I went to the cinema yesterday and saw No Country for Old Men, which I wanted to see for a very long time now. And I honestly don’t know what to say about it, so I figured writing it down usually helps and here I am. Sorry if the post is a bit muddleheaded.
There’s no doubt that it’s a very good movie, in the sense of high quality everything – from acting to directing to music to editing to cinematography. But I’m not sure if I actually like it.
[SPOILER ALARM]
The ending actually surprised me. I wouldn’t have guessed that Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) does not make it, but Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) does. I guess Hollywood just ruined my expectations. But it was nice being surprised once again. I really had this feeling of utter disbelief when they showed Llewelyn’s body. I thought all the time “He will get up right away. It’s just a trick. They didn’t really shoot him.” Took me a while to get over it.
[SPOILER END]
This quote I loved:
Carson Welles (Woody Harrelson): [about Anton Chigurh] He’s a peculiar man. You might even say he has principles.
One of the problems I had with the film was that I couldn’t really connect to the characters, none of them. I liked Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), but it wasn’t really enough to get me into the story, into their lives.
And the film was really, really long. They could have made it shorter.
Well… I think I can summarise this experience with “It’s good to have seen it but I don’t need to see it again.”
kalafudra's Stuff 
One of the things I look for in Cinema, and I treat it as a barometer to measure how good it is, is how well it can hold up without dialogues. Cinema has to be visual, and arresting. And No Country is just that, and more. Many of the films of 2007 indicate a paradigm shift – they are trying to be visual. Take There Will Be Blood, or Assassination of Jesse James, or even The Diving Bell and The Butterfly – all these films hold up without (with minimal) dialogues. And I think its a good thing. I loved No Country.
p.s. I read in one of your previous post about your dislike for Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven. I was quite impressed by the director’s cut of both these films, more so with Kingdom of Heaven – the director’s cut is an entirely different film – more nuanced, thematically intricate, and beautiful.
I don’t know, dialogue is very important to me. Of course, visualisation is at least as important but I just love language and the way it’s used. So judging a film without the dialogue is a bit weird for me. It’s like noticing only the looks and none of the content (which I know isn’t true and from what I can gather, you don’t do that but that’s just the way it feels).
That doesn’t mean that there has to be talking all the time in film. But it does mean that I don’t think you can have a good film (as a whole) without good dialogues.
But that’s not a problem I had with No Country. I liked the dialogues.
Anyway, as you are already the second person telling me about the director’s cuts of Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven, I will give them a shot when I have time to do so. I’ll let you know about my final comment on that :)
Baphomet –
While I see what you mean, I’m not sure whether I agree completely.
I am happy if a film can capture me visually, without too much dialogue. (Hana-Bi comes to mind, or Belleville Rendez-Vous)
I am also happy if a film is so full of snappy dialogue that I couldn’t care less about the visuals.
But I am absolutely fucking ecstatic when I get both of those in a balance that makes sense for that particular movie. (Last Crusade, for example…sorry, I’m really tired, so my examples are less than perfect.)
Having said that, I agree that there’s been a tendency to move on from the 3000-page-script Tarantino-school of directing.
I promise to sit down with kalafudra and watch the Director’s Cuts to both Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven. (If she’ll let me. I might have to get drunk, but I will do it.) But your use of the word “beautiful” in connection with Kingdom was unfortunate. Thinking of Balduin’s final dialogue made me laugh so hard I spilled my drink. Sorry.
Ur post kinda echoes my feelings about the movie.
@deadra:
Once again, I completely agree.
Of course, I’ll watch those with you. We’ll both get drunk and will have beautiful evening my beautiful sister of mind.
@indisch:
I’ve heard from a lot of people that they found it really weird and couldn’t quite… form an opinion about it.
@Kalafudra and Daedra: Ofcourse, I did not mean to belittle the importance of dialogues in films, but its just that cinema is a visual medium. Dialogues shouldnt compensate for what is lacking visually. Two examples that jump to my head –
1. Long expository plot explanation dialogues. Remember the end of Matrix Reloaded? They show this entire nonsense of a film and then in a room, a dude in white suit explains the entire movie to Neo.
2. Dialogues explaining what is on screen, or why something is on screen. (Kurusawa came up with a method of showing the passage of time by making a calender flutter in the wind, with its pages flying off. ISnt that better than the protagonist stating – “it has been 3 months…”)
I love Wooddy Allen films, they are so well written. But a film should hold up visually. Remmeber that scene in Manhattan where his confronts his friend in a classroom, with the skeleton of a neanderthal man? Thats visual iron. It gave the dialogues a context. And plus, would dialogues have made “City Lights” better? Silent films are proof that dialogues can be done away entirely (theoretically).
I dont know how much Alexander Revisited would change your opinion of the film. I am an ardent admirer of Alexander, and the flaws with the film i found mainly revolve around one mr.Farrell and one ms.Jolie. But Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut is a tremendous improvemnt (although the crappy speech still remains). The scenes with Eddie Norton are longer. There’s an entirely moving sidestory for Sybilla (she has a son!!!).
p.s. I am really excited about Pixar’s WALL-E. Apparantly, there are no dialogues between the main characters.
Baphomet –
Matrix Reloaded?! Come ON…you could use that movie as a bad example for everything. (except, perhaps, car chases & black leather outfits).
If a movie needs 5 hours worth of exposition, there is something wrong with it, clearly.
Dialogues explaining what’s on screen…depends. Sure, Kurosawa is always classy. I even liked what Curtis did in Notting Hill (apologies for referencing it – I saw it 2 days ago, so it’s fresh…), which was showing the passage of time by showing the market & the people there (I especially love the pregnant woman in the background..her belly grows and in the end she’s pushing a pram, I think.) If it weren’t for the Elvis Costello Soundtrack, that scene would be purrfect. Or the ending of the Usual Suspects, with the camera just slowly going along that pinboard…brilliance.
Still, sometimes you need dialogue to tell your story, and that can be done with a crowbar – “Bill, little brother!!! You left us so suddenly on that fateful night twenty years ago, what brings you back here on the day of out despotic father’s funeral?” (This Oscar-worthy line is my own – if such tripe exists on celluloid, I don’t want to know.)
Or you can do it with style. (Embarrassingly, I can’t think of good examples from the big screen right now. Let me think about it. … As for TV, the “POTUS cycled into a tree.”-scene in the West Wing pilot. Brilliance.)
I won’t elaborate on what irked me about Alexander and Kingdom. Suffice to say I’m not holding my breath for those things to disappear in a director’s cut.
I’m looking forward to WALL-E as well. Generally, it’s been a while since I’ve been this optimistic about cinema. Because for every comic book adaptation/remake/sequel out there, there will also be a WALL-E, a Sundance surprise hit, and a Be Kind Rewind. And that makes for a very happy (and very broke) me ^__^
Sorry for the typos…I should re-read my ramblings before posting.
@Daedra: I know what you mean. Annie Hall is nothing without the dialogues. But what I was trying to say was that films should stop being plays captured on screen.
btw, which is the ‘Sundance surprise hit’?
@baph:
I know what you meant, don’t worry.
And I agree with what you said. It’s just that the visual is one criteria of many.
And btw: Silent movies have a lot of dialogue, it’s just not verbal most of the time :P
Wall-E!!!!! so looking forward!
Baph –
I like plays captured on screen. And I like the occasional Michael Bay movie. And everything in between…I think that films can be all things to all people, that’s what’s so great about them ^^
I don’t know what the Sundance surprise hit will be next year…it being a surprise and all ;) But last year it was Juno, and the year before that it was Little Miss Sunshine. I can’t wait for this year.
@kalafudra: I loved this: You can help persuade Uwe Boll to stop making movies
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/04/uwe-boll-petiti.html
Personally, I think he should go on doing what he’s doing. I enjoy his stuff a lot, because it’s so gloriously, unashamedly bad. And I can’t wait to see Uwe Boll’s Pong.
Mr. Boll has repeatedly shown a complete lack of comprehension regarding the videogames he has dragged, kicking and screaming, to the silver screen and his ham-fisted approach to horror has soiled future possibilities for anyone else who may attempt to bring videogames to film.
From the petition… *lol*
Anyway, I’m not going to sign it. Sometimes I just need to see a bad movie and I know that picking a Boll one never lets me down.
I think the “Long Live Uwe Boll Petition” articulates my sentiments pretty clearly. And the typos are a charming touch, too.
http://www.petitiononline.com/uwelive/petition.html
Also: Ray Liotta.
Now, that petition I signed!
and of course, Ray Liotta.
I still haven’t found a movie with a good verbal exposition, though.
I can only repeat what I said the other day.
– The press conference at the start of “The Life Aquatic”
– The beginning of Star Wars (both the “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” and Leia’s recorded message)
also:
– The prologue to “The Princess Bride” (which we have to watch together, btw – best quotes ever!!!*), when the grandfather gets the boy to settle down and listen to his story.
– The opening scene of “Moulin Rouge” (incl. the Bowie song in the background) – but I guess every musical needs a lot of exposition
I’ll probably keep coming up with others, because it gives me an excuse to think about movies.
*”My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” ^__^
*lol*