No Country For Old Men (2007) β¦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2023-05-20 08:36:55 +0000 UTCHello everyone! I know there were movies in the May schedule coming out before this one, but I'm giving you all this one now because this one is being edited by Calum for the channel and I just wanted to make sure he got the file with plenty of time to work with it!
Don't take my expression in the thumbnail as what I think about the film overall. That's just one of the many faces I made while Anton Chigurh was doing anything in this movie. π I hope you enjoy the reaction! [Direct link here.]
Cheers,
β¦ KL
PS. I read the plot of the movie over when I stopped recording and that clarified a few things that I had understood a little incorrectly about this film. π Feel like it's one of those films that's even better the second time watching.
Comments
β¦and FARGO, which is a masterpiece, also stars McDormand in one of the greatest performances in film history, and is an interesting bookend to BLOOD SIMPLE in many ways.
Jason Chirevas
2023-05-22 03:34:18 +0000 UTCI think itβs probably most accurate to call NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN a noir western, with the noir elements evoking the classics of the style, while, as a western, it has more in common with the darker, revisionist films of the 70s. Potent combo.
Jason Chirevas
2023-05-21 11:33:24 +0000 UTCYeah I've seen the comparisons between Javier and Jeffrey. I haven't seen any of Jeffrey's stuff either, aside from the one episode of The O.C. and the one episode of CSI that he was in. π Will have to note Drive-Away Dolls. π I def know that some other Coen films have been suggested on my form. I'll probably watch True Grit to go on the channel at some point in the future, unless a MotM winner between then and now picks it. π
kaiielle
2023-05-20 22:29:16 +0000 UTCI would call this a neo-western, and would probably apply that label to any film that is set in more contemporary times but otherwise contains the hallmarks of a Western, usually sheriffs and outlaws and of course the dusty desert settings (note: this is just my personal distinction; I think other people would also use it to describe Westerns with contemporary sensibilities, such as, for example, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained). It also has elements of neo-noir as well, with the bag of money and guy desperately trying to hold onto it. The True Grit remake (which I mentioned before, I think is the superior version, really capturing the spirit of the book in a note-perfect way) is also directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and is a traditional Western. One actor Javier Bardem is often confused with is Jeffrey Dean Morgan, most famous for playing Negan on "The Walking Dead." I believe that the Coen Brothers are near the top of the list of our greatest living filmmakers. YMMV, but almost every movie they've ever made is a masterpiece or near-masterpiece, and most of them are quite different from each other, even if they have recognizable hallmarks and a stable of familiar faces that you can spot recurring throughout their films. There are some "big" titles that are common for channels to do aside from this and Lebowski, namely Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother Where Art Thou?, but there are also some real gems in their early catalog that don't get enough attention, like Blood Simple (which shares similarities to this through the neo-noir angle), Miller's Crossing, and The Hudsucker Proxy. Recently, they have started to make movies on their own, with Joel Coen directing The Tragedy of Macbeth for Apple+ and Ethan Coen's directorial debut slated to come out this year, the road-trip/crime comedy called Drive-Away Dolls, co-starring everyone's favorite, Pedro Pascal.
Tyler Foster
2023-05-20 21:41:29 +0000 UTCMight I suggest you start at the beginning with Blood Simple, a spectacular modern noir starring Frances McDormand.
Steve Mercier
2023-05-20 20:54:26 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing! I'm excited to re-watch it in the future and I'll keep that different perspective thing in mind! I looked up their filmography and the only other Coen Brothers movie I've seen is The Big Lebowski - one of my favourite comedies!
kaiielle
2023-05-20 20:32:59 +0000 UTCThis is one of my all-time favorite movies. As a self-proclaimed movie snob (and sometimes self-important person), I have a fairly stable and hard-to-get-on favorite movie list. This one made the list upon first watching, and keeps creeping up the ranks with every re-watch. For a movie with sparse dialogue, and characters who mostly just do, there are so many layers to this. None of the characters reach the ending we think they will. None of the characters are who they think they are. And yet, all of the characters will eventually reach the point that we all must (just like Ed Tom's dream about his father waiting for him with fire in all that cold and dark). The ambiguity in this isn't just a tool within the movie--it is the movie. You can watch this movie from each of the three main characters' perspectives, and you get a different movie : Llewellyn the hero who isn't a hero, he's his own worst enemy; Anton the seemingly self-proclaimed angel of death, who is just as fragile and full-of-shit as everyone else; and Ed Tom who fears the changing times, because he fears his own ending time, and who tries futilely to elude it. I'm blathering here...anyway, great reaction. If possible, more Coen Brothers please.
Steve Mercier
2023-05-20 20:20:29 +0000 UTCThe "look at the fucking bone" kid was so funny. It's like he was trying to make Anton be concerned about his own predicament. I think when people think of Westerns it's like back in the early to mid 1900s, the cowboys use horses, there's a lot of partying and drinking and shootouts, that kind of thing. And Western style music. But when I look at the Western genre and specifically some of the characteristics it mentions, this movie does have a bunch of them, though not all. I'm cool with calling it a modern Western film.
kaiielle
2023-05-20 19:26:55 +0000 UTCAgreed! Thanks for watching, Galen!
kaiielle
2023-05-20 19:19:39 +0000 UTCJavier Bardem nailed this role. He is such a great Actor. Peak acting, writing and directing. Great Choice. Thanks KL.
Curaitis
2023-05-20 17:55:34 +0000 UTCI love the dialogue in this. The phrasing is so particular and brilliant. The Coens' dialogue is always great, but I think this is their best work in that regard. That struck me even more on repeat viewings. And I don't know why but the line reading by that kid of "look at that fucking bone" makes me laugh every time. If there's any doubt about the ending, how Chigurh feels and acts about getting blood on his boots is the big clue. Apparently Chigurh's haircut was inspired by a photo in a book that Tommy Lee Jones had, but it always makes me think of Dorothy Hamill (an Olympic figure skater) who popularized a similar hairstyle at the time. Javier Bardem hated even looking at himself with that haircut and said that it nullified any hopes of meeting or talking to women during the filming, but he also knew it helped make the character. When it came up in the Western poll, I wasn't really sure if it was a 'Western' (it doesn't really have many of the hallmarks of a Western) but it is certainly about the West and I think it has more to say about 'the west' than most Westerns do.
nouvelle_vague
2023-05-20 17:30:30 +0000 UTCAlso Jesse Pinkman's mom is the sheriffs wife!
Methampheminist
2023-05-20 15:19:19 +0000 UTCThat was a super unexpected, but lovely, part of this film!
kaiielle
2023-05-20 13:57:43 +0000 UTCLove this film! No music throughout it as well
Methampheminist
2023-05-20 12:45:20 +0000 UTCHD Processing has about an hour left on it, for any of you that will jump on this immediately.
kaiielle
2023-05-20 08:37:17 +0000 UTC
