No Country For Old Men

Welcome friends to my movie space. I will be reviewing films here. On occassion, I may talk about plot, storyline, and specific parts of the film. If you do not want to read any spoliers, at least for this first film, then stop reading here!  The following review may contain spoilers that you do not want to read if you have yet to see the film.

Lets start off with a quite recent flick.    No Country For Old Men

    At first glance you might think, "dumb title, dumb movie" as I did.  Upon first glance, one might be inclined to bypass this film on the title alone if you are like me....Please Don't! you will miss out on a gem of a movie.

I was ready to hate this film because I really have a problem with titles of movies or stories that seemingly make no sense! But I saw the film for the fact that it had been nominated for an Academy Award. I watched it despite the title.  This is a great film for people who like to think or figure things out instead of everything being handed to the viewer on a silver platter as most films are these days.

It has suspense, intrigue, a touch of comedy and of course drama.

After my first viewing, I found that I really, really enjoyed it, but like everyone else, I HATED the ending. I had heard that it was a great film until the end and that was exactly what I got out of it after my first viewing. I went so far as to say they should have ended the film with the car crash. That is until I had a chance to view the movie a second time.

In the comfort of my living room, where I could pause, rewind, and really pay close attention, I got much more out of the movie. The entire movie, including the title is speaking about society as a whole and how things have deterorated since the early days of say, the 50's or early 60's. That is what Tommy Lee Jones' character is mumbling about throughout the entire film. Most, if not all of his little stories deal with life in a simpler time, when his father, grandfather, even uncle were lawmen. When bad things happened back in the day, yeah it was bad or maybe gruesome on occassion. However it was nothing like it has become in the film, which is the reason for Tommy Lee's deciding to retire.

Gruesome things happen throughout this movie as his character tracks ill-gotten money. Things become too gruesom even for gruff, tough, Tommy Lee which brings us to a somewhat odd ending, at first glance.

The final scene has Tommy Lee talking things over with his wife. He is trying to decide what to do the rest of the day. We know its early morning. He is starring at a very long, boring day and he knows it. This is why hes trying to figure out what to do. He wants to spice up his life, even if he has only been retired for a day or so. (The audience is unsure as to the amout of time that has passed, only that it has been a very short time.) After some small talk, his wife gets him to talk about his dreams. These are dreams that do not make much sense to him, Hes not even sure why he has them, but they deal with him and his father, who the audience has met earlier in the film.

Upon second viewing, I feel the ending was good because he realizes that his day will be boring and dull. He seems like hes putting off starting his day because he knows there really is going to be nothing to do. So he relates the dreams and the film ends, much like real life. The only difference between real life and the film is that life goes on for us and it ends for Tommy Lees character. But if one was to imagine that life would continue for them when our screen goes black, what do you think would happen. I figure it this way, He maybe gets up from the table eventually, drags himself outside to do a few chores and maybe plops himself down in front of the tv for the rest of the day. He knows this will happen. And it will happen the next day and the next day and likewise till the end of his life. He does not like this, but that is what happens when there is no country for old men.

I hope you enjoyed my little take on this fairly recent film. If you would like me to discuss any particular films, or aspects of movie making just drop me a line. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the funny papers!

Eagle out

Peace