answers.

[agloriousday]

I don't, I'm actually enjoying the discussion that comes from not knowing anything for sure! Aren't you?

[biscuiteater]

No, I guess I'm the type of person that needs things wrapped up.

[uberdionysus]

I agree. He's the type that would expense account that to his employeers, or would pay them back.

The ending that pissed me off this year was in I Am Legend. I was fucking loving it until the end.