Les Jones

A&E > "No Country for Old Men" - the actual movie

After playing with puns on the name, I finally saw the movie tonight with my wife. (Possible only because my mother in law was nice enough to keep the kids tonight even after keeping them all day today. Thanks, Ginny!)

Loved it. There were plenty of memorable characters and dialog, and great direction and cinematography by the Coen brothers. The acting is mostly good to great. Josh Brolin made me believe he was just some hard luck Charlie the casting director found in a Texas trailer park. No Country for Old Men also has one of the best villains in movie history.

I should probably mention that it's a movie that invites bitching and questions, but also serious consideration. Without giving anything away, you'll wonder why the Coen brothers showed some events which seem inconsequential, while leaving to your imagination events which would be pivotal scenes in other movies. I don't think for a minute that those decisions were unintentional, and I look forward to pondering their reasons the next time i watch the movie.

P.S. - Now that I've seen the movie I no longer have to dodge spoilerific discussions of same. I love this comment on that post:

Folks who truly enjoy Mozart and Dostoevsky don't love them just for a crossword-puzzle workout, aren't concerned with social climbing, and are not bothered that other people might be enjoying entirely different works. But as rule, the need to look down on others is more powerful in more hearts than the love for music. People are shitty that way.

I don't think that's completely true, because I don't think there are that many snobs in the world, but, yeah, there are snobs like that in the world.