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Old 12-09-2007, 12:01 PM   #1
piercehawkeye45
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No Country For Old Men

I just watched this movie yesterday and thought it was very good. Has anyone else watched this and do you actually understand the movie? haha
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Old 12-09-2007, 12:22 PM   #2
freshnesschronic
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I saw it too yo. The directing and cinematography were great, really brought out the gruffness of the south west.

Good, except for the ending. I was like "wtf? It just ends the current plot and tries to move onto a side plot for 20 minutes. Boo, annoying ending.
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Old 12-09-2007, 01:30 PM   #3
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J and I saw it yesterday too, very striking and brilliantly crafted. I have to think about it for a while before I decide whether I liked it or not.

Most of the time an impeccable portrayal of evil makes me do that. Most of the time I decide I didn't like it, like "Cape Fear", and "Blue Velvet", and "Silence of the Lambs". Where the point of the film is almost to see how evil you can make a character.
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Old 12-09-2007, 06:36 PM   #4
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The ending is what really made the movie stand out in my opinion. At first I was also like "WTF" but once I thought about it for a while it started to come together and make sense.

I still haven't figured out all movie's meaning and symbolism, if there is some, but the dream had a big effect on me.
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Old 12-14-2007, 06:18 PM   #5
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Awesome movie!!

A coffee shop acquaintance made the bridge you saw at "the border". (Props guy) Apparently they didn't use it much, but it cost $160,000.00. It was mostly filmed down here and Marfa TX. So the townies here worked on it.....Like alot of films lately.....Santa Fe's becoming the new hollywood...


So I hated the ending...That really was disappointing. The rest of the movie was awesome. It just kind of fizzled out and then there was a dot dot dot....plbbbt. I don't like that unless there is an intent to follow-up...So I just got left hanging forever like everyone else.

Soooo, I thought it was important that the guy was a super-villain bad ass- kind of the point of the movie and the title. I mean...it has to be a super psycho if he's supposed to scare Tommy Lee Jones, right?

Besides...sociopaths actually do exist and it is important to recognize this type of behavior when you see it....Even if it is not that extreme.
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Old 12-15-2007, 10:17 PM   #6
perth
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I enjoyed it quite a bit. I haven't had a movie stick with me the way this one did in a long time, maybe ever. I plan on seeing it again, but I had to get the book so I could sort of "re-experience" the film.

The movie was very faithful, with only a few parts changed. There was a little more information regarding Chigurh's motivation, and quite a bit more in the way of Bell's (Tommy Lee Jones' character) monologue. Reading the book clarified the entire film and especially the ending. Can we talk spoilers?
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Old 12-17-2007, 10:39 PM   #7
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If you talk spoilers I would post a warning or put it in white text.

KIND OF SPOILERS.... (highlight)







I am pretty sure there was suppose to be some symbolism of change throughout the movie but I am shaky on that part.

But the dream part was really cool. Talking about how his dad moved on into the dark and cold (death) and would be waiting for him when he decided to move on was pretty touching. I didn't know if that meant that the killer guy would get him next though.
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Old 12-23-2007, 05:43 PM   #8
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Spoiler follows:
While Chigurh and Moss get most of the screen time, I think the movie is ultimately about Sheriff Bell, and his inability to adapt to specifically modern criminals, but more generally, modern times. A lot of his monologue focuses on comparing different times, expressing confusion and frustration over people's behaviour in the present.

So while the hunt is important to the movie, I think its importance lies in keeping the movie interesting and not in providing the meat of the story. Sheriff Bell's slowly unfolding failure is the real story. It's not as exciting as silenced shotguns, bags of money and buckets of blood but it *means* a lot more. And I guess that's why I enjoyed the ending - Bell's efforts were essentially futile, and the final part of the movie is him recognising and accepting that.
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Old 12-24-2007, 09:28 AM   #9
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That's a good synopsis perth, I never thought of it that way.

But still, if it was going that route it succeeded; except for the aspect of making a good movie start to finish.

No Country for Old Men and I am Legend are the biggest concluding disappointments I can remember in recent times. And I don't want to talk about the Matrix.
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Old 12-24-2007, 10:49 AM   #10
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I really dug the ending after some thought. I mean - it's depressing, and decidedly not "Hollywood". Maybe I'm willing to overlook any flaws because it's different. I'll have to give it another watch. One thing is for certain: Even if the ending sucks, the rest of the movie is just freakin' fantastic.
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Old 12-24-2007, 11:02 AM   #11
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The ending for "No Country for Old Men" was perfect.

Spoiler:

The point of the movie was NOT to catch the Shugere because the movie was overall symbolic. Here is the best explaination that I'ver heard:

Shugere [sic] represents violence/death. He comes without warning, and the only way in which you can escape him is through luck. He is remorseless and cares only about obtaining his goal, which is more violence. The sheriff represents the attempt to cage that violence, to stop it. In the end the sheriff quits, because he realizes that there is something within man that he cannot stop, that he cannot contain, and that fighting it is pointless. He realizes that fighting it is delusional and that the only people who can understand it are the old, or the insane, who have lost their idealism. He quits because his ideal has died. The country is the ideal, the belief in good is the ideal. Llewlyn believed that he could make good in the world, and he loses. He believed he could escape Shugere, and does but at the price of his life. He believed in "the country". That country is no place for old men because they have lost their idealism. Shugere doesn't die because, from the author's view (McCarthy) he is pure and has no delusions. But even he does not come out unscathed because the promise of death exists even for him. He wins in fact because he is emotionless and driven only by his needs and not the silly trappings of morality. It's horribly cynnical, but IMO honest.
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Old 12-24-2007, 11:39 AM   #12
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And there you go: Blue Velvet and Silence of the Lambs had no philosophy other than a stylish display of horrific evil. They might as well have been Hostel instead of highly-regarded works of art. Great acting, but in support of what? Cape Fear had a philosophy behind it, but not much of one. No Country is wholly philosophy-driven -- a philosophical horror film, of sorts, which gives it a kind of redemption.
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Old 12-25-2007, 01:15 PM   #13
piercehawkeye45
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I watched again with my dad and here are some more thoughts:

Spoiler:

I have found a few different morals or messages in the story but I haven't put them all together yet.

One, is how there is an illusion of change when in reality, there isn't any. This is shown when the sheriff goes to his father's deputy and talks about how he is over his head and how this didn't happen in the past when his father's deputy says that this kind of thing has been going on for a long time.

The second message is simplier. Don't get your nose into something that it shouldn't be in. Llewlyn should have stayed out of the drug deal's buisness and he got killed by taking the money.

The third is what I posted in my last post. There is a very cynical message about how we cannot run from death and when we try to, we end up getting more taken away from us than needed. The country represents this ideal of being able to fight or handle violence, but the old understand that this is just unrealistic.



I do have one question though.

At the end of the movie when the sheriff goes back to the hotel where Llewlyn was killed, he looks through the broken lock and sees Shugere and Shugere sees him as well. Why don't those two meet? Did Shugere run away because it wasn't the Sheriff's time to die or were they at different times? And who killed Llewlyn? Shugere or the Mexicans?
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Old 12-29-2007, 11:31 PM   #14
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Spoiler:
The Mexicans killed Llewellyn. I think they were there at the same time, but Chigurh was just better at hiding than Bell was at seeking (No, I have no idea where he could have hidden).
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Old 12-29-2007, 11:35 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freshnesschronic View Post
...No Country for Old Men and I am Legend are the biggest concluding disappointments I can remember in recent times....
Sorry for the double-post.

I saw I am Legend last night. Yeah, I sort of hated the ending too, but I would argue that there wasn't a better way of ending it - anything else would have felt like a cop-out. The rest of the movie was great, though. I can't wait to see it again.
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