No Country for Old Men (2-Disc Collector's Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] Review
Translation of the title: the older we get in this finite world, the more conscious we become of our mortality and death. Some of us pretend we can beat it, most of us see it as irrational and unfair, practically all of us avoid or at least postpone thoughts about the subject, instead preferring to wait around and see what happens. What might strike some as odd is that so few of us bother to question the meaning of life and death--or even of "faith." Suppose Christ on the Cross did not say "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do," but instead uttered: "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they think." Would such a pronouncement be further proof of God's unbounded love--or, since he created human beings to think, to examine, to learn, to grow mentally and spiritually as well as physically, would it amount to a confession of failure on God's part? Or, worse, an acknowledgement that he botched the job, creating a species capable of seeking after knowledge but preferring not to do so? Perhaps it's just as effective--certainly a lot easier--to simply regard the Creator as a dependable, supportive and understanding sort of "buddy"--a "personal" savior.
Tommy Lee Jones relates in the latter stages of the story that he's quitting as sheriff. He had expected "God to somehow come into his life" but is now too fully aware that God much less he himself is over-matched. The film's nemesis is a merciless "executioner" with less conscience than The Terminator and sufficient inscrutability to make even Woody Harrelson's perceptive diagnosis of him (as a psychopathic killer with principles, albeit devoid of "morality") inadequate. In short, the film is a version of an Ingmar Bergman film like "Through a Glass Darkly" or perhaps an earlier film like Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"--the primary difference being that the Coen Brothers' filmic and narrating style is more apt to catch the attention of a larger, even mass, audience. It's doubtful many of those who see the film will be satisfied with the conclusion. In fact, there is no closure, thus breaking an unwritten rule of all cinema. Recall how Hitchock has a shrink appear at the end of "Psycho" to explain in logical terms the character of Norman Bates and the whole narrative for us. And when the 1919 German expressionistic film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," played before American audiences, an actor was hired to appear on stage at the end of the movie to assure us that the monstrous killer-psychopath was now completely cured (no need to worry about a Hitler or Nazi movement). And so we would all like to believe--about extended life-spans, the "cures" of medicine, the progress of science. But the older you get--and the more inquisitive--the more you realize that the advertisers-promoters-money-hungry pharmaceutical companies, cosmetic surgeons, "powerful" positive thinkers--have sold us all a bill of goods. Like the characters in the film, we walk around saying we don't know what's going to happen next, pretending that life is an open and free proposition and that we could be one of the "lucky ones," awaiting the equivalent of personal fame and fortune if not immortality.
Josh Brolin appears to be the sympathetic "hero"--flawed by greed and, like the characters of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," making what could be a fatal mistake. Yet he has a John Wayne-like rugged individualism, a knack for survival, and commands instant respect from those around him once they learn of his service in "Nam"--but that won't get you diddly in the relentless, fatalistic, flip-of-a-coin determinism that, in the Coen Brothers' view of modern existence, controls our lives. Brolin's conscience requires him to return to the scene of a crime with water for the survivor of a drug deal gone terribly bad, yet he can dismiss his wife's concerns for her mother. And in this instance we as the audience can afford to dismiss them as well. By this time we're conditioned to expect such a remark to be followed by the Executioner's (Javier Bardem--looking like a smaller but more chilling version of Schwarznegger or Andre the Giant) quick extermination of the person so named via his powerful weapon with its menacing silencer. But that would follow a certain pattern of logic--instead she dies of cancer. And when our leading contender for hero is momentarily distracted by a sunbathing babe in long shot, there's no need any longer to even play out the executions. We're not permitted the privilege of seeing him bravely succumb to the enemy: after all this, he's instant "dead meat" floating on a motel swimming pool (motels outnumber "homes" by a considerable margin in this movie--after all, who among us can claim NOT to be a transient).
Brolin's wife suddenly becomes a central figure, but only briefly. She at least has no illusions about getting a lucky roll of the dice. Her fate, like that of all mortals, is preordained, and she refuses to play the Executioner's coin-flip game, calling it more accurately: "It's not me or the coin that decides what happens to me. It's you." But in this circular question about free will and the meaning of life, Bardem answers her back: "You're wrong. That's how I got here." Each of us could not have been born had the slightest circumstance been changed on the night (or whenever) we were conceived. And who knows why we were born as human beings and not cats? It's all a game of chance, and there's isn't even an authentic card dealer. (The viewer can only speculate why the Executioner sees his own dicy birth as license to reverse the process--serving as the agent of hastening death for all. Is he sparing his victims Kierkegaard's "sickness onto death"--a charitable interpretation, yet his actions practically resist characterization as "evil" due to their inexorable and mechanical necessity). His presence might be interpreted as the embodiment of a cynic's message: Stop scapegoating, shut up you tea partiers and birthers and deathers. Stop pretending that life would be peachy if we could be good Americans and get rid of all those terrorists out there, not to mention illegal aliens. Because of him, the movie destroys all of our self-illusions and ultimately goes after the most hideous sin of all--which even after the Bible, the great tragedians, all the world's important literature and religions, we still can't seem to learn: pride, hubris, appropriating God's prerogatives. When will we learn? Why can't we? Why must we be so prideful in the face of so much evidence to the contrary?
But therein lies the film's admission of Aristotle's "fatal flaw," and along with it the small ray of light in the film (along with some moments of humor, which even the critics seem to have missed). Brolin, after all, did make a mistake and had the arrogance to think he could get away with his theft of the drug money intended for someone else. And for a moment, he let carnal desire distract him from the real threat. Moreover, he took his own life more seriously than that of his wife or mother-in-law, assuming that the Nemesis-Executioner was interested only in him. And the Executioner passes up an opportunity to snuff out the sheriff, Tommy Lee Jones (the closest thing to an authentic hero). Not being detected could be a motive, but is it possible he senses in the sheriff greater realism and honesty than in any of the other characters?
The last two scenes do nothing to prepare the spectator for an end, but they do "require" interpretation. Those viewers who simply refuse to discuss, think about, or interpret a movie are basically told by this movie to shape up or ship out. The Executioner (quite vulnerable himself, by the way, but a better survivor than Harrelson or Brolin) walks away. Behind him he leaves the seeds of greed (and of fatal pride) in a young boy who took money (from the Nemesis, naturally) in exchange for what was supposed to be a Good Samaritan act. Before the recovered Executioner, who ambles off into a typical American neighborhood out of the "narrative frame" of David Lynch's "Blue Velvet," lies what--who knows what? Another victim? The sheriff? His are the last words as he reports a dream about meeting his father (who did not die an old man), and then says: "I woke up." That awakening is what this movie is all about. The screen goes black waiting for the spectator's inner light to come on. It's time to wake up--perhaps now more than ever. There may be a future, but there will be no lottery tickets--even to those who win them. It's we who must act to make the best of that mortally-defined fateful span of existence that lies before us. We can't know if our efforts will bear positive fruit, but we can know that "good" isn't simply going to happen by wishing and waiting for it. And we can also know that our prideful moments can only bring more misery. And if you don't know this now, you most certainly will either know it, or feel the effect, when you're older.
The problem with "Forgive them for they know not what they do" is that pride, the worst of the deadly sins, exists within spiritual, religious contexts as well as profane, "worldly" ones. History has show us time and again that there are no shortage of "righteous" religious followers who, given the chance, will "take one for the Big Gipper in the sky." Isn't that, after all what Jesus would do? So why not have a few crosses of our own--"stars in my crown" that can be displayed on Judgment Day. But if God had uttered: "Forgive them for they know not what they think," he would in effect be admitting failure or, worse, condemning his own creation--distinguished from all other creatures by their ability to question, to examine, and to know. A God capable of making such a concession would be a God beyond human comprehension. But we can have faith that there is such a God.
No Country for Old Men (2-Disc Collector's Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] Overview
Acclaimed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen deliver their most gripping and ambitious film yet in this sizzling and supercharged action-thriller. Based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, and featuring an acclaimed cast led by Tommy Lee Jones, this gritty game of cat and mouse will take you to the edge of your seat and beyond -- right up to its heart-stopping final moment.
Bonus Material:The making of
No Country for Old MenABC "Popcorn" video
Channel 4 News Joel And Ethan Coen appearance
Lunch With David Poland - IKLIPZ-Javier Bardem And Josh Brolin interview
WNBC Reel Talk With Lyons & Bailes Josh Brolin
Los Angeles Writers Guild of America Q & A Panel
Six additional audio interviews
Digital Copy: Watch your DVD in the living room and your Digital Copy on the go
Working with the Coens
The Diary of a country sheriff
Josh Brolin's unauthorized behind-the-scenes featurette
Q & A with Joel And Ethan Coen, Roger Deakins and the sound and production crews
Charlie Rose featuring Joel And Ethan Coen, Josh Brolin And Javier Bardem
EW.com Just A Minute With Javier Bardem
Variety Screening Series Q & A
In-store Appearance With Javier Bardem And Josh Brolin
No Country for Old Men (2-Disc Collector's Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] Specifications
The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since
Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Not that there aren't moments of intense violence, but
No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he's going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he's being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh's weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way--or loses a coin toss (as far as he's concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II vet, is on Moss's trail, Chigurh's former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful--except Moss has a conscience, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, "a prophet of destruction"). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator,
No Country for Old Men doesn't move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers.
--Kathleen C. Fennessy*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 09, 2010 01:12:10
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