love

Author Topic: No Country for Old Men  (Read 48712 times)

JoshuaOst

  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 718
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #170 on: April 16, 2008, 09:17:11 PM »
Talk about late to the party, but my wife and I finally watched No Country tonight via netflix. As a long time listener, I knew that the filmspotting crew and boards were the places to go to help me understand the movie.

My one point, as pertaining to the discussion earlier in this thread about the possible references to the title, is this: the title is a direct quote from a poem by WB Yeats. "Sailing to Byzantium" is a famous poem, and one with a great deal of discussion and research. From my grad school study of Yeats (albeit a few years back!) I believe "Sailing" is about an old man ("An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick") coming to terms with his soul being "fastened to a dying animal" that "knows not what it is". Tommy Lee Jones is most definitely the main character, so I would assume that it is his character that McCarthy was referencing in the title of the book and therefore the movie. Check out Yeats' full poem--it's quite nice.

Yeats is one of my favorite poets.  Only second to T.S. Elliot.
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

CHW

  • Junior Member
  • *
  • Posts: 31
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #171 on: January 19, 2009, 03:10:36 AM »
No Country didn't really live up to the hype for me.  It was weird, tense, and overall just kind of average.

Quote from: My Review
No Country for Old Men is kind of a strange exercise in minimalism.  Actors deliver their pithy lines with deadpan faces, music is used sparingly, and the plot is incidental, almost nonexistent.  The only thing unrestrained in this film is its violence, most of which is dispensed with brutal efficiency by Chigurh, an emotionless, psychopathic killer played by Javier Bardem.  He's the film's weirdest and most explosive ingredient, but he's only interesting until it becomes clear that there aren't actually any motives behind his actions.  All the characters in this film are kind of like that: impassive, single-minded, and frustratingly insufficient in their characterization.  Certain parts of No Country for Old Men works as a great thriller, with every burst of violence preceded by enormous moments of tension, but there are other parts, like the ambiguous, anti-climactic conclusion, that feels baffling and unsatisfying. (THREE out of five)

Variable

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 221
  • Stroke Me Lady Fame
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #172 on: February 16, 2009, 07:24:23 PM »
you don't see the motive behind brolin or jones' characters in this movie?

also, it seems like you're using "weird" and "tense" in a perjorative manner but I don't see either of those things as negative.

FroHam X

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17792
  • “By any seeds necessary.”
    • justAtad
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #173 on: February 16, 2009, 08:11:35 PM »
you don't see the motive behind brolin or jones' characters in this movie?

also, it seems like you're using "weird" and "tense" in a perjorative manner but I don't see either of those things as negative.

I like you, and not just for your avatar.
"We didn't clean the hamster's cage, the hamster's cage cleaned us!"

Can't get enough FroHam? Read more of my musings at justAtad

Wilson

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3095
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #174 on: February 16, 2009, 08:35:19 PM »
I'm afraid I just blue myself.

ferris

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10830
  • "Bravo Vincent....Bravo!"
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #175 on: March 31, 2009, 07:39:35 PM »
I've enjoying catching up with the 12 pages of posts in this thread.  Anyone else new to the movie care to share their thoughts a full year and a half after the thread got started?

I finally watched this movie this past December.  I immediately rewound (well as much as you can rewind a DVD!) and watched it again.  The only other movie I've ever watched again back-toback was "My Kid Could Paint That".  The next day I went out and bought the novel and read it in a week.  At the end of the week I bought the DVD and watched it again.    So I guess you could say I really loved it.  Maybe not loved it so much as just mezmorized by it!

Earlier in this thread there was a short debate about whether or not old men are necessarily more moral.  I don't believe the novel or movie make that claim.  Certainly it says that old men THINK they're more moral.  (I'll readily admit right now that I'll feel that way when I'm 70!)  However there is a scene with the TLJ character and his uncle where the uncle talks about a shootout on the front porch of some cattle rustlers way back in the day.  So -- I different kind of lawlessness, but lawlessness nonetheless.  No doubt a purposeful rant.

What I take as the lesson from the movie - that admittedly I might not have gotten had I not read the novel -- is that , no matter how evil the world is and how powerless you may seem to be to combat it, you have to keep doing your part every day to keep fighting it in your sphere of influence and not be overwhelmed by it.  Even though the TLJ character obviously gives up the fight and retreats into his own world. 

Talking to people of my Dad's generation that is a constant conflict as you grow older.  As you get older you don't feel like you have that band of brothers around you anymore to take up arms against the injustices of the world.  And we'll all get to that point - whether your hot button issue is abortion, turn signals or whether or not the Coen Brothers movies have substance - at some point we'll feel alone in that fight and we have to make the choice whether or not to keep on fighting or just retreat into retirement.

That's my overthinking of it :)

"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
(switchboard)

saltine

  • Administrator
  • Godfather
  • ******
  • Posts: 9800
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #176 on: March 31, 2009, 09:39:09 PM »
I enjoyed your reading of the film, but I have to say that I don't think the TLJ's character was giving up as much as passing the mantle.  Maybe retirement isn't retreat or giving up or giving in for that matter.  Maybe it's recognition that it's time to move out of the way for whatever comes next.

Texan Down Under

ferris

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10830
  • "Bravo Vincent....Bravo!"
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #177 on: March 31, 2009, 10:32:32 PM »
I enjoyed your reading of the film, but I have to say that I don't think the TLJ's character was giving up as much as passing the mantle.  Maybe retirement isn't retreat or giving up or giving in for that matter.  Maybe it's recognition that it's time to move out of the way for whatever comes next.



Thanks Saltine...I'll have to think about that.  It's nice talking to people about this theories because my wife just rolls her eyes at me and says "it's just a movie!".  In the end she's probably right and the Coens are just laughing at us!
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
(switchboard)

saltine

  • Administrator
  • Godfather
  • ******
  • Posts: 9800
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #178 on: March 31, 2009, 10:53:18 PM »
Around here, it's NEVER just a movie!
Texan Down Under

FroHam X

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17792
  • “By any seeds necessary.”
    • justAtad
Re: No Country for Old Men
« Reply #179 on: March 31, 2009, 11:16:04 PM »
Best movie ever (of 2007)!
"We didn't clean the hamster's cage, the hamster's cage cleaned us!"

Can't get enough FroHam? Read more of my musings at justAtad