No Country for Old Men

[Kennrr]

so saw this yesterday, thought it was an amazing film, but can someone give me the spoiler or summary of the end? when that sheriff was talking, i was tired and kinda slept through that and than... you know.

anyone want to explain it to me?

it was great film and the pacing was superb up to when the sheriff visits that guy with the cats...

[grady]

I haven't seen this yet as Portland is one of the second/third class release tier cities, but having read the book, and quite a few reviews, I have a feeling the film's screenplay adheres to the book's closing scenes too.

I know a person here has seen it.

ahem

b.miller

cough

cough

[b.miller]

yeah... but if you slept through the scene, maybe you should just see it again to figure out what it means. it's not like it's a bad movie that seeing a second time would be too boring to do.

[justy]

There is, of course, the novel (http://www.amazon.com/Country-Old-Men-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0375406778) to seek out as well.

[Scott Warner]

I saw this last night with Aaron and a few other people from work and I thought it was pretty great. In the last 1/4 of the film I think it goes a little bit off as the Coen's fantastic moviemaking clashes with some of what I assume is the more philosophical moments of the source material and instead of carrying the momentum of what's come before it just sort of ends on some deep thoughts, mannn; I guess my reaction here was I get it rather than feel it.

But, the vast majority of this film is highly recommended. It's intense.

[grady]

This was an interesting experience watching this film as it produeced somewhat similar emotions/reactions as when I read the novel. There are points in both the novel and the film that one becomes enthralled and wrapped up in the intensity of the moment. I feel it's somewhat difficult to go into greater detail and elaborate on some of what I'm trying to get at without spoiling some of the story so I was stop there.

However this film is something that feels like the perfect marriage of two different mediums. You have the incredibly talented filmmakers and a wonderfully crafted novel from a great writer.

[grady]

A week or so back, the Coen Brothers along with Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem were on Charlie Rose. The entire show is available online. It's worth a watch.

link (http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/11/16/1/a-discussion-about-the-film-no-country-for-old-men)

[stimpee]

so saw this yesterday, thought it was an amazing film, but can someone give me the spoiler or summary of the end? when that sheriff was talking, i was tired and kinda slept through that and than... you know.

anyone want to explain it to me?

it was great film and the pacing was superb up to when the sheriff visits that guy with the cats...How to make your own Dirty spoiler: http://www.darktrain.org/dirty/forums/showthread.php?t=4298 (the sticky at the top of this forum)

[Scott Warner]

This isn't much of a spoiler:

Tommy Lee's character is basically saying things ain't like they used to be, and the way things are now shocks him so much he doesn't want to carry on doing what he was doing. Think about the speech at the beginning and what he says at the end.

Bottom line here is that it's not a Hollywood ending for sure.

[dubman]

great movie. gets better when you leave it for sure though. watching just felt like the coen brothers knew how to make a quiet, gravely brutal place in their movies and this was just... refining that. but thinking about bardem's performance and world they live in and the shifts in decisions and setting made me want to see it again, so i'm doing that today.

[EuroZeroZero]

gives you something to think about as you're walking out of the theatre...that's for sure.

[GreenPea]

I need a transcript of the speech of the man with the cats and the sheriff, all the hick speech threw me off.

I don't know if the movie gave me anything t think about, exept for the total bleakness and hopelessness, I guess total pessimism towards the future, but I already feel that way and at the same time I don't. Things are what they are I guess...

I found myself rooting for Chigurgh the whole movie, basically idealism gone wrong. The only man in the movie that doesn't act like an animal trying to survive or get rich but following his rigid set of principles and the rest of the world be damned. And I guess that makes him stronger that the rest of the characters as he is someone that cannot be bought or controlled.

[cacophony]

Tommy Lee's character is basically saying things ain't like they used to be, and the way things are now shocks him so much he doesn't want to carry on doing what he was doing. Think about the speech at the beginning and what he says at the end.
which is interesting considering the conversation he had with the wheelchair bound fellow, who illustrated that things are exactly the way they used to be. the details may be different, but going back to his ancestors there had always been violence and inexplicable pain and cruelty. and i think the point illustrated in the sherriff's dream that he recounts at the end, is that time keeps moving on and there's always light waiting for you, no matter how long the path is. just like chigurh's fascination with the paths coins take, life takes a similar path, just goes where it goes and ends up where it ends up and everything along the way is just details. at least that's what i got from it, and i appreciated the way the message was woven thoughout.

i realize you weren't commenting directly on this. your comment just brought this to mind.

I found myself rooting for Chigurgh the whole movie, basically idealism gone wrong. The only man in the movie that doesn't act like an animal trying to survive or get rich but following his rigid set of principles and the rest of the world be damned. And I guess that makes him stronger that the rest of the characters as he is someone that cannot be bought or controlled.
i think it's odd that you "rooted" for chigurh. i don't know that any of the characters were presented in such a protagonist-like role. i think the point with chigurh is that he was inexplicable, unfathomable, and set on his path with an inevitability that even he didn't seem capable of explaining. if i felt anything for chigurh, i felt pity. it was as if his obsession with coins illustrated that he could comprehend nothing but the inevitability of the way coins travel. and even that comprehension was tenuous as illustrated by his confrontation with carson wells, who questioned whether chigurh understood how truly crazy he was.

[Scott Warner]

which is interesting considering the conversation he had with the wheelchair bound fellow, who illustrated that things are exactly the way they used to be.
Yes, I forgot about this exchange but you're right. So then the question at the end is - is Lee's final conclusion determined by the path traveled or by this realization?

[GreenPea]

which is interesting considering the conversation he had with the wheelchair bound fellow, who illustrated that things are exactly the way they used to be. the details may be different, but going back to his ancestors there had always been violence and inexplicable pain and cruelty. and i think the point illustrated in the sherriff's dream that he recounts at the end, is that time keeps moving on and there's always light waiting for you, no matter how long the path is. just like chigurh's fascination with the paths coins take, life takes a similar path, just goes where it goes and ends up where it ends up and everything along the way is just details. at least that's what i got from it, and i appreciated the way the message was woven thoughout.


This is pretty much how I actually see things, I had the impression that the conversation with the guy in the wheelchair was making this point, but I wasn't sure until now as well, I had a hard time understanding the dialogue.

[GreenPea]

i think it's odd that you "rooted" for chigurh. i don't know that any of the characters were presented in such a protagonist-like role. i think the point with chigurh is that he was inexplicable, unfathomable, and set on his path with an inevitability that even he didn't seem capable of explaining. if i felt anything for chigurh, i felt pity. it was as if his obsession with coins illustrated that he could comprehend nothing but the inevitability of the way coins travel. and even that comprehension was tenuous as illustrated by his confrontation with carson wells, who questioned whether chigurh understood how truly crazy he was.

I don't know if "rooting" is the right word, I think Chigurgh was not human (not literally, but what he represents) but he was basically death itself, something you can't escape from. Chigurgh did not have it's own intent, he didn't kill for personal reasons, dying by his hands was as inpersonal as dying on an earthquake or a car accident or most forms of death really, he was basically a tool of randomness itself? I didn't feel pity as I basically saw him as more non-human than human and liking him for that reason. I was rooting for him in the sense of I wanted him to be unstopable, this idealized tool of destruction and not just another human character that can fail.

I am still unsure what his character means in the overall message of the film though, or the car accident at the end? Basically I feel there is some message about inevitability and random pain/death/suffering but I also feel there is something more I am missing.

[Scott Warner]

Basically I feel there is some message about inevitability and random pain/death/suffering but I also feel there is something more I am missing.
It's interesting coz this is basically part of my worldview but I feel its a fairly liberating thing because it means there's nothing you can do about it, so there's no point in actually worrying about it. :)

And with that I am jinxed to randomly slip into a coma tomorrow. Goodbye.

[gillenium]

This movie was freakin great. The end, I'll admit, is incredibly jarring. When it cut to black, my stomach sank. I said "What?? That's it??" It is definitely not your average action flick. But the actual content of the film and the after-taste it leaves you is haunting and fantastic. I really want to see it again.

[cacophony]

Yes, I forgot about this exchange but you're right. So then the question at the end is - is Lee's final conclusion determined by the path traveled or by this realization?

the realization. i think part of what llewellyn's wife was saying to chigurh was that the path isn't real. there are still choices to be made, and one chooses whether his fate is determined by a "path" or not.

sarah connor was right, "there's no fate but what we make for ourselves." ;)

[cacophony]

Ihe was basically a tool of randomness itself

i like that.

as random as a coin flip?

[Tyler]

The scene where Moss first discovers the crime scene and then the one where the dog chases him are two of the best paced pieces of filmmaking I have ever scene.

It is interesting to me that faced with the randomness and indifference of the universe, Moss acts like he has some say, some agency in how things come out and attempts (and ultimately fails, randomly) to face it head on, while the sherrif is always declining to act (he's always saying he'd rather not do something in the movie: ride that one horse, meet with the FBI agents, etc etc) and just going along for the ride until he makes the decision to walk into the hotel room and what he believes to be his sure death. I don't know if the movie is trying to say something about how to chose between these two options.

[Caprice]

so, anyone have a good, one sentence, theme definer for this movie?

(i saw it and thought it was very good. i love the Coen bros. work.)

[GreenPea]

"You can't stop what's coming...."

[grady]

Not a word, but a sentence or statement:

All these things he saw and did not see.

[m.g.]

Just seen it tonight (just out today here). The best Coen's brothers movie since quite long... & Javier Bardem is immense as a totally mad cold nonsensed psychopath... it should win a few Oscars on 24th February.