Last night I took another look at the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men (2007). I’m 62. Until my 40’s I would remember any movie in great detail. Although the work in question is riveting, I remembered little of it besides who survives. Set in the Southwest in the 80’s, it is based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, and aims for much more than status as a top-notch cat n mouse thriller. The main character, Anton Chigurh, played chillingly by Javier Bardem, is a remorseless killing machine, dubbed a psychopath several times during the course of the two-hour running time. The Sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) believes Chigurh is something new, a monster created by the times, the breakdown of the social fabric. He feels “overmatched,” afraid, and looks forward to his imminent retirement. Not even a resourceful veteran of two tours in Vietnam (Josh Breslin) or a brash professional fixer (Woody Harrelson) are able to thwart the menace. There is two million dollars at stake, but the theme goes beyond greed. Although I consider myself a writer, I’ve always had trouble spotting and understanding literary symbolism, so take the following with a grain of salt. Chigurh’s character seems a metaphor for a rising tide of evil, and the film seems to be predicting dark times, not only unconscionable greed but a random violence that traps poor souls who happen into the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course, this has always plagued mankind. The film suggests it is growing on a colossal scale, and there is evidence in real life that supports it: the shootings in Colorado and Connecticut, and the greed of unscrupulous businessmen, including politicians who endorse the confiscation of the wealth of the successful. Many of us are as bewildered, afraid and imbued with a sense of powerlessness as the Sheriff. The Coens don’t provide the comfort of the easy visceral satisfaction of typical Hollywood fare. The story is open-ended, the future, as always, unclear but threatened by ominous forces, perhaps moreso than at an time in history. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Joel and Ethan Coen won for Direction and Screenplay. Javier Bardem was voted Best Supporting Actor. Jones tops his memorable turn in The Fugitive (1993), a less flashy but far more compelling and subtle performance. Even though a lot of the mayhem occurs off-stage, there is more than enough to outrage those opposed to its depiction. On a scale of five, I rate No Country For Old Men four-and-a-half. It’s rated 8.1 out of ten at IMDb.
While viewing, I realized I hadn’t had one of my vivid dreams for a while, and wondered if one would be triggered by the film, or if a suspicious email I received under the name of a former object of desire would do the trick. Sure enough, there I was this morning, astride a mountain bike, which I’ve never owned, at the top of a snow-covered mountain. I zig-zagged back and forth across it, then came to a patch where the snow had melted, and navigated my way down, disrupting a campers possessions along the way. He gathered them and tossed me a little white statue of famed bandleader Xavier Cougat. Why Cougat, I’ll never know, although it may have something to do with the fact that he, like Bardem, is Spanish. I think I understand the rest of the dream, especially since the term “unloaded” (uploaded) was used. I’d guess it is an acknowledgment of how useful and how much fun the web is, and how one must avoid the dangers posed by phishers.
No luck selling books today. The wind is supposed to relent tomorrow. I'll be able to interact with people instead of sitting in my car.
Visit Vic's sites:
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
No comments:
Post a Comment