*** Official NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Micheal]

Interesting.... I have to read this book.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Brian W. Ralston]

There was music in the film. About 3 short cues. There was one at the beginning but it was soft and atmospheric. There were about 2 others in the middle of the film, again...atmospheric in nature (no melody)...and they were so soft in the mix, you could barely hear them. Then, of course the end title was thematic in nature.

I do agree though...the sparse use of music, or rather the large use of silence and "room tone" gave this particular film a kick in the erie/on edge department.

 

[Brian W. Ralston]

As a film composer...I actually agree with you to a point. I hate how films typically get wall to wall scores nowdays. The rule I was taught and what I do on every project when spotting a film with a director is to discuss why there should be music in a particular scene. If there is no good reason for it to be there, then it should not be there. The silence actually makes the moments with music have more impact as well. Wall to wall music gets lost in the wash of the sound field. The audience member begins to tone it out.

In my experience with film and knowing the power music has to evoke emotion in a film...I do not believe there is a blanket answer for every film. Little music in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN was brilliant. (There were a few atmospheric cues). But, just like your thoughts on wall to wall scores...absolutely no score is the opposite extreme that can be detrimental to a film as well. There are countless stories of films screened with scores where the audiences hated the film and the same film edit was screened months later with a different score and the audiences loved the film. The only change was the music.

Music (for most films), is the emotional component supporting or enhancing what is already on screen. It is the "un-seen actor" that is a powerful force in shaping how the audience responds. The "music" in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is the symphony of the sounds of society itself. Silence can be just as powerful as a theme, depending on what story the film is trying to tell.

Do you feel manipulated by film music most of the time? Well...the Cohen Bros. manipulated you again with their lack of "music". It is basically the same thing.

 

[Bryan^H]

This is usually why film documentaries are so powerful. Most don't have a musical score, and when done right you are completely immersed in that world for a couple hours w/out the musical score to remind you your watching a film.

If No Country for Old Men had a musical score, the suspense, and realism would have been greatly diminished.....for me anyway.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Anyone care to comment on how to interpret the car crash in the final act? Watching Chigurh walk away with a compound fracture of his arm, am I just supposed to be left with the impression that this guy is an even bigger badass then he already is? I can understand people being turned off with the ending, but it's the crash scene that's still vexing me.

 

[Brett_M]

For me, it goes right along with Tommy Lee Jones' character assertion that he is living in a country that he does not recognize or understand. Chigurh walks away and evil wins.

 

[teapot2001]

Also goes along with his feelings about God. A random act happened that should've killed him and did kill the other driver left Chigurh walking away. It also mirrors Brolin's character as he was walking across the border injured, showing how greed will still persist with the youth.

~T

 

[Kirk Tsai]

I would posit this is a false statement. Even if the documentaries do not use a traditional film score--and a large amount do--they nonetheless may use an off-screen/non-diegetic soundtrack made of existing music.

 

[Holadem]

There was music in the film. Sparse and subtle, but it was there, and underscored a couple of extremely tense scenes. Not sure why folks think there was none.

Yeah the end was hard to swallow. I can't say I *got* it, but I am still digesting the whole thing. Still right until then, this one is a masterpiece.

--
H

 

[IanDP]

I come to this forum because it's like alka-seltzer ... it helps me digest what I just saw.
I saw it with my wife. She HATED it.
I didn't like it, but I appreciated it. Every time Ed Tom Bell (TLJ) was on screen it was a joy to watch.

 

[Holadem]

I vote for making this the HTF tag line. Or at least put in the forum description. Thanks for making my morning.

--
H

 

[JonZ]

"There was music in the film. Sparse and subtle, but it was there"

There was a very subtle swell in 2 spots I can remember.

When Moss was sitting on the bed with the gun waiting for Chigurh and I think the other was when Jones Character come upon the chaos at the motel.

 

[Tom BL]

What a disappointing film. I loved it up until they killed Llewelyn off-screen, then rapidly progressed to hating it as Tommy Lee Jones took over, meandering to the end.

What I loved:
- everything...except the final third of the story

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy evil won out, but I felt completely betrayed when Llewelyn's final moments were skipped over. And I just kept hoping Jones would shut up, but he kept talking long after his points were made.

 

[Henry Gale]

I've never thought of a mariachi group as "subtle".
Where were you guys when they were playing, on screen?

 

[Holadem]

That chilling gas station conversation was scored as well -- if you can call that low, unsettling drone a score.

--
H

 

[Henry Gale]

Excerpt from CNN:
"Q: Many have also been unsure of how to react to the ending (a scene in which Jones' character gives a long soliloquy). How did you approach that scene?

JONES: I worked at it every day, several times a day, because it was poetic and you wanted to get the rhythms right and try to embody in the performance all that it might imply as a work of literature and hopefully cinema. And worked at it real hard. Are you asking me what it meant?

Q: No.

JONES: Good. (all laugh) Because it means what it means. It says what it says. It's pretty straightforward.

Q: Is it something that you believe? Once we're no longer saying "sir" and "ma'am" is all lost?

JONES: No, not all is lost. What I think is the book and the movie, in general, is a contemplation of morality. And the character of Ed Tom feels somewhat overwhelmed by a new character of evil and says so to his wiser and older uncle, and his uncle tells him that that's vanity, that evil doesn't change and that you, Ed Tom, do not live in the center of the universe. You can't be overwhelmed. It's the same old deal.

Then he tells the story about these Indians who ride up to another uncle's house maybe a hundred years ago, kill him on his front porch. And when he recounts the story, if you look at it on the face of it, it seems like a recounting of a scene from a grade-B Western, but somehow you get the feeling that if you were there on that day, you would have seen real evil. And it would have impressed you; it would have been real. And I think that's important to this movie's outlook. No matter how overwhelmed you might feel, it's not about you. ...

And like all considerations of Cormac, the questions are far more important than the answers. The question that arises there is that wonderful dream of riding ahead and reuniting with your father in the warm fire place in the cold, in the dark, hostile country. And if it is a dream, does the dream have any efficacy at all? If you wake up from a dream, what have you woken up from? Have you woken up from reality?"

Read the whole interview at CNN

 

[oscar_merkx]

It was something that caught me off guard the car crash.

I thought it was fascinating that the two kids argued over the money.

Very disappointed that Brolin's character was killed off screen though.

Perhaps a sequel is waiting to be made.

 

[Walter Kittel]

For me, I thought that it was meant to reinforce the chaotic nature of the story. Chigurh was an element of chaos in the film and by having his character experience random violence (as opposed to dishing it out) communicated the unexpected nature of life's events.

- Walter.

 

[Patrick Sun]

And gave Chigurh the Timex seal of approval: Malevolence takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

 

[Jefferson Morris]

Just watched the Blu-Ray disc of this film last night. That was my second viewing, the first being in a theater.

I'm still puzzled by one element--why did Moss go through that business with pushing the briefcase into the first hotel room vent, then renting another room and pulling it through the other end?

--Jefferson Morris