Post by klep on Sept 5, 2016 7:41:00 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/5: No Country For Old Men
We like to think that things happen for a reason; that there's some sort of cosmic balance. If you do good things, that karma will come back around to you and the same if you behave badly. But we all know from sometimes painful experience that things don't always work that way. Sometimes an asshole wins the lottery. Sometimes a saint loses her shirt in the market. Sometimes you meet Anton Chigurh.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is a force of evil, wreaking pain and devastation wherever he goes. He has a code, of sorts. He doesn't see karma. He doesn't see good, doesn't see bad. He sees you as nothing more than the totality of your choices, and if your choices led you to him then your choices were poor. The best he can offer you is the toss of a coin. Live or die, call it in the air.
No Country For Old Men serves, in part, as a character study of Chigurh. It's interested in the evil of this man, what he wants, how he continues to exist. What he wants (other than the $2 million) is a mystery, but the answer to the latter question is frequently that he takes advantage of the general good nature of others. He impersonates a police officer to pull someone over - and kills him to steal his car. He waits by the side of the road for a kindly man to give him a jump - and kills him to steal his car. He doesn't necessarily go out of his way to kill people, but he's eager to do it when it's the easiest or most convenient path. He sees no blame for himself in this. It's just the result of the choices those people have made that put them in his path. He accepts what comes his way and he expects others to do the same - even if what comes their way is him.
His victims don't see things the same, of course. They don't understand his worldview. Chigurh complains at one point that everyone tells him "You don't have to do this." They're looking for one glimmer of goodness, of humanity in him. And they're right; he doesn't have to kill any of them - at least not right then, when he has them at his mercy. But it's only near the end that he gets called out for his refusal of responsibility. When he offers Moss' wife a coin flip, she bravely refuses to call, insisting that the coin doesn't choose whether she lives or dies, he does. Exasperated, not understanding, Chigurh can only say "I got here the same way the coin did."
Tommy Lee Jones plays Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, a man looking for the good in the world and depressed by the bad he sees. He retires in the end feeling he couldn't live up to the example set by his forebearers, despite being reminded that there has always been Chigurh's kind of evil in the world. Which do you think the film favors on balance - Chigurh's fatalism or Bell's hope?
Also, Cormac McCarthy's works have a reputation for exhibiting a fairly bleak worldview. Not having read the book, I'm curious which aspects of the film the Coens made their particular mark on: is it softer than the novel for their influence?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/12: After Hours
Martin Scorcese's film about New York City nightlife is our next Movie of the Week, breaking through after several weeks of getting to the voting. It is available for rent on Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/6: The Dark Crystal
Jim Henson's puppet-filled fantasy leads up the next podcast pairing, and we'll have a day on Wednesday to talk about it and whatever gets said about it in the podcast. The Dark Crystal is available for rent on Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
We like to think that things happen for a reason; that there's some sort of cosmic balance. If you do good things, that karma will come back around to you and the same if you behave badly. But we all know from sometimes painful experience that things don't always work that way. Sometimes an asshole wins the lottery. Sometimes a saint loses her shirt in the market. Sometimes you meet Anton Chigurh.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is a force of evil, wreaking pain and devastation wherever he goes. He has a code, of sorts. He doesn't see karma. He doesn't see good, doesn't see bad. He sees you as nothing more than the totality of your choices, and if your choices led you to him then your choices were poor. The best he can offer you is the toss of a coin. Live or die, call it in the air.
No Country For Old Men serves, in part, as a character study of Chigurh. It's interested in the evil of this man, what he wants, how he continues to exist. What he wants (other than the $2 million) is a mystery, but the answer to the latter question is frequently that he takes advantage of the general good nature of others. He impersonates a police officer to pull someone over - and kills him to steal his car. He waits by the side of the road for a kindly man to give him a jump - and kills him to steal his car. He doesn't necessarily go out of his way to kill people, but he's eager to do it when it's the easiest or most convenient path. He sees no blame for himself in this. It's just the result of the choices those people have made that put them in his path. He accepts what comes his way and he expects others to do the same - even if what comes their way is him.
His victims don't see things the same, of course. They don't understand his worldview. Chigurh complains at one point that everyone tells him "You don't have to do this." They're looking for one glimmer of goodness, of humanity in him. And they're right; he doesn't have to kill any of them - at least not right then, when he has them at his mercy. But it's only near the end that he gets called out for his refusal of responsibility. When he offers Moss' wife a coin flip, she bravely refuses to call, insisting that the coin doesn't choose whether she lives or dies, he does. Exasperated, not understanding, Chigurh can only say "I got here the same way the coin did."
Tommy Lee Jones plays Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, a man looking for the good in the world and depressed by the bad he sees. He retires in the end feeling he couldn't live up to the example set by his forebearers, despite being reminded that there has always been Chigurh's kind of evil in the world. Which do you think the film favors on balance - Chigurh's fatalism or Bell's hope?
Also, Cormac McCarthy's works have a reputation for exhibiting a fairly bleak worldview. Not having read the book, I'm curious which aspects of the film the Coens made their particular mark on: is it softer than the novel for their influence?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/12: After Hours
Martin Scorcese's film about New York City nightlife is our next Movie of the Week, breaking through after several weeks of getting to the voting. It is available for rent on Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/6: The Dark Crystal
Jim Henson's puppet-filled fantasy leads up the next podcast pairing, and we'll have a day on Wednesday to talk about it and whatever gets said about it in the podcast. The Dark Crystal is available for rent on Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.