March 13, 2008
Highbrow Pulp
It’s been ages since I’ve watched a movie, but I did recently see No Country for Old Men and really enjoyed it. (I hadn’t even heard of it until it won the Oscar for Best Movie.) It may even be better than Blood Simple, which I thought was brilliant.
From the Sight & Sound review:
“Anton Chigurh - a sociopathic [sic. psychopathic] hitman hired by the drug cartel to hunt down the cash - fits satisfyingly into the Coens’ ongoing interrogation of American manhood, which they present as always problematic and often absurd, gleefully suggesting here that its most successful incarnation might be a serial killer. Patient, implacable and ultra-capable, Chigurh is also alien, even supernatural in his presumptive superiority. The model of consummate self-sufficiency, he seems to lampoon the frontier ethos of the Reaganite Cowboy Man: to Chigurh humans are a form of livestock, occasionally diverting but ultimately disposable; his favoured method of execution is a hydraulic cattle-gun. Plainly though non-specifically foreign, he takes a Martian’s-eye view of American life.”
One of my favorite things about the Coens is their attention to language and love of regional dialects … “I’m fixin’ to do somethin’ dumber ‘n’ hell, but I’m goin’ anyways,” “You don’t want to lie with-out what it’s absolutely necessary,” etc. I recommend you see it, assuming you’re a guy — this is not a movie to take a date to.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Hi Chair: two things
(1) great movie , caught it before Oscars, pure chance just looking for a night out, and really enjoyed it - although left a few too many questions than answers typical Cohens
(2) re-sending money - checked on PayPal history and no sign of payment being made which is really odd given I printed out the receipt(!) - if it turns up twice let me know.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
OK - lets hope its worked this time -
March 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
jacksoo: Got it, thanks, and if I get another payment I’m just gonna have to buy another case of beer with it, your loss. :)
March 13th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Depends on the date - let’s say my girlfriend is tough enough ;-) Anyway, great movie.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I dragged my guy to go see it.
He loved it, and so did I….
But then I’m a trader, the violence was a nice break!
:)
March 13th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
yeah it was pretty great. it followed the book closer than any movie i have ever seen.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Linda & scoot: Figures my lone two women readers, the only ones able to stomach me after all this time, liked it. :)
March 13th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
CM said:
” … and if I get another payment I’m just gonna have to buy another case of beer with it …”
With that much coin, you can buy at least TWO cases of Natty Lite. Party on Chairman. :)
March 13th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
always gone for any cohen bro’s movie- opening 20mins before any credits in raising arizona told me these guys were tapped. lived couple doors down from francis and joel cohen on upper west side in nyc and saw them all the time last couple of years and was wondering when he’d put something new out.
the dude
March 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
* “I know they’s a lots of things in a family history that just plain aint so. Any family. The stories gets passed on and the truth gets passed over. As the sayin goes. Which I reckon some would take as meaning that the truth cant compete. But I dont believe that. I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt. You cant corrupt it because that’s what it is. It’s the thing you’re talkin about.” -123
* “He [satan] explains a lot of things that otherwise dont have no explanation. Or not to me they dont.” -218
* “I’ve told my deputies more than once that you fix what you can and you let the rest go. If there aint nothin to be done about it it aint even a problem. It’s just a aggravation.” -283
* “Part of it was I always thought I could at least someway put things right and I guess I just don’t feel that way no more. I don’t know what I do feel like. I feel like them old people I was talkin about.” -296
* “There’s two kinds of people that don’t ask questions. One is too dumb to and the other dont need to.” -298
Go literary, read the book.
* “It’s not about knowin where you are. It’s about thinkin you got there without takin anythin with you. Your notions about startin over. Or anybody’s. You dont start over. That’s what it’s about. Ever step forward is forever. You cant make it go away. None of it.” - 227
March 14th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
jtaylor: Thanks for the excerpts. I wrote before that I think Cormac McCarthy is pretentious and overrated, but I know he’s very popular.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Cormac McCarthy is a scary man. “All The Pretty Horses” and “The Road” are his best two novels in my opinion. Some others are extremely suggestive of pederasty and child abuse generally, not to mention gratuitous gore. (Not the Nobel laureate.)
March 15th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Here’s a quote from a There Will Be Blood, which I recommend, damn near Kubrickian. (I also intend to see No Country For Old Men.)
“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people…. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone…. I see the worst in people. I don’t need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I want to rule and never, ever explain myself. I’ve built my hatreds up over the years, little by little…. I can’t keep doing this on my own with these… people.”
March 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Steve: Who said that? Chigurh?
March 15th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“Blood Meridian” is sickest and slimiest of his output, and I’m therefore surprised that HollyVoodoo didn’t choose it rather than “No Country”.
Do read “Pretty Horses” which is a logical extension to Larry McMurtry tales of the southwest.
McCarthy has genuine novelistic talent, rare these days, and he stays on my shelf. “The Road” is a post-apocalyptic tale with real insight and even some wry investment humor in spots.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Tom D: I direct you to this post… I’ve also never been able to get into McMurtry. A reader named “sneakypie” hipped me to a wonderful article in the July-August 2001 issue of The Atlantic Monthly called A Reader’s Manifesto - An attack on the growing pretentiousness of American literary prose, by B. R. Myers. I recommend you read it (I’ll email you a copy now).
Like Myers, I too hope that “the old American scorn for pretension” reasserts itself one day.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I’ve read that post before, but thanks. I agree with you about poor prose “in our time”. But that’s true all over the political spectrum in this late booomer era. And not just in the US. People can’t think well enough now to put pen to paper, if they even know what that means. Finally we are all equally stupid, legally and otherwise. Bingo!
Being “hip” is the only real cultural diversion we now can expect or enjoy, as Norman Mailer knew so well. That’s why I like this site so very much.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Tom D: I’m in the Blame the Boomers boat too. :) The internet has accelerated the trend toward universal illiteracy, R U w/me?, but what can one do? Prattle away in our own little corner of the void, I guess.
March 16th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Chairman, it’s a quote by Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood. He’s speaking to a guy who falsely claims to be his long-lost half-brother, but it’s unclear whether Plainview has suspected the fraud yet.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Steve: Was Plainview a character in the movie? Can’t remember anyone named Plainview.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I preferred There Will be Blood. More powerful, better message (ie there WAS one) and less random violence.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:02 am
I loved There Will Be Blood and will get to No Country probably on video. In some ways I thought the religious people were drawn a bit too simplistically in “Blood”, but overall an amazing (and amazingly odd) film.
CM:
Did a bit of backreading of the site. Saw Cranbury in there. I spent part of my time in Plainsboro, next town over back in the 1990’s. Speaking of books, Cranbury had this awesome used book store, though I forget the name now.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Finn: I know that used bookstore in Cranbury … a big old house filled with books, but I try not to buy books anymore if I can help it (unless they’re reference books of some kind).
March 17th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Chairman, that’s affirm. Plainview was the main guy, the oilman.
.
Finn, I’m usually a contrarian, especially when it comes to popular or critical opinion, but the Day-Lewis performance was so exceptional that it was distracting. I found the plot riveting, but kept getting blown out of my movieheadcave by Plainview’s rants and raves. The final scene in the bowling alley hasn’t let me go.
March 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Steve: Ah, haven’t seen that one or read the book, and got confused with No Country… Day-Lewis is good but I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything since My Left Foot.