No Country for Old Men (Spoilers)

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Well I did mention it earlier on so I'll just quote myself ;)



I don't think it's about a dream. Yes, he dreamt, but the dreams are only important in its symbolism. America, the Coen brothers are trying to say, is that violent, that bloody and that insane - and old men like Bell just aren't able to face up to the reality of it.

Also, script: http://www.miramaxhighlights.com/pdf/no-country-for-old-men/screenplay (PDF)
 
Heh. Lucky folks! I'm not sure when it comes out for everyone, but new releases are always on Tuesdays unless there's a special release date.
 
Hi, I just watched No Country For Old Men today.

Can someone explain to me Tommy Lee Jones' ending monologue about the dreams? I'm not a native English speaker so it was kinda hard to catch all the words (and reading the subtitles at the same time)... I think it's something to do with how Bell is too old to catch the bad guys. But I don't really get what the dreams mean in relation to that. My friend and I thought that Bell was just dreaming about everything???
 
Oh, okay then :)

I revise my opinion though. Roger Deakins did a fantastic job in both Jesse James and NCFOM. So he should win for either! And man, even on second viewing Chigurh is still badass. That shot of him in the dark, when Bell goes into the motel room where Moss is killed? Sheesh. Creeped me out.
 
'ncfom' is avalible for rent right now in video stores located in "little saigon" orange county, california.....for some reason they always release new titles before any other store in the area.....perhaps to the jump on the competion?....actual release date is friday or is it next tuesday?
 
i had a friend ask me that same question....imo i believe that she was....the main reason being "anton" was a man of his word....wood harrelson's character when descirbing "anton" used words to that effect or something along the lines of he has a sense of honor......remember the scene when "moss" was in the hospital?...and "anton" was talking to him on the phone?....he told "moss" that if he didn't give him the money he was going to kill his wife...but if he gave him the money he would only kill him.....and if you look at that scene on a dvd you'll see that when "anton" walks out of the house, after he confronts her, he looks down at his boots....to see if there's any blood on them......
 
Okay then, no need to get excited ;) I thought the main fight was between No Country and TWBB as well - I'm cheating because the only other Best Picture nominee I saw was Juno, and while I loved it, I didn't think it was in any way a Best Picture contender. It was cute and funny, but nothing more. Atonement sounded a bit too... manufactured for the Oscars (kind of like The Hours, only I loved The Hours so that was fine) and I didn't get a chance to watch Michael Clayton.

I think that if you are talking about the different elements in the film coming together then it was No Country's to win, definitely. Every element was spot on - the acting, the script, the lighting, the sound, the pacing, the cinematography, the mis en scene really. The Coen brothers did a fantastic job in marshalling the different areas and coming up with such a good film. It really is a lesson in filmmaking.

Personally I preferred TWBB because it was more powerful, and it had more of an effect on me - to be honest after watching it No Country kind of faded away (but not that I didn't love No Country, I did watch it twice!). But of course power and effect probably isn't the criteria that the voters are looking out for, so my head says that yes, No Country did win it rightly, but my heart wishes TWBB could have nicked it. Oh well, both are great movies and will be remembered in the years to come :nod:

Did you watch any other Coen brothers movies, and what did you think of them, especially in comparison to No Country?
 
Haha, yeah, paying for the same movie twice is not that appealing anymore. Especially when they come out on DVD so fast! I hope your friends like it!

:lol: It's totally great to know they're friends! Plus, that means they could work again together.

HA! I don't remember exactly but he said that "this" was for his mom and for Spain. He's such great guy.

Hehe, yeah. :lmao: I love they were calling the haircut "The Bardem." :D
 
Because Bell is going to talk to him, deal with the situation, try to sort it out and Moss gets killed by some dudes that are not Anton in a dismissive way. It's the blindsided effect, the fact that you can't talk your way out this. It's kill or be killed and Moss was obviously, way out of his league on this one.

I also was invested in Moss, but he wasn't going to survive. I was more or less waiting for something like that to happen, for him to die in a "surprising" way, I wasn't expecting it to be THAT surprising, "oops, he's dead" but yeah, I was waiting for something.

His wife was the one situation we (my friend and I) kept debating, wether she was killed or not.
 
Thanks for the PM! It's very appreciated!

Jesse James was poor handled, I agree. It was in theaters in here for a week. One week. I'll see if I can rent the DVD this weekend.

BTW, call me Nikki. :nod:
 
I think that the film deserved it's win. The Coen's really outdid themselves with this one... They should have won a long time ago. As much as I liked Atonement, it wasn't Best Picture worthy IMHO. I was really pulling for Juno but I think it was mainly because it was such a long shot. I just tried watching Michael Clayton :yawn: Couldn't pay attention to it. Now, There Will Be Blood... I don't think it should of won and I'm glad that it didn't. Daniel Day-Lewis did give the best performance and he rightfully deserved that Oscar... The film was DDL! It was a great film because of him. Subtract him from the mix and I don't think the film would be that critically acclaimed. He stole the film from Paul Thomas Anderson! :lol: I just think that No Country was the better film. It affected me to the bone! Every actor was spot on and the story was great! The scene where Anton is in that little gas station (I think it was a gas station) with that old man.... SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!!! The whole film made me feel so uneasy and it wasn't just the doing of one character (TWBB) it was EVERYTHING!

But I will make the prediction that Paul Thomas Anderson will win an Oscar within the next ten years. :nod:
 
Yeah, exactly. Besides I'm sure that if they hadn't met the mother they would have found him anyway. It was only a matter of time.

On a related note, my friends are going to watch NCFOM on Friday and I'm probably more excited for them than they are :blush: I was really thinking of watching it again but then I decided not to because it seems a bit silly to pay good money to watch something when you've already seen it. Twice.

Same! I think instinctively everyone wants, well, everyone to be friends. Of course it doesn't make a difference if castmates get along offscreen or not, if they're professional, but it's nice to think that they're friends. Aww, now I feel so warm and happy.

It was really cool. What did he say? I know it's certainly not where the library was :lol: Ah, Javier is just cool. "I'd like to thank [the Coen brothers] for giving me the worst haircut in history."
 
You and everyone else :( WB's handling of the promotion (and the movie itself) was absolutely shocking. No wonder it flopped at the box office. The cinematography was good though. I mean, I loved the NCFOM look, but Jesse James just had more... iconic images, somehow.

Speaking of NCFOM, because that's what we should be doing here after all, I'm watching it again! Online because I'm a bit of a pirate. :look: Do you want the link, ROCKSTAR? I can PM it to you if you'd like to watch it again.
 
But how does not seeing the death put you in Bell's shoes? Because you don't know who did it, just like him? I mean, in the grand scheme of things Moss' death isn't that important, but I don't know. I was invested in Moss, you know? And this is the only major flaw in the movie, really.
 
No, don't leave! Unless you're going to reply to my post at TWBB, in which you should :P

Yes, exactly. It took me a long while to get over it. I didn't mind not seeing Carla Jean's death because she was kind of collateral damage and seeing her die would just make me even sadder. But Nikki brought up the point of the Coen brothers trying to blindside us, so that worked really well. I don't think most filmmakers could have gotten away with things like that though.

Just out of curiosity, which of the 5 Best Picture nominees do you think should have won? Did No Country win, rightly? Or was there a better movie out of the other 4?
 
It makes sense and it's a way to look at it for me since otherwise it's just the worst luck Moss could've asked for. All the stars aligned for the Mexicans so it is def better to see it as "well, it was going to happen anyway." :nod:

Haha! It was right when he won, I'm not sure if he kissed his mom first, but he turned around where Josh was sitting and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was sweet, I love when cast mates get along well. It shouldn't matter, but it's a better experience than knowing people didn't get along or actually hated each other.

The Spanish was awesome. I'm a Spanish speaker so I was waiting for him to switch. That accent is to die for!
 
I also felt cheated by not seeing Moss's death, but now I appreciate its almost non importance. The ending monologue was beautiful, I thought.

Moss's death, along with the brutality of Anton's murders leaves Bell perplexed, he's no longer fit to deal with that kind of violence. Especially when it seems like the whole world is somehow participating in the circle of viciousness, so even you capture one guy, there are 20 even worse emerging.

Moss's death being "glossed over" put me in Bell's shoes, being blindsided from every corner, unable to get a grasp on this new world that is relentlessly brutal and sometimes, for no reason at all.
 
Not seeing Moss die is one of my hang ups with the film as well. They built it up for two hours and then we didn't even get to see it. At the same time though I thought it was kind of interesting to not show it. We've already seen a "confrontation" with Moss and Anton, and we know what he did to him. I also like that we didn't see Moss' wife die. Just seeing Anton clean his shoes was all we needed... Now I'm lost and I don't know what point I was trying to make :lol: I'll be leaving now :gone:
 
I don't know. I always felt that she was just pissed and she probably said a bit too much in the meantime. But it can't be so coincidental for the Mexicans to meet the mother, and for her to tell them Moss' address. It's a bit too hokey. I always assumed that they would have found out anyway, even if the mother hadn't told them. Does that make sense?

Wait, what kiss? I watched the entire thing (except for a few minutes here and there) and I didn't see this? I did see him kiss his mother though, that was sweet. Actually, I thought his speech was great. The Spanish was really cool. Heh.
 
Oh. Yeah, I don't blame them. I was lucky in that I was warned that the ending was going to be really ambiguous, and to pay attention to every word in the movie, so that was what I did. And because I did I managed to find a meaning to the movie. It's funny, though, that people hate it because of the ending - there were many plotholes that I hated, for example it took me a long while to get over not seeing Moss' death - but I managed to get over my hangups about the movie and that made me realise how excellent it was.

I think the reason why a lot of people didn't get the point was that they forgot what the title was. The fact that it was called No Country for Old Men says a lot, and it also ties in very nicely with the opening scene. Actually, those two should set a viewer up to what the movie is about and what's going to happen, and the rest of it is just, well, reinforcing the point.
 
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