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

[Robert Crawford]

I found a lot of people leaving the theater confused and disgruntle about the ending of the film.

 

[Craig S]

Well, even though he only scored a few minutes of music for the end credits it still counts.

 

[GerardoHP]

Like many others, including the 3 friends I saw it with, I loved the first three quarters of the film, but could have used a better ending.

*** SPOILERS FOLLOW ***





The dialogue throughout and the narrative are riveting, until the scene where TLJ goes into the hotel room where JB is hiding at the end, knowing he is there and DOES NOT SEE HIM!!! I realized then that the film was trying to tell me something not obvious at this point, and I totally got that JB is supposed to be more of a symbol of death in all its inevitability than a real, indestructible person. But when a movie goes on for 2 hours on a completely realistic note and then suddenly does a flip like this, it's a little hard to take. I, for one, spent the next 2 or 3 minutes going, WTF!, and got lost. I'm sure the whole thing will make more sense on a second viewing, but I can't help but wonder if the same realistic tone couldn't have been sustained until the end, without throwing the audience off, and still have told the same story with the same results but without the confusion. Like Hitchcock would have done. I would have liked it more.

 

[Jose Martinez]

This film alone deserves an entire course in film school just to discuss the cinematography, the minimal use of a musical score, the screenwriting and the character study, the boldness of the directorial choices made, and so on. The final act alone is worth a class or two to discuss.

 

[Jose Martinez]

Regarding the ending which has frustrated many people.

Two words. Two words that are spoken, either directly or indirectly, by each of the 3 main characters. Two words that make that ending make a whole lot of sense. Two words: "Hold still."

 

[Brett_M]

I saw the film yesterday and it is still on my mind. "Haunted" is as good a word as any to describe how I feel.

When I left the theater, I hard many people saying "That's it?"

I asked myself: Why is Tommy Lee Jones in the movie?

Today, after reading other reviews and mediatating on what I saw and heard last night, I understand:

Those who have seen NCfOM will know what I mean. Those who haven't, view it through this prism: Sherriff Ed Tom Bell is the movie.

 

[Quentin]

That's a debatable point. What assassin goes around using a cattle air-hammer as a weapon? A silenced shotgun?

This film isn't about realism as much as symbolism and theme.

And, we get that in spades.

 

[JonZ]

I thought using no music was brilliant. Instead you get distant sounds, like the scene where Chigurh finds Moss in the hotel room after Moss finds the tracker. Most films prob would have used music to highten anticipation.

The following chase scene was masterfully done.

I dont get the problem people are having with the ending.

Great film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

They don't understand it and what does it mean with him walking away from being T-Bone with a compound fracture of the arm.

 

[Richard--W]

Possible spoilers below.
I agree wholeheartedly.

The transition into the third act comes as Sheriff Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, hears automatic weapons fire in the distance. He drives toward that and sees what has just happened between Llewellyn and the killer Chigurh. Later, the sheriff returns to the motel room to search it again because he seems to sense that Chigurh is close, so he holds back from looking any further. All he has to do was look in one more spot, where the killer is waiting, or hiding, and one or both of them would be killed.

The sight of Chigurh wiping his feet on the ground as he leaves the old frame house tells us what became of the poor girl inside. That gesture leaves no doubt in my mind.

At the end, one gets the impression that the retired sheriff's nightmare will come to pass sooner than he thinks. This is no country for old men.

Remember this is Cormac McCarthy's story being told on the screen, not the Cohen brothers'. Literary critics are already writing books about McCarthy's prose and "No Country For Old Men" is receiving its fair share of analysis. The Cohens are faithful to the source novel, its characters and underlying themes, as well as its surface plotting. They are particularly good with McCarthy's dialog. One has to applaud their courage. Anyone else would have changed the entire third act as well as the ending.

 

[Brett_M]

I could be wrong, but wasn't Moss killed by more drug dealers in a pick-up truck? They peeled out, shooting up the place, leaving one wounded man behind in the parking lot. Chigurh came later to get the money.

 

[teapot2001]

He was actually just checking the bottom of his shoes, not wiping them on the ground.

~T

 

[Richard--W]

It's such a great film.
Okay.
But checking the bottom of his shoes indicates the same thing as wiping them, wouldn't you say?

 

[Quentin]

Yes. He's checking for blood.

Also, that's no nightmare Bell has/describes. It is a dream of hope and promise. "And then, I woke up."

You can translate his last line as you see fit. Perhaps, he just woke from the dream and the hope is still present. Or, perhaps this reality that he has been witness to has awakened him to a new truth.

 

[teapot2001]

I took the dream as meaning that he wasn't ready to join his father yet in death. He didn't want to die against something he didn't understand like Chigur, but he'd rather be a part of this cold, evil world.

~T

 

[GerardoHP]

What assassin goes around using an electric drill (DRILLER KILLER) or a travelling guillotine (TRAUMA)? Obviosuly, the method employed to dispatch people in movies does not in itself signal "symbolism".

For me, what doesn't work is the way NCFOM blends its symbolism with the more realistic aspects of the story. And this is what I think ultimately distinguishes the film from a true masterpiece.

 

[JonZ]

Sort of related, it seems Ridley Scott is doing Blood Meridian.

 

[Henry Gale]

Just to be exactemundo, he wasn't "on the ground" either, he was still on the porch.
Carla Jean was between Chigurth and the bedroom door. There could have been any number of things (yuk!) to check the soles of his shoes for.

 

[L. Anton Dencklau]

*Why 1980? Is there any reason for it besides the coolness of rotary dial phones and boomer cocaine nostalgia? Bales of cocaine, fallin down like rain...
*It needs to be said that there is something in my brain chemistry that just has antibodies against Coen Brothers movies. I had the exact same reaction to this that I had to Barton Fink, Hudsucker, Lebowski, O Brother, and the others. Enjoyable to watch, well acted, well constructed films that evaporate from my thoughts before I even start the car.
*Largely, I just don't get it. There is brilliant direction on display, but when you reach for deeper territory -- your hand just closes on air. If there is some sort of texas myth creation going on, i'm not seeing it. If the aim is to evoke a nostalgia for time when things were black and white, and there was always a motivation for evil... what world are you living in? If all there is is the nihilism and inevitability of death, is that enough? Enough to make an entertaining film, I guess. I enjoy screen violence whether purposeful or pointless. But when that's all you have; when you don't have exploration, analysis, dissection, emotional reaction, something... then notwithstanding the great acting, camera work, direction... there's no “there” there. Its just evil on film. That's enough for a slasher movie, but not much for masters like the Coens. But as previously mentioned, i've never been able to buy into their brand of fantasia anyway. This film may be the greatest thing since sliced bread to a lot of people, and there is a lot that is really great about it, but if you ask me, you're better off renting Lone Star.

 

[JonZ]

You pretty much described my opinion of Pulp Fiction perfectly there.

A film everyone else loves but I see as "eh". Ive always found it to be a big nothing.


"The scene where Sheriff Bell searches the hotel room while Chigurh waits to be discovered had me sitting on the edge of my seat."

Why did Sheriff Bell go back to the motel?
Remember the earlier scene where he was asked if he wanted to return to the first crime scens, and he replied unless there were more bodies, there was no point. So what made him want to go back to that scene? Think about it.

Chigurh is there but its up to us to decide if he was there earlier and had to leave the scene in hast and was returning for the money or he arrived late.

I think he arrived late.