No Country for Old Men

[ironspoke]

I finally got to watch it this weekend. Xavier was tremendous and it was filmed beautifully. Tommy Lee and Josh did a great job in their roles. But best picture?

Dont get me wrong. I remember how I felt after my initial viewing of "The Big Lebowski." I thought it was OK. Now it is in the upper ranks of my favorite flicks of all time. Will "No Country..." also climb higher? Maybe the hype was too much.

That being said the scene with Woody Harrelson in the hotel room was fantastic as was the "Whats the most you ever lost?" coin toss bit.

I prefer "Fargo" and even "Blood Simple" to this movie at this point.

Is the book worth reading?


Will I be equally disappointed with "There will be blood?"

[jh4rt]

I haven't seen there will be blood. So I have no idea, but felt compelled to chime in one No Country..

I loved it. Because that is the way the real world works. In the real world, you are forced to judge for yourself. You only get limited information, and highly imperfect information. Very few get it... but.. those Coen (sp?) jerks seem to.

Another great one in this spirit is: Gone baby Gone.. with Casey Affleck. Great flick.

[2dumb4gears]

I liked it also, but questioned the best pic award as well. The theme in all of Cormack McCarthy's books is the desolate nature of the American West--the good guy doesn't get to ride off into the sunset. West Texas is inhospitable, and Native Americans, Mexicans, and the US government all did terrible things to each other in that place--this really sort of resonates in the movie.

If you mostly liked this movie, rent "the three burials of Melquiades Estrada", which came out a couple of years ago (my roommate worked on the film). Tommy Lee Jones directed, and it got a lot of critical praise but limited distribution. Amazingly cool nuveau-western.

[Jay13]

I personally didn't like the book that much. I have read other McCarthy novels that I liked much better. (Blood Meridian is fantastic, All the Pretty Horses was good too)

I will see the movie eventually, maybe it will suprise me.

[jerman]

I really liked the book. Just rented the movie and am looking forward to watching it.

[hairygrump]

Most things McCarthy writes are amazing, as far as I can tell. Blood Meridian spun my head around, and so did The Road.

[dave66]

Another great one in this spirit is: Gone baby Gone.. with Casey Affleck. Great flick.[/QUOTE]

just watched it last weekend - wow. Casey can act circles around big brother, and it is hard to believe Ben directed this -
question is, would you have done what casey's character did at the end?

[phlatlander]

I personally didn't like the book that much. I have read other McCarthy novels that I liked much better. (Blood Meridian is fantastic, All the Pretty Horses was good too)

I will see the movie eventually, maybe it will suprise me.

After reading yours and others' recommendations in the old "reading" thread, I got the border trilogy for myself for Christmas and really enjoyed All the Pretty Horses. I started The Crossing but got burdened with some freelance work that ate up my evenings so it cut into my reading a bit. I first struggled with McCarthy's writing style (because he took a friggen page of run on sentences to describe walking a few feet ;)), but he does so that I nearly could smell what the air would be like in his setting. Still haven't seen ATPH film adaptation, but I may skip the book on this No Country for Old Men and check the movie out first.

[jerman]

Another great one in this spirit is: Gone baby Gone.. with Casey Affleck. Great flick.

just watched it last weekend - wow. Casey can act circles around big brother, and it is hard to believe Ben directed this -
question is, would you have done what casey's character did at the end?

Just watched it last night. Pretty good movie. Agree Casey is a much better actor than his brother. Considering this was Ben's directorial debut, he did a pretty good job.

I have been thinking about that ending and I am still not sure what I would have done in his position. On one hand you have a mother who is arguably unfit and then you have cops breaking the law.