Landscapes, dry and arid…. Distant mountains and wild shrubbery all imply that in no way will life survive here. Here lies the plateau that will witness death definitely and always!
It also will bury secrets in the open that most who have witnessed would die to lay their hands on!! Win I Will – Always!!
Interesting thoughts that made this film.. But not impressive by any means!!
No Country For Old Men strikes to me as a film the Coen Brothers embarked on but lost direction completely! It was for me a mindless struggle of a common man against a professional killer who at will can just shoot the man dead.
Javier Bardem, known in the media more for his association with Penelope Cruz than his films, is the killer who uses an oxygen cylinder to shoot his way through locks and human alike.. At times he uses a cattle stun gun to ensure quick and smooth death. Sounds very gory and very dark. The character he plays is Anton Shuger, a dreaded killer who is ruthless and brutally cold. His victims just gasp at the time of their death and then there is a stillness that is only a reminiscent of one thing, DEATH!
Llewelyn Moss (josh Brolin) has been a witness, on such landscape which is endless, of a massacre of a drug cartel which has money involved and its $2 million. Llewelyn wants to ensure that he takes the money in for keeps. Little does he realize the danger that is in store ahead for him.
Interestingly he sends his wife Carla (kate McDonald) to her mothers place sensibly away from the likely dangers that Moss expects to face.
Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is an old sheriff of the county and is now behind the killings that are rocking his county.
The murders are smooth and are mostly of people not even remotely connected to the drug deal gone wrong but of innocent people who have crossed paths with Moss somewhere during his hide n seek with Shuger.
This is not a new concept at all. There have been films and films that have been made that have similar concepts and chases but here the difference is the method to the madness of Shuger’s killing his victims.
I knew that the chase would end the wrong way for Moss and even Bell would not be able to stop it because of one simple fact that Shuger is ruthless, cold and is a professional who is trained in the art of hide n seek and has the aid of a tracking device in the satchel that Moss has which carries a tracker!! Sounded and looked very clichéd for me….
It wasn’t even about the character of Shuger. He has been depicted as a professional and he acts that way. Its also not about Moss or the newness in the fact that he wants the money he found in the desert for keeps… FINDERS KEEPERS!! Aint that the law of the desert??
This film which had raked in most Black ladies last year was quite a dampener for me….
That’s the only reason why I made it a point to watch the only film that compared with it in terms of the number of nominations, 9 totally, There Will Be Blood!!
I am glad that I watched Blood… It just told me the difference between a good cinema and nouvelle cinema. Blood was superior in terms of content, cast and even the method of Daniels madness!!
Here there no method. There is only one solution to the whole drama, Shuger has to win!! That was a blatant summary that I could make out. I find that the Academy has probably lost its touch way beyond reason.
Javier Bardem as the crazy, ruthlessly cold professional does put his heart in the character. He has been able to portray the professional killer with his slightly dazed eyes which have the glint of cold, a slouch and a hulky physique. Josh Brolin has given better performances in American Gangster, Grindhouse etc. Here he has been reduced to running around from Motel to Hotel with no real meaning. Its clichéd. Tommy Lee Jones as the sheriff has delivered a performance suitable to his age. He is reduced to a man waiting for bodies to turn up and then follow the clues. Wasted I would say as he is a performance actor.
What else can I say??
I am unimpressed but not biased. I have definitely liked There Will Be Blood and I think it deserved Oscars for at 3 major categories; Direction – Ron Howard, Actor – Daniel (which they did get, thankfully) and Screenplay. Sad
The film is an adaptation from a novel by Cormac McCarthy of the same name… I think I will read the book now. Maybe that would be interesting!!