Speaking of movies--No Country for Old Men?

LauraMax

Cathlete
The question mark is there b/c I'm asking someone to please explain this movie to me! I saw it last w/e & I'm still scratching my head. Good movie, well-written, riveting, but the ending was kind of unsatisfying.
 
I loved this movie. Will I ever watch it again? Probably not, but I thought it was great. Loved how the Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem characters are so similar, yet one seems so much more evil.

That Cormac McCarthy is a great writer, but, man, he is one sick puppy! Only the Coen brothers could have done this as well as it was done.

Hmmm...maybe I will watch it again.
 
GREAT movie but I wouldn't want to see it again. I think the ending portrays the entire point of the movie. To me, it was an aging man trying to make sense of a modern, violent world in which he feels he doesn't belong. He realizes in the end, that he cannot stop what is apparently inevitable. Throughout the movie, we watch TLJ's character slowly and sadly realize that he is always one step behind a man who seems to be a ghost. It is a story of defeat, pure and simple. But that's my take on it. :)

Carolyn

Edited to change a name error. :)
 
Carolyn, that is such a bummer! I agree about the TLJ character--it seemed to me he'd pretty much given up at the beginning of the movie.

But they totally lost me when Moss died. At that point I thought well, I am no longer emotionally invested in this move & I can think of no reason to watch it through to the end.

The one thing I took from it was not so much defeat as the randomness of life. Like when that evil, evil man got hit by a car right after he killed Moss's wife. It was one random scene (heads or tails? The wife not picking was kind of like she believed you could choose your path, that it wasn't determined by luck) right into another (this guy has all kinds of people out to hurt him & yet no one can touch him except a bad driver running a red light).

But him getting up & walking into the sunset (bone sticking out of his arm or not) really confused me. Even the Coen brothers usually have the good guys win!
 
>Carolyn, that is such a bummer! I agree about the TLJ
>character--it seemed to me he'd pretty much given up at the
>beginning of the movie.
>
>But they totally lost me when Moss died. At that point I
>thought well, I am no longer emotionally invested in this move
>& I can think of no reason to watch it through to the end.
>
>The one thing I took from it was not so much defeat as the
>randomness of life. Like when that evil, evil man got hit by
>a car right after he killed Moss's wife. It was one random
>scene (heads or tails? The wife not picking was kind of like
>she believed you could choose your path, that it wasn't
>determined by luck) right into another (this guy has all kinds
>of people out to hurt him & yet no one can touch him except a
>bad driver running a red light).
>
>But him getting up & walking into the sunset (bone sticking
>out of his arm or not) really confused me. Even the Coen
>brothers usually have the good guys win!

I agree that the ending was very frustrating. And Chigurh was so, I don't know, strange I guess? He was very much like a ghost to me (no past that we know of, unsure of his ethnicity, strange accent, etc).

Yes, randomness. It was about that too. Good observation. I think it is so hard to make a movie where the good guy doesn't overcome in the end. It is sure to upset many (and I was a bit shaken by the ending myself). I guess the point was to show that sometimes the bad guy wins perhaps? I think this is why I don't want to see it again. I'm aware of this and can appreciate it for what it's worth, but I too would rather see the good guy win - or at least be more of an optimist. :)

Carolyn
 
Can't blame the Coen brothers, though; they were just remaining faithful to McCarthy's book.

And who WERE the good guys in this movie? (TLJ's character, Moss' wife, and some minor characters?). I mean, relatively speaking, the other characters looked like saints next to Chigurh, but I didn't see Moss as a good guy at all. He got involved in something he knew was illegal, AND, he could have saved his wife had he just handed over the money. Yeah, Chigurh does his killing like a machine, with no passion or emotional ties to his victims, but Moss is directly responsible for not saving a person he supposedly loves due to selfishness and greed. Six of one half a dozen of the other, IMO.

I liked the end...it was unsettling, but, necessary, I thought.
 
I guess the point was to show
>that sometimes the bad guy wins perhaps? I think this is why I
>don't want to see it again. I'm aware of this and can
>appreciate it for what it's worth, but I too would rather see
>the good guy win - or at least be more of an optimist. :)
>
>Carolyn
>
>
Exactly. I mean, we already know sometimes (more often than most would care to admit) the bad guys win. For me movies are an escape from reality. I think we get enough reality in real life. ;-)
 
This may be a stupid question, but did Chigurh end up with the money??? I saw the vent open and the coin, but I thought it was the drug dealers that killed Moss, but I don't think they would have killed him without first getting the money?

Maybe I'm slow, but there were parts in the movie that didn't make sense to me, unless I missed something. For example, how did Woody's character know to look around the fence by the border for the satchel??? And how did Chigurh know exactly in what hospital Moss was?

I generally like offbeat movies, even if there's no closure, but I just didn't get this one...
 
<<<GREAT movie but I wouldn't want to see it again. I think the ending portrays the entire point of the movie. To me, it was an aging man trying to make sense of a modern, violent world in which he feels he doesn't belong. He realizes in the end, that he cannot stop what is apparently inevitable. Throughout the movie, we watch TLJ's character slowly and sadly realize that he is always one step behind a man who seems to be a ghost. It is a story of defeat, pure and simple. But that's my take on it>>>

ITA ... I loved this movie .. hated the ending .. I just wanted TLJ to hunt down the bad guy and put an end to his worthless life!!

the ending though VERY dissapointing "fit" the title and point of the movie .. but it sure was depressing and really left me unsatisfied .. I guess I want the good guys to win .. and in this movie the cold hearted emotionless .. psycho to "get his" ...

Josh Brolin was excellent .. and I love TLJ ... Havier was good too .. that being said I would not watch the movie again!
 

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