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"No Country for Old Men" ending (SPOILER)

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by WaylonJennings, Apr 5, 2008.

  1. pallister

    pallister Guest

    tp, why do you hate education?
     
  2. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    book learnin' is overrated. :D
     
  3. ArnoldBabar

    ArnoldBabar Active Member

    Chick, while I don't even disagree with you that the ending is fine, your argument here is specious.

    A film is a self-contained piece of work. A filmmaker can assume a general awareness of a subject (you can make "JFK" and assume people know the basic story), but you can't make a fictional film assuming people have read the source material.

    In this and any case, the book has infinitely more room to flesh out a concept, to set a philosophical tone and theme. Not to mention that you always know how many pages are left. In the book, you knew you were reading the closing passage, and you were able to appreciate it and think about how it fit into the story as you were reading it.

    In the film, it snuck up on people, who didn't have the opportunity to think, "OK, here comes the resolution, the explanation." People were put off by that. When I realized it was the end, I wished I could rewind 5 minutes and pay more attention, savor it.

    It didn't work for a lot of people. Doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with those people.
     
  4. Tripp McNeely

    Tripp McNeely Member

    Wow. Between Simon's translation of the ending and your defense of why it frustrated so many moviegoers, I feel a lot better about the movie. No bullshit, I now want to watch it again, which is something I didn't want to do before I read this thread.
     
  5. GBNF

    GBNF Well-Known Member

    Me too. And, A-B, that was an awesome post.
    Thanks.
     
  6. pa writer

    pa writer Member

    I found the ending jarring when I saw the movie in theaters, but thought the abruptness underscored the point the final scene made. I kind of like it when a movie takes chances. I don't always like movies that are unconventional (I hated Magnolia, but respected its willingness to take its story anywhere), but this was one that worked for me. If movies never took chances, we never would have gotten "Citizen Kane" or "Bonnie and Clyde."
     
  7. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I liked the sudden ending. I felt it justified the way the movie was playing out.

    We weren't suppose to be watching a movie, we were watching a film. The difference here is that a movie has a typical path it follows, ultimately leading to a resolution. A film, meanwhile, is simply a telling of a story.

    The story in this film is that bad guys don't always die. Good people don't always live. Everything isn't nice and tidy.

    That's why TLJ's character is the perfect person to end things on. He's basically burnt out from these lessons and burnt out from seeing such horrific acts. By the end, he's numb of these things and doesn't have a positive outlook on what's about to happen.

    The reason the ending works is because for the two hours before it, this film does everything it can to distance itself from a conventional movie. The character who the audience thought was the main (I guess) 'good guy' gets killed and we don't even see it. Tell me the last time that shit happened.

    The parts of this film that would have made for the best action scenes weren't even shown.

    That's why this film works. It's not a movie, it's an attempt at dictating a story, and in that sense, it works.
     
  8. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    fuck, dude. what's it feel like to be so cultured?
     
  9. Tripp McNeely

    Tripp McNeely Member

    OK, I feel entirely too educated now about films vs. movies.
    I need to watch "Porky's" like RIGHT NOW.
     
  10. Bill Horton

    Bill Horton Active Member

    You're either sharp enough to get it or you're not.

    It ain't exactly "Porky's IV: The Pig Slaughter."
     
  11. GBNF

    GBNF Well-Known Member

    Umm, I got the ending, I did get WaylonJennings long sentence.

    But thanks for the sarcasm.
     
  12. ArnoldBabar

    ArnoldBabar Active Member

    Ah, people who had a problem with it weren't smart enough. Thanks so much for your contribution to the dialogue. Brilliant.
     
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