No Country for Old Men -- 7/8ths of a great movie

You sure about that?

I talked to some people who worked on it and they indicated it was shot entirely outside Marfa and the environs.

Not saying you're wrong, I was just under the assumption Roger Deakins filmed it only in Texas.

 

Saw this last night, and I have questions that I think can be asked now that this thread has fallen. I thought the bad guy was PERFECTLY cast. I was frightened of him.

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First, when the bad guy showed up behind WH's character at the hotel, I think the whole theater said, "holy shit!!"

Did the bad guy kill the original five in the field, or no? No, right? Did the guy that was under the three kill the first four and then someone killed him? Who killed the fifth guy, and why didn't they take the money Brolin found?

I was sort of struck by the ending, but I thought it was clear after thinking about it: TLJ said something that Brolin said (Brolin said it about his mother), about his father being there when he gets there. I thought that was pretty clearly an allusion that the bad dude was coming after him and he was resigned to that. Thoughts? Or was that obvious?

Simon mentioned the physics of Bardem (bad guy?) in his last scene, which I think he meant the door in the hotel. Why didn't he shoot TLJ there? And I think Simon meant him hiding when there was clearly no room behind that door, or at least that's how it looked when TLJ slammed open the door.

So many questions, so few answers. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

This is the first movie maybe ever I almost walked out of, not because it wasn't good, but because I wasn't expecting a horror/thriller of that caliber. I don't really like those sorts of flicks, but I made it through it, thankfully. And I have half my man card left after jumping through the roof when the car hit him.

 

Everything about it showed that it was set in or around in 1980, but how do you explain the scene between Bardem and Woody Harrellson when there is mention of an ATM? Were there ATMs in 1980? If there were, fine (I was 8 in 1980 and my dad still won't use an ATM today). If there weren't, was that a flaw in the movie/script?

 

I, too, noticed the ATM reference. I don't think they existed in 1980.


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I thought the ending was great. TLJ's character is such an introspective guy anyway, so a final introspection was ideal. Also, I didn't interpret the ending as a reference to The Bad Guy coming after him. I interpreted it as an extension of the earlier discussion with TLJ's father's former co-worker ... just about how this was the life he was born to live and his father had blazed the trail. Something like that.

 

I still can't believe they haven't made Blood Meridian into a movie. I'm most thankful though, it's one of the 5 greatest books I've ever read.

 

One of my very, very favorite movies. I read the book.... I just enjoy the fact that a very politically incorrect, harsh movie is going to receive so many awards

 

I noticed that, too, and thought it might be an "intentional" mistake by the Coens to throw off the audience. But the film was very clearly set in 1980 --- Brolin says he's a Vietnam vet, but he's only in his late 30s or so; the headstone on his wife's mother's grave says 1980 and then there's a reference to 22 years ago being 1958.

As for the ATM reference, I looked it up and apparently, the first Automatic Teller Machine was introduced in Dallas in the late 1960s. So it's possible they were pretty wide spread in Texas before they were everywhere else. But I doubt they were casually referred to as "ATMs" in 1980 ...

 

First time I used an atm was 1979.

 

My thinking about the ending was this:

I think the bad guy killed Tommy Lee Jones in the hotel room. I think it was a dream or something at the end. That's why his wife didn't have time to do anything with him and didn't want any help around the house, that's why his dad went ahead and made a way for him (in the afterlife). The scene with his dad's former co-worker or uncle or whoever the hell that was, was TLJ's mind trying to figure out how he had been beaten by the bad guy (and subsequently killed).

And to whoever asked about the massacre scene earlier, I thought the one guy that tried to escape took as much money as he could but died under that tree. I'm not sure how that whole scene went down, but that was a wild death camp right there.

 

That's good info on ATMs, especially the Texas reference. Perhaps it was even in the book. Thanks guys.

 

I was also questioning the physics of being t-boned on the passenger side, and you, as the driver, having your head smash through the driver's side window.

It was odd for the Coens.... I don't recall in any of their films that I love such metaphysicality as the Bardem/Jones scene at the end in the hotel, or the speech at the end, which I think was simply their giving us one final, random moment, albeit one consistent with the chararacter.

Their films are SO varied and vibrant.

The cinematography is worth the ticket alone.

 

As far as the era of the film, Esquire ran a little aside from the Coens that explained it. When I first read it, I thought it was a joke, but maybe it was true.

Anyway, the Coens said that for the first time in their movie-making career, they miscast a part -- as in, they gave a part to someone they didn't mean to give it to. Josh Brolin's part was supposed to go to his dad, Jim. There was no audition or anything, and it was just offered. I guess Josh's agent expressed surprise at the offer, but no one picked up on the error until he showed up for rehearsels. Whoops. But they went with him. Except that because he's supposed to be a Vietnam vet, the film couldn't be set in the present day anymore. It had to go back in time, to 1980, which left the production desginer scrambling. It would also explain the ATM reference -- something that was in the script when it was set in the present day and that got overlooked during the harried clock-rewinding.

Again, no idea if the story is true or not, but it came from the Coens directly.

Either way, I loved this flick. My favorite of the year, at least until I see There Will be Blood.