No Country For Old Men

[Anthony Jordan]

I really wanted to see this movie back in the fall, but just recently got to watch it....

Best Picture...Really? Seriously?

Shouldn't the Best Picture have an actual climax? Those are kind of important. Or what about an ending that ties in with the previous hour and a half? The Coen Brothers made a great movie for the first 3/4, then completely choked it away. Not even Ass or Ripper choked that badly. Why did I invest myself in the picture for that to happen?

If the movie was about Ed Tom Bell getting lost in the times, then make his part larger. Make it meaningful and make sense. Have Bell arrive too late after a final, climatic battle between Moss and Chigurh after Chigurh escapes with the money. Really play up Bell's frustration with the case (though passion wasn't really what his character was about) while keeping the great psychology used when Moss was fleeing. He can retire after being worn down and just wonder where the world is going. I would have taken Chigurh bitchslapping Moss, then killing his wife (the latter wouldn't be shown, just him walking out of the house).


That movie was an example of trying to hard to make a message that transcends the film. Make the movie first, then let others decide how it will go down in history. The Coens' sheer arrogance in that annoys me.

[John Gone]

S-P-O-I-L-E-R-S-!!!






The movie's ending tied in with the rest of it just fine. And the lack of conventional climax worked well with the movie. Moss' off-screen death fit the character perfectly; he was, as Carson said, just some guy who happened to find the money. He was not the hot shit he thought he was, and his end reflected that. A conventional climax with a final confrontation between Moss and Chigurh wouldn't have worked, that would've been the wrong movie. The Coen's made a subtle movie that was faithful to the McCarthy novel.

[Anthony Jordan]

I should have noted spoilers on my first post, but I didn't spoil anything. Also, it wouldn't have been a big loss. How can you spoil a bunch of events that only slightly tie in with each other?

I guess movies that build up 2 characters, then tosses them in the garbage near the end is all the rage in Hollywood. I'm behind the times.

[John Gone]

Well, considering the events are in the movie, they can be spoiled pretty easily. And in what way were the two characters (Moss and Chigurh?) thrown into the garbage? Because the ending didn't center around them?

[Anthony Jordan]

It just became another day in the badass life of Chigurh. I don't get the car crash. Moss just faded away.