thilly thenny

 I guess I really feel like blogging today.  BTW: Spoiled Alert!

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Last Saturday night, Oscar and I went to go see No Country for Old Men, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen- who in case you didn’t know also worked on Paris, Je T’aime; O Brother, Where Art Though; The Big Lebowski; etc.  I loved the movie, especially the surprise twist for the latter third of the movie, but Oscar absolutely hated it.  I think he was expecting Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) to triumph over evil, kill Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and return to his wife with the satchel full of money.

But the ending was justified.  The entire movie was based on the world being amoral.  Afterall, Llewelyn took drug money that could easily have been turned into the police and be done with it.  I thought he was pretty much an asshole, when he barked at the poor guy in the truck in dire need of water.  We only sympathized with him because he decided to bring water to the dying Mexican in the dead of night (a stupid decision) and go on the run instead of turning the money in after he was shot at and almost mauled by a dog (another stupid decision).

The Coens also teach us early on that men triumphed when they followed their principles.  Chigurh always does this without consideration for his empathy of his victims or the fairness of life.  For most of the movie, Llewelyn acts in the much the same way.  He’s constantly vigilant and maintains control of his setting.

His downfall comes when in El Paso, he’s anticipating Carla Jean’s (his wife) arrival and decides to relax with a cute pool girl with a beer.  The movie doesn’t directly tell you this, but I definitely got the sense that “a beer just leads to another beer” was the sentiment that could strike him.  Llewelyn was tired and wanted a psychological rest.  That led to his death.  And because he refused Chigurh’s deal to spare his wife, Carla Jean also gets shot at the end of the movie.  Chigurh, who feels for her because she wasn’t involved in the taking of the money, offers her an out with a coin toss.  She recognizes what’s about to happen and reacts like any other person would, but refuses to rely on chance.  Chigurh, living by principle, kills her.

I think the story leaves to imagination whether she finally guessed and was wrong or lived by her ideals to the end.  It’s most likely the latter, but I’ll need to watch the movie again to be sure.

My favorite part was the ending, when Chigurh gets into a horrific accident.  Two young boys approached him to help, but even they, innocent and at their age, could be swayed by greed because one of them gives up his shirt and allows Chigurh to escape despite the loud sirens approaching.  It shows us the importance of self control and living to our self defined rules but also the humanity and the need for humans to bend our own principles for the good of society.  It also justifies Chigurh’s ability to kill everyone who sees him because under his assumption, all men can be bribed, and for the rare exception, he’ll lessen the chance of death by 50% (coin toss).

This movie is a beautiful examination of the decision making and sense of self without being pretentious, i.e. Crash or 2046.  I can’t wait to buy it on DVD.