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jkazoo
Commander
USA
119 Posts |
 Posted - March 11 2008 : 11:04:50 PM
 
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...went to see it in the theater, and it's even better than I remember it. Who else has seen it? Thoughts?
(krylonman sez: "Edited to add a spoiler tag to the title.")
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"When a man is prepared to die,
It hurts us more to see him die,
Than it does him to do it."
- Crispin Hellion Glover |
Edited by - krylonman on March 18 2008 11:41:28 AM |
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Tsotha-lanti
was born to go and leave a burning track
Denmark
770 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 01:57:03 AM
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| I saw it Monday and really, really liked it. I don't have any problems with the ending at all, if you pay attention you'll notice that pretty much everything "strange" about the ending is foreshadowed much earlier in the plot. |
It is the business of the future to be dangerous. |
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krylonman
Commodore
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 06:53:49 AM
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| I feel incredibly lucky because I was taken to see it knowing nothing about it except that the Coen brothers had made it. This was at the very start of its theatrical run, with no word of mouth, no Oscar hype, no nothing, and I walked out convinced that it was possibly the best film of the year. (It was certainly the best the Coens had made in a while.) I don't pre-order stuff from Amazon often, but I didn't even hesitate with this. Can't wait to see it again! |
I learned—painfully—that there is a difference between good and bad trash, if you're going to write novels about innocent young women who fall backwards into being fashion models and international movie stars and succumb to hedonism, Daddy complexes, barbiturate addictions, selfish lovers, marriages with impotent older men and bitter fights over large inheritances. |
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Jet
Resident Plague Rat
Australia
2357 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 07:32:12 AM
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| I loved it... right up until the ending. I haven't felt so cheated in a very long time. Call me shallow, but I was expecting something big and explosive after all the suspense we'd had up until that point. A soliloquy just didn't do it for me. |
"The time of heroes is dead. The Christ-god has killed it, leaving nothing but weeping martyrs... fear and shame."
~Beowulf
Her Majesty Mrs Mendo
High Priestess of the Golden Rat Temple
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 08:14:57 AM
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| quote : Originally posted by Jet
I loved it... right up until the ending. I haven't felt so cheated in a very long time. Call me shallow, but I was expecting something big and explosive after all the suspense we'd had up until that point. A soliloquy just didn't do it for me.
Then that's your failure, not the movie's failure, in that situation.
Besides, after that sudden turn the movie makes in the 3rd Act when "it" happens....I was in shock & awe, because it went from being a great masterful thriller into something more...but what?
What sealed the deal was the ending with Jones' dream monologue, then quick cut to black, movie over.
I was left speechless, out of breath, and I realized...God Damn. I totally understand the point not just that of the title, but the movie itself.
You may feel cheated, because of expectations based on the genre formula we've been mentally indoctrinated since childhood, but I thought it turned a great movie...into a Masterpiece.
"No Country For Old Men," along with Paul Thomas Anderson's stunning "There Will Be Blood" are the undisputed best pictures of 2007, and if either had won the Oscar, I would have been satisfied. Luckily, No Country did.
It will be seen as one of the best movies of the decade, and talked with awe 20 years from now. |
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Gul Torgo
Will BLEEP the BLEEP up your BLEEP sideways
USA
1485 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 08:36:53 AM
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2007 was the best year for movies, IMO, in quite awhile. And No Country for Old Men was my favorite of them all. I'm going to pick it up the next time I go shopping, hopefully along with the rerelease of Gattaca, provided it has new features.
That scene where Brolin was being chased by the dog just blew my mind. This is the most suspenseful movie I've seen in a long time, and the beautiful cinematography, minimalist dialogue, and the compelling ending make it a masterpiece.
Thank God the Coens got their big Oscar moment for a film that actually deserved it, not some goofy "you deserved it for Fargo, so we're giving The Ladykillers Best Director" situation. |
I will now observe the ungainly peach colored creature. His humid, fleshy extensions struggle as he attempts to conquer some simple, seemingly purposeless toy. Already a sense of pity overcomes me, yet I am repelled by my own compassion. Although his biological makeup implies a living thing, I am sure we shall discover him to be an animated piece of refuse or feces; but I must remain impartial even as he mocks everything I hold dear. I hate him, and can take comfort only in my own cruel detachment. It looks at me now, and no flicker of comprehension can I discern in his flat and lifeless eyes. I can only pray that his tiny spinal column conveys no spark of truth, no splinter of the horrible reality that is his own soul. My god, I pray for his death as do all things that love rightness and decency. |
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Jet
Resident Plague Rat
Australia
2357 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 08:40:18 AM
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| quote : Originally posted by LatinoInfernoquote : Originally posted by Jet
I loved it... right up until the ending. I haven't felt so cheated in a very long time. Call me shallow, but I was expecting something big and explosive after all the suspense we'd had up until that point. A soliloquy just didn't do it for me.
Then that's your failure, not the movie's failure, in that situation.
Of course. The number one lesson of all "arthouse" movies is that it's always the audience's fault for not liking it.
*kills self for being a loser* |
"The time of heroes is dead. The Christ-god has killed it, leaving nothing but weeping martyrs... fear and shame."
~Beowulf
Her Majesty Mrs Mendo
High Priestess of the Golden Rat Temple
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Bruce Campbell
Singin' in Korean
931 Posts |
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 08:50:42 AM
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| quote : Originally posted by Gul Torgo
Thank God the Coens got their big Oscar moment for a film that actually deserved it, not some goofy "you deserved it for Fargo, so we're giving The Ladykillers Best Director" situation.
Like last year when Martin Scorsese retroactively won his Oscar for "Goodfellas," "Raging Bull," "Taxi Driver," "Mean Streets," "Casino," "The Last Temptation of Christ," and "The King of Comedy."
Not that "The Departed" is a bad film at all, but its neither one of Scorsese's strongest works, nor nowhere near being among the best work of 2006.*
*=And I say that's "Children of Men," though others would argue "Pan's Labyrinth" or "United 93" or whatever. |
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 08:53:48 AM
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| quote : Originally posted by Jetquote : Originally posted by LatinoInfernoquote : Originally posted by Jet
I loved it... right up until the ending. I haven't felt so cheated in a very long time. Call me shallow, but I was expecting something big and explosive after all the suspense we'd had up until that point. A soliloquy just didn't do it for me.
Then that's your failure, not the movie's failure, in that situation. Of course. The number one lesson of all "arthouse" movies is that it's always the audience's fault for not liking it. *kills self for being a loser*
No, the number one lesson of "arthouse" movies, using that term, is that they're pretentious...and "No Country" car bombs that term.
But using your logic, you were attacking a movie for your own failure, but not of the film itself. Its one thing to not care for what the movie did, its another when its along the lines of "wahh, I didn't get what I expected!"
Nothing personal, but why did you feel cheated by NCFOM? |
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saswann
Commander
USA
224 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 09:54:08 AM
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Hey, lay off the rat a bit. . .
I liked the movie but there really are some issues with the ending, which go beyond the subversion of every genre convention that appears in the film. The problem is that in addition to subverting genre conventions (very well), the move also steps in and subverts some some more general narrative conventions (IMO not so well), and does so very late in the movie. It isn't so much that our nominal protagonist dies in an off-screen gun battle but the fact that he dies so late in the film that there isn't enough time to get reoriented around what the film is really about. There's a reason that, when Hitchcock did much the same thing, it happened much earlier in the movie. I think the movie would have been better served if not only the plot elements were telegraphed, but the structural elements were as well. |
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IT'S ACTION NIXON!
this is my blog |
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bees on pie
Worth ten cows
932 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 10:18:20 AM
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I'm sorry, but the whole "if you didn't like it, you didn't get it" thing really, really bugs me. Jet is entitled to her opinion. It's fine if you didn't have a problem with the ending, but why be insulting and condescending towards those who did?
Anyway, No Country for Old Men is high up in my Netflix queue--can't wait to see it. |
I quit! We're joining the Jungle Patrol! |
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 10:41:55 AM
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| quote : Originally posted by saswann
Hey, lay off the rat a bit. . .
I liked the movie but there really are some issues with the ending, which go beyond the subversion of every genre convention that appears in the film. The problem is that in addition to subverting genre conventions (very well), the move also steps in and subverts some some more general narrative conventions (IMO not so well), and does so very late in the movie. It isn't so much that our nominal protagonist dies in an off-screen gun battle but the fact that he dies so late in the film that there isn't enough time to get reoriented around what the film is really about. There's a reason that, when Hitchcock did much the same thing, it happened much earlier in the movie. I think the movie would have been better served if not only the plot elements were telegraphed, but the structural elements were as well.
And your point is, "it's not every other movie," right?
Like or hate it, its everyone's own opinion, which I respect, but don't mistake a debate for a fight. I don't mean anything personally.
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Edited by - LatinoInferno on March 12 2008 10:53:49 AM |
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poeeop
Commander
173 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 10:58:23 AM
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| Damn, I can't believe this is out on DVD already. It is still showing at the dollar theater around here. |
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Plug Suit
Commander
153 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 11:13:54 AM
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Why do I think NCFOM is one of the best movies of the decade, if not THE best? Granted, elements like the masterful performances (everyone, not just Javier Bardem), interesting characters and a cinematography that makes the movie come alive like almost no other before it helped, but it comes down to how it trascends genre. It gave the audience suspense, action, and horror (the sequence where Chigurh chases Moss to a hotel room and into the streets delivered these better than any action or horror movie last year) and even humor that doesn't piss on the strong dramatic elements (the exchange between Moss and Woody Harrelson about Chigurh's persona, and to an extent the now legendary gas station scene).
But I don't agree that the ending of the movie makes it even better. It finishes every storyline neatly and sticks to the nihilism that abounded throughout the film, but it is no more than the logical, perfect conclusion to the story. A full-on happy ending, on the other hand, would've mocked what the characters had experienced up to that point.
More likely than not I will find details to dislike once I watch it again, but despite its flaws it has become a modern classic with good reason. |
Chacarrón, Chacarrón,
woeawirfoerfaijerfairfaiorjeoirjaoriewaorapa,
Chacarrón, Chacarrón |
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Nancy
Thinking Arbys
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 12:29:33 PM
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| I liked the movie, but at the end I only wanted to know one thing if Anton doesnt have the money, then who does? |
Hammer: Now here is a little peninsula and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
Chico: Why a duck?
My journal- http://servogirl76.livejournal.com/ |
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jkazoo
Commander
USA
119 Posts |
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
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Jet
Resident Plague Rat
Australia
2357 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 4:14:44 PM
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| quote : Originally posted by LatinoInferno
No, the number one lesson of "arthouse" movies, using that term, is that they're pretentious...and "No Country" car bombs that term.
But using your logic, you were attacking a movie for your own failure, but not of the film itself. Its one thing to not care for what the movie did, its another when its along the lines of "wahh, I didn't get what I expected!"
Nothing personal, but why did you feel cheated by NCFOM?
Well, now I've been verbally kicked in the head, I love the movie! Thanks for showing a poor ignorant little rodent the light!
*sigh*
I did not feel cheated by the ending because it was "unexpected" or "unconventional" or just too gosh-darn special for me to cope with. I felt cheated because it came out of nowhere, didn't give me a sense of closure, and quite frankly felt like it had nothing to do with the rest of the movie. I wanted to find out what happened to Anton and Moss; I didn't care about Jones' character and his problems.
Quit saying it's my fault for disliking that, okay? Art is judged by how the audience reacts to it, and I reacted poorly. Don't try and make it my fault, all right? Not liking it doesn't make me an idiot, and I'm extremely insulted by the reaction I got.
Fanboys... oy.
*leaves thread* |
"The time of heroes is dead. The Christ-god has killed it, leaving nothing but weeping martyrs... fear and shame."
~Beowulf
Her Majesty Mrs Mendo
High Priestess of the Golden Rat Temple
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LatinoInferno
Banned Forum User
443 Posts |
Posted - March 12 2008 : 5:26:58 PM
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Well, I made my point. That's all I could do.
But you know that NCFOM was Jones' story, right? He's the main character...a rare case where the protagonist has less screen time than his "supporting" cast.
Anyway, peace? |
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