I didnt seen a thread for this, if there is, lock it up... I just got back from this movie. It's the best movie i've seen in years. It deserves best picture Anyone else see it?
There was another thread about it a week or two ago. I recently saw this movie, and I didn't completely understand the theme of it. I think it was due to the accents of the characters. Can somebody explain what the general message the movie was trying to portray? I didn't get the very last part of the movie where Tommy Lee Jones is back at home and talking in his kitchen.
Why does it deserve best picture? I heard some buzz about it and upon watching the preview (that others went ga-ga over) I was underwhelmed. Not that I'm doubting the movie, I'm just wondering.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! I can tell you what I THINK. But I haven't read anything about what the writer was trying to communicate: 1. It was sorta like Seven in West Texas. The idea that evil is always with us. Remember Tommy Lee Jones and the other sheriff are talking about how bad it is now...how it's all different now...and then he goes to visit the old man who tells him about his uncle being gunned down on his front porch in front of his famly in 1909. 2. I think the second dream he talked about was about his impending death. The old man he went to visit talked about being unable to ultimately escape what is coming to get you. So he had this dream about his father, who is dead, riding on ahead of him to prepare a campfire for him in the darkness. That his father had the light and warmth of the fire with him. Then there was the ticking of the clock and it fades to black. This is just my take on it. That's what it communicated to me. I'd be interested to hear what other people got out of it.
I believe the final Tommy Lee monologue is verbatim from the book. Have to check again though. This movie is brilliant. It's Fargo in West Texas. Did anyone notice that there was no score highlighting the scenes. Just images. Cinema at its purest. Probably the best American film this year. Zodiac, Death Proof, Knocked Up/Superbad being the others. Every Texan should watch this film.
It's more than just the lack of music. The creaks in the floors, shuffling feet, scraping metal, blowing wind, popped tires, gunshots and Anton's weapon of choice were all the score this movie needed. Very well done.
just got back from seeing it. i really enjoyed this flick. i love the fact that they filmed it in texas - anything to make the rest of the country think we are even weirder than we already are! i never even noticed the fact that there was absolutely no music until the very end - its was very effective - those west texas scenescapes were better served by not having any music. like madmax said, i think the general theme was that evil is just out there and it always will be. Spoiler the movie ended very abruptly, but i think it was a good way to end it. its kind of jarring b/c we are used to the bad guy getting it in the end and in this case he gets away. i was totally expecting him to get shot in a drive by when he kept looking back in his rearview mirror. than i thought the wreck was going to either kill him or get him arrested...and he just walks away. did anyone else feel like this was the least coen-brothers-y movie they have done? there were some funny one liners, but it didnt seem to be quite as humorous as their other movies. kept the movies tension going well. i hadnt really seen josh brolin in anything that i knew of since goonies, but in the last 2 weeks ive seen this and american gangster, which are the two best movies ive seen this year - superbad and the good shepherd are closely behind, but these two are excellent. havent read any mccarthy, but my roomate gave me blood meridian a few months ago - it definitely moving up on my reading list.
My favourite films this year were Michael Clayton and Mr. Brooks. I also enjoyed Into the Wild tremendously, since I could relate with the story well. Best comedy by far was SuperBad. Best action movie was Bourne Ultimatum. Worst movie I saw this year was The Kingdom.
jo mama, have you seen Blood Simple or Miller's Crossing? how does this one compare to those two to anyone else who might have seen all of these Coen crime/dramas... especially Blood Simple. there is a shot I remember of the desolate highway with the gas-station in the foreground, I'm pretty sure that shot is duplicated in No Country... still havent seen it yet, gotta get to the theatre tomorrow!
Tremendous movie. For those who didn't like the ending, do your best to try and remember the message of the final ... trying not to spoil ... "part" (because I know it's easy to lose focus) and understand the message. I thought the ending was apt and thrilling and understandable and frustrating and friggin' great. And I'm not talking about the SPOILER ALERT stopping short.
Spoiler The ending ruined the entire movie for me. Went from an A to C-. I think they ran out of money and decided to call it an artistic ending.
its been awhile, but ive seen both. its a similar vein, but the movie just felt different from their other ones somehow. i heard from people that read the book that they stuck really close to that and that most of the dialog was directly from the book too. that being said, if you are a coen brothers fan i dont know how this movie could disappoint.
i think they were pretty faithful to the book. maybe cormac ran out of money writing it? Spoiler the ending was definitely unexpected and didnt seem to really tie it up in a nice little package, but i liked that. but right when it ended i thought "thats it?" and for a split second i was starting to think the same as you, but i think it was an appropriate ending that really hit home as far as the overall theme was concerned. the good guys dont always win and the bad guys dont always get caught. theres a flaming lips song called "evil will prevail" - that could have been antons theme that anton dude is something else though. he is described as this demonic psychopath, but he is actually very intelligent and calculating. he has a job to do and doesnt allow anyone or anything to stop him from doing it. and he seems to live by this really twisted moral code - Spoiler the coin flip thing - he could have just killed the gas station guy, but ends up letting him live b/c he won the coin toss. and with the girl, he didnt have to kill her, but as he tells her, he had made a deal with her husband and he felt obligated to uphold his end of it. i like how she refused to call it too - it didnt matter - he was going to do what he wanted.
i ended up disappointed. not to say i didn't like it, but i don't really get how everyone thinks it is one of the greatest movies ever either. and while i'm not a coens fanatic, i think i've liked every movie of their's that i've seen and really like some of them so i went in expecting to like it. and with all the positive reviews, i was really excited. and then the last 20 minutes just kinda left me feeling empty. it's not that i have any problem with... Spoiler the bad guy winning or evil prevailing or not having things nicely wrapped up. in fact, if i ever made a movie (which is like saying if i was ever a point guard for an NBA team) i think i would have the bad guy win. i like that view for some reason. but everything they seemed to be building to just fizzled. woody harrelson comes in like this bad ass and then gets got with almost no effort at all. llewelyn says he's going to make anton a project of his and then is gunned down offscreen about 10 minutes later. and then you think maybe tommy lee jones will do something (even if it's getting gunned down) and he just gives a monologue about a dream foretelling his death and then we're done. it just didn't do anything for me at the end. when i have to start rationalizing why i actually did like the ending, then i know i really didn't. it was shot very well, the lack of score was cool, it was acted very well and i loved every second anton was on screen, but it just left me wanting too much.
We switching threads? Here's my interpretation of the theme Spoiler As stated earlier, things aren't changing in terms of "good VS evil" as Tommy Lee Jones thinks, he's reminded about the death of his own father (uncle? I forget). It is "natural" or "human" to wind down, which is what Tommy Lee Jones faces in his age. He's retiring from his job and his life is of course coming to a close as well, despite any feeling of incompleteness he may have from the case of Anton. Anton represents the other side that while "unnatural" is actually ever-present. The reason Anton is so good at what he does is because he is less of the compassionate human that Tommy Lee Jones, and even Llewelyn are. He rejects our civilized ideas to such an extreme that he's incredibly efficient at what we call evil. I include Llewelyn on the side of Tommy Lee Jones, not for opposing Anton, but because he made the human choices although he ventures into a gray area. Despite knowing it was dangerous as all Hell to take water back to the dying man, he couldn't live with himself if he hadn't. To beat Anton, you have to be more extreme than him, and Llewelyn really is no match, he's still in touch with humanity. Similarly, Tommy Lee Jones can't stop him. We're rooting for Llewelyn to be this superhero who somehow wraps the story up with blazing guns, and we want this so much that just like the character of Llewelyn, we think it's actually possible. It isn't. He tries to play the game and loses. Anton does not live by our society's rules, he isn't human enough to fail so easy at "evil". Only he continues on with his life because he doesn't face an ending like the rest of us, besides evil he embodies the darkside and/or probably on a more basic level, time. or anything we can't beat
I watched it and enjoyed it, but was confused by one thing. crap.....how do you do spoiler tags again?
I thought it was one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. The soundtrack (or lack thereof) the acting, the overall message... It was amazing. 5 stars.
