No Country For Old Men
I was actually on my way to the cinema to see Juno but somehow I ended up in the theatre watching the latest Coen Brother's film (based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy) and I'm glad I did! I almost can't begin to describe this movie - so many layers of cinematic brilliance. The cinematography and pace of the first 15 minutes of the film captured the vastness and loneliness of the Texan desert - unforgiving land where life can easily give way to death. In that sense that part of the movie was timeless - it could have been set in the wild west or the 21st century - raw nature like that doesn't change - we come and go but the desert is the ultimate victor. The aural aspect of the film was also astonishing - we're so used to the visual but the sound was given equal billing, each crunch of a cowboy boot on the bare earth resonated so crisply, the desert wind echoed eerily, the super sonic discharge of a firearm, the distinctive Texan drawl of the local folk all added to the richness of the film. So while drinking in the cinematography and sounds, before you know it you're drowning in extreme violence and suspense. Nothing is ever conventional in a Coen brothers film - the professional hitman played by Javier Bardem is evil, ethereal, intellectual and damn scary, cutting a swathe, terminator-style in the Texan badlands with his unique weapon - a captive bolt pistol (normally used to kill cattle I believe). All cinematic conventions are broken - traditional codes of cinema have conditioned us to expect narratives to go in particular directions with a nice and neat tidy ending. Even I was caught out by the ending - I kind of zoned out during a Tommy Lee Jones soliloquoy (I caught the late session so I was a little tired) and then the credits rolled! What the???? Ah but that's what I loved about it - sure some things didn't work in the film but overall I, the audience was challenged by the layers presented before me - peeling away each texture, and trying to get to the heart of the film, the philosophy and the meaning behind 'No Country For Old Men' - there are no clean getaways.
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Well, I have mixed feelings about TWBB…..I think DDL was mesmerizing in the starring role, although I thought his character slipped dangerously close to caricature, especially during the closing scene. As for the film itself, a tad on the long, slow side, but a unique piece of filmmaking nonetheless. And a bit of trivia – it was filmed in the same location as NCFOM. I’d certainly recommend it, even if only for DDL’s performance, but of the two movies, No Country was far superior, in my opinion.