is this movie too much for me? *NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN*
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
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Original Movie: No Country for Old Men
*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners.
Watching it for the first time, I was so immersed to the movie that I didn't realize that throughout the film, it didn't have any music or soundtrack playing at all.
It took me half the movie to figure that the wife was Kelly Macdonald. Not a Texan, but her accent sounds pretty spot on to my ears.
@@Scott_Forsell not even american
@@Scott_Forsell Kelly MacDonald is a very talented actress. Her 1st role was in Trainspotting, very cool!
@@neugassh3570 Nope, very Scottish
This is how good 😊 Hollywood movies used to be and now it's garbage except for 3-4 director's
21:42 That story had triple meaning!
Tommy Lee Jones tells the wife about the guy who injured himself killing a cow (one of the most defenseless creatures) to where he couldn't lift his arm above his head. After Anton kills the wife (arguably the most defenseless person in the film), he gets injured by no fault of his own, where he can't lift his own arm above his head. Beautiful portray of moral chaos even to those who strictly live by moral order. My two cents 🍺
That's a cool detail that I've not seen pointed out before.
A small thing, though. In the story the animal is a steer, a castrated bull, so particularly not defenseless in general. But it was defenseless in the context of his story.
Very good point!
@@conureron3792 The best part is where it is later revealed that Sheriff Bell made that story up. It's a funny in-joke for Coen Bros fans as a reference to Fargo, which is presented as "based on a true story." They made it all up. But as Bell says, "Well it is true that it is a story." Hilarious.
@@pluckyduck11y The story and also him saying it is made up is also in the novel by Cormac McCarthy so I don't think it is an in joke for the Coen brothers, although that would have been cool.
@@devildriverrule111 Does Bell specifically say "It is true that it is a story"? Do you recall?
I love how Anton is hit by a car while he's driving through a green light.
It harkens back to something he said earlier.
"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"
Brought you to this*
@@childeaterieatkidz4208- My apologies. Do you think I should edit my comment?
@@Jalynfein yeah probably cause "brought you to here" I mean gotta get the quote right if you're gonna quote it friend! Have a nice night 😊
@@childeaterieatkidz4208 Most people who analyzed this movie believe Llewelyn's conscience gets him killed, while Anton's lack of conscience and adherence to a code is why he succeeds. But if Anton did not adhere to his code, he would not have gone back to visit Carla Jean, and would not have gotten in that wreck. Most people assume he still gets away, which is also what I assumed for years after seeing this back in 2007. But does he get away? And he uses a bill probably from the briefcase. Was the money in the car, and he was forced to abandon it? I like the idea that all he got out of the whole experience was a compound fracture. Maybe that's too romantic. But we have to believe he'd be too smart to just be rolling around with the whole stash, right? He'd probably have it in a secure spot for sure, right?
If you read the book these changes and scenes make sense:
Anton took advantage of the hospitality of these polite and quiet people. He was from the big cities where there was triple the crime and where people were less hospitable. He also believes he's a hand of fate and believes in some weird way that he's making the world a better place. For instance, the reason he wanted to kill the clerk was because he believed it was wrong to marry into-business and thought it to be weak and unbecoming of the man...
When he gets hit by the car at the end of the movie, the point of that scene is to illustrate that he never had fate on his side, nor was he a servant of fate as he had believed (the coin toss). It's his wake-up call, and now he knows that killing the woman either was what fate DIDN'T want, or that it had nothing to do with anything altogether. It's essentially a punishment for killing the wife, because he never really needed to do that.
28:20 The car accident is an important addendum to the philosophy of the movie: Throughout the movie, Chigurh acts as the Angel of Death, talking about how following this or that moral code is useless, because it all ends in a visit by him (and their death), and that therefore all morality is meaningless, that there is nothing but Nihilism. But even as Chigurh expounds his Nihilism, secretly he believes that he has the power over life and death, and that that gives him control. The car accident is a rebuff to Chigurh himself: he also has no control, and is subject to the whims of Fate. No one is above Death, not even Chigurh.
Yeah, I agree. Too bad Natalie didn't discuss Tommy Lee Jones' final discussion about his dreams. Although the movie has a very bleak view of life, his dream that his dead father has gone ahead and he will eventually meet him seems to be a solace that when we are done with our chaotic life on Earth, that there will be an afterlife where our loved ones await. I recommend the movie The Road, also based on another Cormac McCarthy novel set in a post-apocalypse also involving a couple of empathetic characters attempting to survive in a bleak world.
It's also indicative that wifey really got to his head. He didn't notice the other car skipping its light because he was so busy mulling over how she'd rather die than pretend the coin is the decision-maker. Everyone else would cave if it meant safety but this little housewife called his bullshit for what it was. I can't help but feel Chigur was a little rattled by that.
@@samwallaceart288 That's a great point I hadn't realized before.
@@Scary__fun It's not about there being an afterlife It's about handing down "the fire". Passing along wisdom and good virtue to the next generation because the only way to fight evil is to stay good in spite of it. You can't stop the bad in the world but you can choose to be good despite the opposition
@@samwallaceart288 he was totally rattled. He even tried distracting himself by looking at those kids on the bikes. He was trying to understand how someone could do that.
Really scary bit of trivia…
A group of psychologists analyzed hundreds of movies to find the most accurate depiction of a psychopath, and found this movie was the most accurate by a massive landslide.
I like when Chigur colloquially says to the teens, “You didn’t see me, I was already gone,” which connects back to the accountant in the office building who’s asked by Chigur, “Do you see me?”
I like to think that he let the guy at the office live. The only thing that he had to reply when Anton asked if he could see him, was “no”.
Nah...he killed that guy. He asked that question sarcastically. Cause obviously he sees him, which automatically answers the guys question of "are you gonna shoot me"?.
he didn't ask DID you see me for or a reason - that would imply you have a future to tell or deny what he witnessed...he asked DO you see me? it's a present tense question where the answer is only between me & you --- and we both know the answer, in this present moment.
basically...if you see me - right now - you're shot
@@deadassdgaf100Right...like I said, it was a sarcastic reply. Cause he replies with a rhetorical question. So obviously the answer is "yes".
The Coens really know how to toss the audience into the deep end and let them swim their way out. I love that they have the range for amazing comedy as well as a dark neo-western like No Country.
Oh, knock it off. They ran out of money and couldn't finish the movies. So, they took the footage they had and edited it into a pseudo avant-garde piece of trash.
They're nihilists, man. They keep saying they believe in nothing.
It's always nice when the directors actually treat their audience members like thinking human beings. Letting them figure out the movie without spoon feeding them every little thing. Such brilliant writing and directing.
Yeah they don't treat their audience like dumb fools unlike today's directors & studios.
@@alanmacification OoooooKkkkk!? lol
I REALLY liked this tag team for the ending. You guys need to do this more often.
…but with a better mic for Tyler.
The disembodied voice actually works fairly well here.
Your postmortem conversation with your husband was fantastic. It was insightful and entertaining. I hope you can convince him to do more of these with you on some of the more thought-provoking reactions you do in the future.
I second that motion.
the use of "postmortem" in this sentence confused me so much lol
I agree 100%. More of these chats please! Tyler's opinions on this film are interesting and have made me want to rewatch it.
Natalie: I'm still processing this, and I need to discuss it to process it...
Everyone: We've all seen it a bunch of times over the years... and we're still trying to process it.
Yes this. Except he needs to be miked.
I love the fact that at a certain point during principal production, they had to halt production because somewhere in the distance, Paul Thomas Anderson was filming There Will Be Blood (a masterpiece of a film that I highly recommend you doing a reacting to) and they were filming an oil rig on fire. Too much smoke was seen
2007 was such a damn good year for intense well written drama
This movie received 8 Oscar nominations and won 4 (Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem)). This was tied with Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD for most nominations that year.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD won 2 (Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Cinematography). I highly recommend reacting to that too.
Both are tough watches but great films
That was a great year man. This, There Will Be Blood, and The Dark Knight all in the same year.
There Will Be Blood is probably my favorite of them though. Such a masterpiece
@@cheezyfilmsproductions1842 yup three masterpieces in single year
i think the brilliant run of films we saw in the OO's really started in 99, one of the greatest years in film history.. something enormous kicked off that year, a quiet revival, a revolution really, intangible at the time for most, yet undeniable in hindsight.. the matrix, american beauty, fight club, magnolia, eyes wide shut, being john malkovich, girl interrupted, the sixth sense, the blair witch project, the talented mr ripley.. hell... even the iron giant, or toy story 2.. so many landmark moments in such a small blip of a speck of a span of time..
@@cheezyfilmsproductions1842 No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were released in 2007, and The Dark Knight in July of 2008. With the awards and fanfare around those two being received mostly in early 2008 the overlap is understandable.
“Will you please be in this video this time?”
Tyler: “That depends…do you see me?”
Although I never did read McCarthy’s novel, the film itself is a pretty potent vehicle for reflections on the brutality of happenstance and mortality.
Aparently the author thinks the film version is superior to his own novel.
The novel gives a little more insight into the movie. There are more Anton parts. This was ushering in the huge drug wars of the 80's. Local law enforcement wasnt ready for this new level of criminal. I never saw Cocaine cowboys, but I assume that is another example of the message getting across.
The novel is pretty close to film
@@coyotefever105 There are significant changes. I the novel Carla Jean braak down and begs for her life while in the film she stands up to Anton and forces him to actually have to chose without the pretense of random luck. Other changes happen in the book to screen adaptation. But MacCarthy was happy with the changes, as the Coens got the point the book.
I absolutely suggest reading the book. This is the only film adaptation that I love as much as the book. And the book is phenomenal.
Anton Chigurh does feel like the embodiment of consequence and chaos, but I think he's completely humanized by the end of the film. He had such a god-like, inescapable presence that made him feel more like an entity, rather than a man. Like in that scene when he got the shop clerk to call the coin toss, which evokes some kind of nightmarish unreality. It doesn't feel like a man who's been threatened by another man, but like some twisted confrontation between a human being and fate itself. Chigurh is elegant, meticulous, emotionless, unpredictable, and downright terrifying... But then he tries to repeat the coin toss with Carla Jean, and instead of playing along, she forces him to make the choice and take responsability for it. She wasn't scared of him at all, and she didn't even allow him to leave it all to chance. This brought Chigurh out of his god-like fantasy, and he ended up feeling so distraught by it, that he went on to have one of the most idiotic car crashes I've ever seen.This god-like, elegant, meticulous, emotionless, unpredictable, terrifying force of nature didn't see a car coming, and had to walk out of his vehicle covered in his own blood, with a bone coming out of his arm. And two children saw him like that! Even the money that he gave them was covered in his blood, not his victims' blood. Chigurh fell from grace right there, becoming nothing more than a man. And all it took was for a brave woman to look him in the eye and tell him what he truly is: just a fucking murderer.
Anton is the embodiment of death and its randomness, unfairness, and its inevitably. Not calling the coin toss means an instant loss, i.e. death. You can not choose to avoid the randomness of death. This is not a luxury anyone gets.
Anton's hair looking like a hooded cowl, and wearing of dark clothing is the look of death himself
I smell feminism..
@@johnski4709 I disagree. Chigurh was just a man, pretending to be something like death. I've read the book, and I do think Cormac McCarthy likes the idea of his characters symbolizing abstract themes and forces like death or innocence and writes them to be as such ( a classic example is his novel's character, The Judge in "Blood Meridian"). But I don't think that choice was made in this movie by the Coen brothers. The car crash is too humbling for Chigurh to be death: death is a force, it can't break its arm.
@@anneg3065 Yes, usually characters have aspects of them that make them fall from grace. In Blood Meridian, for example, the Judge goes on a carnage for the entire book and has almost everything going his way, acting like the closest to Death a human can try to be (who knows if he's totally human), but takes him ages to kill the protagonist, not because he can't but because the Kid refuses to listen, as the Judge himself says. You can still call it a victory at the end because he kills the Kid and celebrates, but if he was right it wouldn't be possible for a traumatized and violent kid to put such a fight.
I'm a HUGE Cormac McCarthy fan. I read this book before I watched the movie and this is one of those almost nonexistent cases where I think the film lives up to the novel. That's incredibly hard to do and requires an almost inhuman understanding of the source material. It's difficult to translate prose into visual poetry, but somehow they pulled it off.
I'm a bit annoyed on how they portrayed Anton though. Like, why not include the monologue to Carla about the chances of fate and the universe?
They wanted to play him a little straighter and earthly than the novel. The movie was already going to be a tough sell in theatres/audiences, but if you suddenly "elevate" Anton even more than they allowed him with the Gas station clerk/Carson then his presence would be even more supernatural. Much like trying to portray The Judge in Blood Meridian, the supernatural-esque elements tend to make it harder to maintain immersion in the world. Its funny since the Coen's Fargo TV show does the opposite of this and they add all sorts of odd elements into the story - and the exact response I talk about above is complained about by the audience. It's just too weird and removes them from the story at hand. I hope this makes sense, cheer.s @@whatno3145
The Coen brothers did a great job. Translating Blood Meridian, which most consider McCarthy's best work, would be almost impossible though.
@@smoothinvestigator My favorite novel. An adaptation is in the works. Purportedly, it will be directed by John Hillcoat.
The coin toss scene is one of my all time favourite scenes in a movie, just suspenseful and amazingly acted and shot.
Anton isn't in the hotel room when the Sherrif searches it.
The shot of Anton hiding with his weapon is all in the Sherriffs head
And yes, Anton did kill Carla Jean. That's exactly what he's searching the bottom of his boots for. Her blood.
10000% agreed
For the record, I greatly respect Natalie taking a pause and not feeling automatically compelled to start rambling upon the film's end as soon as she recognized that she needed to absorb what she just saw and gather her thoughts. The move to bring in cine-hubby into the mix to help initiate the discussion and aid digestion and processing the experience was a fleet move, especially since said spouse had already professed "No Country" to be one of his faves.
I have a slight variation to your own end summary about this film, Natalie. I return to it regularly, because I do find it so satisfying. I think the end denouement in the kitchen with the Sheriff throws out a tangental, seemingly unrelated recollection of a previous night's dream. It can lead to a puzzling, untidy resolution by everyday standards, which doesn't at first seem to give an immediate, conclusive ending. I feel that in addition to any other reasons it's there, is to help cement the just-witnessed tale into the open-ended, breathing, ongoing uncertainty which is the story just told.
I don’t like to make criticisms of the hosts of their own channels, but the amount of running commentary she provided made me feel she was an additional member of the cast. I was so relieved while she paused as Tommy Lee gave his closing monologue unmolested.
that last shot with the sheriff, outside the window, there is one dead tree and one alive tree. i love the symbolism in this movie.
Spoiler:
I don’t think Anton is really in the motel room at the end (even though he’s already taken the money). I think that is the sheriff simply imagining the possibility of Danger on the other side of the door and STILL being ‘brave’ enough to choose to open the door.
yea, absolutely. the window being locked shows that he didn't come in and like, escape through the window, it's locked from the inside. so chigurh came and went already, and Bell is only imagining the ghostly threat, because he knows he's old, he's vulnerable, and he's overmatched. and cops know how to clear a room, he wouldn't just let his guard down while someone's waiting in the shadows with a huge gun.
Watch Wendigoon’s video about this movie. Not only is Anton not in the room, I’m not certain Anton exists outside of Bell’s imagination.
@@01HondaS2kXD That’s a creative interpretation not strongly supported by the source material
@@01HondaS2kXD woah
Can we talk about how the Summoning Husband segment adds in the flavor with your husband's knowledge of the film?
Yep, totally should get him to come back as long as the movie is something he knows well or watched at the same time.
Another clue that he in fact did kill Llewellyn's wife, was when he tells her that Llewellyn had a chance to save her. That combined with the fact that she refused to call the coin flip plus him checking his boots leaves me with very little doubt that he did kill her.
He kills anyone that cab identify him, unless he does a two face an flips a coin. She should have called it, unless she just didn't want to live.
@@NonExpertKnowItAll I like her defiance. "I'm going to make you make the choice, not blame the coin." He has to choose to kill this woman who did absolutely nothing to him, did not take the money, and that he actually had to go find her to kill her. It's not random and she does nothing to help justify him murdering her. Bravo.
@@kickballjedi The question is not if iy was his choice to kill her, he already decided that when he let her see him. The question is why he gave her the chance to not die. His hole modus operandi is to kill anyone that can possibly visually identify him, its that simple. It's why he doesn't give most people a chance to flip a coin. She of course had no way of knowing this, except for the fact that he went out of his way to be there for no apperant reason other than to kill her. I mean he almost killed the store keeper, just for noticing his car plates, which was stolen, and therefore however unlikely, been asked by police if a car like that came by or maybe heard about it on the news, he would then be able to give a visual description of him. Its why the company made sure Carson Wells could identify Anton by site, Carson Wells mentions this to Lou Ellen, that he was surprised that Lou Ellen saw him and he's not dead, that meant they were unique. That's why Anton took the opportunity to kill Wells to get rid of a loose end. So he had already decided to kill her when he let her see him the question is why did he give her the opportunity of the coin flip while only one other got it. Also why didn't he kill Tommy Lee Jones in the hotel. It's only because Jones never saw him. Why did he give her the chance?
@@NonExpertKnowItAll we don't know if he killed the guy in the high rise
@@NonExpertKnowItAll in the book she calls it but is still wrong and dies 😂
The sound of the lightbulb being unscrewed to hide the shadow of his feet is haunting. Also: CONGRATS NAT!!
One of my favourite moments from this film was when the Sheriff went into the hotel room and you can see the shadows of the police tape blowing about in the breeze, but when he comes back out of the bathroom the tape shadow is gone, suggesting Anton walked right out the door and through the tape. Love little details like that :)
Damn. Really? I'm going to have to go back and watch that part again...
35:18 Anton did not escape through the air vent. How could he fit through an air vent? Anton used a dime to unscrew the air vent cuz that's where Llewelyn Moss hid the money satchel-- just like he did in the previous motel room, where Anton also used a dime to unscrew the vent. We see Sheriff Ed Tom Bell go into the bathroom and see that the window is unlatched. Anton escaped through there. And Anton was no longer in the motel room when Ed Tom arrived.
@26:37 We see an extreme close-up of the sheriff's face, then it cuts to Anton "hiding in the corner" behind the front door, then it cuts back to Ed Tom's face, and then when Ed Tom enters the room Anton is gone. The close-ups of the sheriff's face conveys that Ed Tom is imagining Anton is in the room waiting for him, his "worst fear". But it's all in his head. Ed Tom is internally struggling with entering the room, knowing that Anton COULD be there and that he'll most likely die. But he makes the choice to go in but luckily Anton's long gone. And then in the next scene, we see Ed Tom visit his relative in the wheelchair and announces he's retiring cuz he "feels overmatched"-- especially from that night. If you recall Ed Tom's narration at the beginning of the film, "You always had to be willing to die doing a job like this (referring to law enforcement). But I'm not ready to push my chips in and face something I just don't understand." Hence, the title "no country for old men".
And Carla Jean's fate is NOT ambiguous. She's dead, and she'd dead in the book too if you're still skeptical. Anton checks his boots for blood, just like we saw him earlier trying to keep blood off his boots when he shot Woody Harrelson's character and when he took off his boots when he killed the Mexicans in the motel earlier and then removed his blood soaked socks after killing them-- Anton is careful and covers his tracks. It's just that the Coen Bros respect the audience's intelligence enough to not spell everything out for us-- smart filmmakers do this. But it backfired, cuz everybody is like "we didn't see her die, it's ambiguous". This is why media today can't be subtle anymore cuz audiences are no longer sharp enough to understand things without it being spoon-fed. This is why people should watch more of these types of films and have less franchise junk food. Junk food is supposed to be consumed in moderation, not make up 90% of your diet.
Would love to see you react to Resovoir Dogs...I totally respect Tyler's choice to not be on camera, and it was so clear how much he loves this movie just hearing him talk about it and ask you questions about it, it was really awesome and cool to hear his thoughts on the film....I would definitely welcome any input from Tyler on any video, but completely understand that he may not want to lol
I love the lack of music/soundtrack in this movie, it makes it feel more real and intense
Listening to your husband talk about the movie makes me realize that eventually you two should do a react together. I can honestly 'hear' that that man is a cinephile and having two different perspectives would be great to see.
Also with Anton being “death”, with his coin flip for some victims, and no coin with the others. Sometimes you have a chance, sometimes it’s random chaos. So with Carla, when she says “the coin ain’t got no say. It’s just you.” I think she didn’t choose a side and he killed her anyway. Then directly afterwards, he’s “punished” in his own car wreck.
He is not punished. There is no moral consequence in this country. Moral consequences are for old men who expect that things will make sense and fit into the narrative of their life experiences. This is no country for old men.
In the book anton tells Carla Jean that a coin toss is the most he's willing to deviate from his personal rules. Also she does choose a side in the book, gets it wrong, and anton shoots her. Personally I like that the movie leaves the last bit to your imagination. But the book is still really good
@@TheHighvolt480 The film doesn't leave it to our imagination. Anton killed Carla Jean. It's implied when he checked his boots for blood. It's just that the Coen Bros respect the audience's intelligence enough to come to that conclusion on our own without having to spell everything out for us. But that's the problem with media today. Nothing can be subtle nowadays cuz audiences aren't sharp anymore. Everything needs to be spelled out and when it isn't, everyone says "oh, it's ambiguous" when it's NOT ambiguous. It's like the ending of "Inception", Nolan cut to black just as the top begins to wobble (meaning it will fall so it's not a dream) but because we didn't see the top fall over completely, everyone is like "it could be a dream, it's ambiguous". But no, Nolan just respected the audience enough to conclude that the top will fall but so few understood that, so it backfired on him.
@@rustincohle2135 What makes you think that the top in Inception has to follow the rules of physics if it was in a dream. I mean that's the whole point, right? That it doesn't?
It toppling over would be the proof that you're in the physical world, as the rules of the film and our knowledge of physics are concerned. Anything short of that, including a wobble, seems up for interpretation.
EDIT: Plus, No Country for Old Men is a much more grounded, realistic film. Inception is sci-fi (adjacent).
@@se7enhaender "What makes you think that the top in Inception has to follow the rules of physics if it was in a dream"
The whole point of his top totem is that it maintains its momentum and keeps spinning when he's dreaming, that's how he KNOWS he's dreaming. But when he spins the top when he's awake, it loses momentum and then topples over-- we see this happen in the first act of the movie, right before his phone call with his kids. Nolan established this earlier in the movie to set it up for the ending. So when the top loses momentum and begins to wobble at the end, we the audience KNOW it's gonna fall. It's not rocket science. It's NOT an ambiguous ending.
Another really good drama that's set in Texas is: "Hell or High Water" featuring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine. Love your sense of humor and reactions!
Hell or high water is definitely good, stumbled across the DVD at Walmart and picked it up, was very pleased with it
A few of the other films I've seen that have no music: The Blair Witch Project (1999), Rope (1948), M (1931), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Birds (1963) , Network (1976).
Dog Day Afternoon has no score, but it does have an Elton John song during the opening credits.
I was going to say The Birds. Glad you beat me to it.
Network? They show Howard Beale's news variety show, which has a very bombastic theme song.
Coin flip scene at that gas station with the older gentleman is one of my all time favorite scenes. The tension is unreal
Arguably my favorite Cormac McCarthy novel. Josh Brolin resembles a younger Cormac in the movie as well.
He does! I never noticed that lol
Once I got over the hump of Cormac's unusual use of punctuation (or lack thereof), I couldn't put it down.
@@bsjett
Is that how he writes in all his books?? I read The Road but just assumed it was a stylistic choice for that book, he does it in No Country as well?
@@cheezyfilmsproductions1842 I've only read The Road and No Country, but yeah, seems to just be the way he writes.
the idiosyncratic punctuation and syntax is a hallmark of all his books, but the road and no country are fairly easy reads compared to something like blood meridian, where the sentences get downright old testament at times.
Definitely recommend you should watch There Will Be Blood, another drama from 2007. This and No Country For Old Men were in contention at the Oscars and both are flat-out masterpieces. It’s less dark than No Country but so entertaining and features one of the greatest performances you’ll ever see from Daniel-day Lewis. And has one of the best climaxes/endings to a film. Plus it’s one of Paul Dano’s best performances when he was still relatively young.
Someone pointed this out to me that when the sheriff was outside the door and Anton was inside he had a brush with death it was close. And finally he called it and retired. Similar to Pulp fiction where Jules feels that closeness and quits after. Whereas Vincent didn't and...
That scene at the gas station was a masterclass in writing, acting, atmosphere, everything. An all time great scene
The killer in this movie terrified me as a kid but I appreciate the movie now especially the coin toss scene with the store clerk
Anton wasn't in Moss' room still at the end, that was just Bells imagination. The book makes a better reference to Bell choosing to go in to the room.
Not a book review, though, is it?
This! Thank you! And the movie makes it very clear as well, once you realize Anton isn't in the room. I can't imagine where this notion comes from that "he escaped through the vent," as if THAT character would do such a thing under those circumstances (also, you can see in the shot of the vent that he's not squeezing in there) - he'd of popped Tommy Lee from the shadows and been on his way with the suitcase. Anton visits the hotel earlier in the evening, before Tommy Lee ever arrives. But the boogeyman that is Anton is a hard thing for Tommy Lee to not have at the forefront of his mind.
I enjoy Wendigoon’s version of it: Anton is not real. Anton himself is a figment of Bell’s imagination, because wouldn’t it be easier if you’re just fighting one guy than fighting the world as a whole?
If you look closely, the lock of the room next to the one Ed Tom Bell enters is also shot out, and they're both cordoned off. My guess would be that was the room the cartel had been waiting in right next to Moss'.
I've read the book too and though I agree that the interpretation I got from the novel, the film is depicted in such a real and grounded fashion that I think it more likely Anton was there and was hiding next door. Meaning that Ed Tom Bell won his coin toss....
This movie and There Will Be Blood came out the same year, and I saw them both in the theater when they came out. In describing them to other people, I said they were exercises in dissatisfaction. And they were both incredibly effective. In a way, the bad guy wins in both films. But moreso, they both just end without any kind of classically satisfying ending. A bunch of bad people do a bunch of bad things, with some innocent people as collateral damage, and nothing is better at the end. It's just life.
Anton is honestly the best part of the movie the actor who plays him is just so good at playing a realistic psychopath.
That feeling of "unsatisfying ending", the fact that Brolin's character dies off-screen only to be discovered by police and much more, reminds us that the movie depicts a crime story before anything. And as in real life, crime affects people one way or another by this or that angle and eventually, lives are cut short, spirits are crushed, wrong doings aren't being addressed as it should but the world keeps on going. That movie is all in all a masterpiece of storytelling and offers a cinematic glimpse into some of the darkest things humanity is capable of.
This is one of my favorite movies, and the scene with the survivor in the truck is cinema gold. When he approaches the truck, the door is closed. He opens the door, after their brief exchange when Llewellyn attempts to leave, the dying man warns him "Cierra la puerta. Hay Lobos" Close the door, there are wolves. At this point, Llewellyn can remove himself from the situation and go about his life as normal, but by pursuing the money he leaves the door of his life open to wolves that are the cartel. His dismissal of the warning, leaving the physical door of the truck open, and the forbidding sound of the wind that follows is a chefs kiss of foreshadowing.
The cut after he asks the accountant "that depends. Do you see me?" always gives me a cold chill of fear cause like, what's the right answer? You'd automatically think to say no, thinking that's what he wants to hear, that you won't identify him to the police..but assuming that you know what he wants to hear is hella naive. Maybe "yes I see you" is the right answer? although you could also rationalize reasons why it's not. God it stresses me out thinking about it lol.
***EDIT- oooh editing to add something that just occurred to me. It's interesting that the question "do you see me?" has the same odds as the coin flip. It's either "yes/no" or "heads/tails". All you can do is hope you guess correctly.
He also knows that that guy in the office has no skin in the game and it wouldn’t be quite fair. Just simply kill him off, so he gives the guy pass most likely least that’s what I’ve always figured.
@@bsgtrekfan88 huh, I always took it more like the guy asks him "are you going to kill me?" and Anton replies "do you see me?" the answer to which is of course he sees him, implying that of course he's going to kill him. Funny how the ambiguity can be read in different ways though.
Nah, it's obvious what the right answer is.
@@craigo1981 but first he says "that depends.....do you see me", implying there's more than one answer and more than one outcome? Yeah I agree, usually when he's interacting with someone and there's a possibility of him killing them, the scene ends with you knowing whether or not he killed them/will kill them. For example the clerk won the coin flip, and he checked his boots after meeting with Carla Jean....but the scene with the accountant ends ambiguously.
Anton wasn't going to kill the gas station attendant for no reason. The guy was revealing he was paying attention to where Anton was and where he was going. If the police question him, they can get an I.D. on Anton. He doesn't leave witnesses if he can help it. Anton's got a little sense of humor. "Not in the sense that you mean." "That depends, do you see me?" Reminds me of "Apology accepted Captain Needa" The guy has as much chance of surviving as apologizing to Vader that you lost the Millennium Falcon. I don't think there's ambiguity. That guy's dead.
i really like the conversation format of the outro, would love to see more of that style where you can talk with someone about the movie/show. great video!
One of my favourite films of all time, great to see you watching it for the first time
26:11 This movie takes place in 1980. Soon to be retiree Sheriff Bell, say 20 years on the force, has been an adult since the early 1960s. His Uncle is even older say going back to 1940's. Not many people had green hair then. Lifestyles and societies change. But not all individuals do. Moreso, older people have trouble adapting. I always calculate time period and age of people to understand their mindset better.
I took Sheriff Bell to be older than that, like coming up on 60, and that he had spent a good 35 years in law enforcement. (I'll let him start just after the War.) On that reckoning, he would have been born in the early 1920s. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it doesn't really matter. Either way, young people with green hair and bones in their noses are just a stand-in for Sheriff Bell's discouragement about a new kind of criminality that made retirement attractive.
I love the “Voice of Hubby” - to hear the two of you going over the film is a priceless look into The Golden Couple.
More Hubby conclusions, please.
Strongly second this notion! Really enjoyed that.
So what I took from this movie was: A psycho is just a psycho regardless of how they justify their actions.
Chigurth was sent to get the cash after the drug deal went wrong but his employers got worried about him and so sent Carson too. So Chigurth killed Carson then his employers because they were trying to cut him out and planned to keep the cash for himself. Ultimately he failed to get the cash because the Mexicans got it back first, using the woman at the motel as a honey trap to ensnare Llewelyn. Chigurth then followed through with his threat to kill Carla Jean because Llewelyn denied him the cash by getting himself caught and killed. After needlessly murdering Carla Jean, Karma tried to balance the scales but failed.
As for TLJ's Sherriff, his 2nd dream was a warning. His dead Father going ahead to wait for him in the afterlife as it was likely TLJ would be killed soon. TLJ recognised that warning and promptly retired as it was now "No Country For Old Men" to survive in.
35:08 Chigurh wasn't there, he'd already left with the money. The scene was more of a visual representation of the Sheriff's inner turmoil. "I know what/who may be waiting for me in this room. Am I still brave enough to go in?"
I agree but we still don't know who got the money. We saw the Mexicans leaving in a hurry and we know that
Anton looked in the vent. We didn't see either with the case.
wdym, don't they both see each other in the reflection of the lock ?
One of the absolute best villains to come to the big screen in a long time.
Nat: "He really thinks he has the power to take the life of whoever he feels, for whatever reason he deems."
Anton *gestures at the film* : "I believe the evidence speaks for itself." lol
For me, Anton is a person that has completely embraced the idea of the randomness of existence and how life/death is meaningless in terms of morality.
Even the choice of weapon, the cattle gun, demonstrates his views because that is how he sees people, just cattle, to live or be slaughtered by a being that has power
over them. The cattle does not understand what is happening, it is just part of the equation or process. Also from the point of those culling the cattle, it isn't a question of
morality or good vs evil that influences which one dies and which lives, merely necessity and random choice. That is how Anton sees people.
I still remember when I went to the cinema (alone) to watch this movie. I think the anxiety made me forget a big portion of the movie BUT I still remember when it finished and it was already dark outside and I felt SO MUCH ANXIETY, like if I was being chase/follow🙃 😂
And yeah, Javier Bardem is soooo good in this movie, like wow.
13:17 "He's going to push it deep in there - he's (a) smart man - he's going all lengths" 😂 I'm a child.
I think that Carla Jean's refusal to call the coin toss upsets Chigur's worldview. Which leaves him kinda reeling. Hence the accident.
Just one of many things that make this movie brilliant! 2 thumbs way up! 👍👍
Pretty sure the meaning of Anton shooting at the crow was : a higher power decides who dies, not him. He just Carrie’s out those decisions, the higher power working through him. Him shooting at the crow is his validation
I just loved this film. Love suspense/noir like films though. I figured you would like it too because you seemed to like a movie like Seven, and other suspense movies! Very good movie, Josh and Javier both are great in it!! Love the lack of sound track too in the movie actually. Makes it much more eerie and realistic almost.
Something else that wasn't on that list you mentioned of like crime/thrillers, and maybe you've seen it already Nat! But Gone Girl I think is another great movie in this same line of movies.
This is the movie that made me feel the most stress while watching in a theater. Such tension and nearly everyone sat "stunned" in the darkened cinema
Javier's performance in this blew thru Next Level and created a new standard altogether.
I can't accurately guess how many times I have seen this film but what I do know is that every single viewing still utterly mesmerizes me like no other movie has.
One of my favorite movies. It follows the book almost word for word. The Book also goes into Carla Jean's Fate and the car accident with Anton.
When Javier Bardem got his haircut for this movie, after looking in the mirror he exclaimed along the lines of, "I'm not gonna get laid for 6 months." *Hahaha*
Eventually he got married to Penelope Cruz, one of the most gorgeaus woman in film, so it all turned out alright for him. And both are spanish as well.
@@carlossaraiva8213 - That is entirely beside the point, as great as that is for him.
I'm currently close to where most of this masterpiece was filmed- Las Vegas, New Mexico. The 'Mexican border' is just a regular brigde in town. They dressed it up with a booth to 'sell' it. The gas station still has the old tractor there seen in the background behind the clerk. My top 3 favorite movies of all time.
Literally a top three movie for me! So amazing!
This is a movie about society and how fast it moves. That’s explains the dream sequence about his dad. He being younger, yet more confused and seeking guidance from a younger version of his father. The most important line is: “you can’t stop what’s coming. It ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity!” There’s an old saying: “if you tolerate everything, eventually you’ll tolerate something that destroys you.” This movie/story was very much ahead of it’s time. Even the scene “the coin don’t have no say, it’s just you.” Is very much saying you’re not a victim of circumstance. A coin flip doesn’t decide your life. Life is not determined by a flip of a coin, we all have a say. In the end I think the movie is about tolerating what should be intolerable. And a cautionary tale of how quickly things can get out of control when you politely ignore reality.
Another great reaction, Natalie!!!
I love your conversation at the end of your reaction, and is for these kind of things that follow your channel: you take movies serioulsy and are always trying to understand and find the meaning behind of every detail.
I always liked how Anton seems like such a force of nature throughout the movie. More of an unstoppable force than a man. But when Carla Jean won't call the coin and reduces him to just a psychopath it almost calls out the audience for thinking of him anymore than that. And after the accident he's just another victim of happenstance running away from the consequences of his actions, just like Llewellyn. And yeah more Tyler please.
At 26:30, does NATALIE really think Chigurh fits inside an AC vent?! 👎 Chigurh opened the AC vent with his quarter, saw the satchel at the end of the AC duct, and broke into the room next door to retrieve the satchel from the AC vent in that room. When he was hiding from the sheriff, he was inside the room next door.
At 35:05 NATALIE' s husband doesn't get it either !! 👎 How come the sheriff didn't see Chigurh hiding behind the motel room's door at 26:41? He was hiding in the room next door!!!!
Wendigoon does a good explanation and goes into the movie to help you understand what the movie story was telling. I don't know if it's appropriate to link the youtube link and maybe not even bring up the name but i felt like it's worth putting out there that people have interesting view points and takes on movies and other topics.
Hands down my favorite interpretation of this movie.
I agree with you both. Wendi’s take is spot on.
There is one theory, it called - "Anton Chigurh does not exist." In fact, it explains a lot of things, the whole movie is the sheriff's story. A story about how an ordinary guy Llewellyn Moss shot one of the participants in a drug deal with a rifle and provoked a shootout between them, after which he took the money, and at night decided to return for drugs. The whole story is the cartel's hunt for Llewellyn. The sheriff does not know everything that happened, he only tells his guesses, the sheriff is a man who no longer understands people, so he assumed that Llewellyn shot at animals, that he returned at night to bring water to the guy (wtf?), because he does not understand why is the average man capable of all this. The Sheriff also does not understand the criminals, so he invented a weird Anton, who has a weird weapon (which he had already heard about before all this), he also does not understand the motives for the murders, so he just invented a coin of which he decides who to kill. And such parallels run throughout the film, if you look like this, you begin to understand that Anthony Chigurh and Llewellyn Moss are this one person, Ed Tom Bell did not understand this because he is already too old, and there is no country for old men.
I read the novel first, not realising until I just looked it up, that it was originally written as a screenplay. I remember thinking how much like a film it was and now I know why.
For me a part of what makes this movie great is that you aren’t told everything, it’s satisfying to be made to think and theorise about the the holes in the story, which also lends itself to how grounded in reality the movie is.
Don't miss No Country For Old Men's movie twin, "There Will Be Blood".
Filmed at the same time, roughly the same location, and you could swap the titles and it probably makes more sense.... Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano are awesome in that one.
No Milkshake for Old Men
_There Will Be Blood_ is good, but it is a long way from Cormac McCarthy. There have been several failed attempts to turn _Blood Meridian_ into a film. If anyone ever succeeds at that, then _No Country For Old Men_ will be seen as just a foreshadowing of how good a Cormac McCarthy film could be.
As much as I want to write a full blown TH-cam comment essay on this movie, I'll simply say that it's about Ed Tom's slow realization that the real world isn't, and never has been, what he thought it was. Every old person looks at the younger generation and shakes their head, but the fact is that their own ideal never existed. Every past epoch was just chaos in a different form. The line "What you've got aint nothing new. This country's hard on people." is really the distillation of the central theme. Also best ending to a movie ever. I remember exhaling hard when the credits started to roll and wondering for a moment if I had held my breath for the whole movie. It really captures the sensation of reading great literature. I remember feeling something similar at the end of reading Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
You're my favourite reaction TH-camr and TH-camr in general!
Loved the change-up to the post-reaction. A great idea and major existential moment when Tyler talked exactly like how I do about movies to other people.
Great reaction 😃 I’d love to see your reaction to There Will Be Blood which was released the same year. NCFOM won the Oscar for Best Picture, but Daniel Day Lewis won the Oscar for Best Actor for TWBB.
It’s crazy to think that two of the best five movies of this century came out the same year (in my opinion). The rest of my top 5 are The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (obviously), Parasite, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Honorable mentions to Arrival and A Silent Voice.
I watched someone’s review of this movie and explanation. He said that Anton isn’t real, it was just the cartel chasing Lewellyn. That’s why when the sheriff goes to the motel and we see Anton and expect him to be there when he opens the door, he isn’t. Same thing for when he walks into that office and kills the man at the desk, and he asks the accountant “do you see me?”. Anton is more the villain of the Sheriffs story, like if he just stops one guy, then he can be the hero and that’s all it takes just taking down one guy. But the movie was telling us that, sometimes there’s nothing you can do, and it’s just up to chance, that life is just unfair and the sheriff needed to understand that even if he couldn’t do anything about it, it doesn’t mean didn’t do everything he possibly could.
I don’t know if y’all have read these books, but Cormac McCarthy is one of my absolute favorite authors. This book, The Border Trilogy, and Blood Meridian really hit me hard. Very profound introspective protagonists who traverse their worlds by their own codes, and no matter what find themselves incapable of escaping the violent realities of human nature.
blood meridian is in the running for the best novel ever written by american. it's certainly one of the best novels ever written * about * america. truly unshakable experience finishing that monster.
Natalie, maybe two things to ask Tyler since he's sat with the movie so long. 1) Brolin bringing back water does very little for a man who's dying. Why not make an anonymous call from a distant pay phone and get him an ambulance? 2) It's spelled out in the book that Woody Harrelson's character is a former Green Beret colonel with combat experience in Vietnam. Ergo, he's the kind of person you hire to get Chigurh. Given that, how did he just saunter back to his hotel and let Chigurh simply walk up on him? He couldn't have made it any easier. Also, the audio book is a great listen even after you've seen the movie.
Have you seen True Grit? That's another amazing Coen movie.
I must have seen this film half a dozen times, and it didn’t click for me that there was no score throughout the entirety of it until you mentioned it! Haha
I love this movie score…or lack there of.
Movie score:
Country: 1, Old men: 0
There is zero score in this movie...until the composer's name appears in the closing credits. The boys have a sense of humour.
To me, the car accident at the end is showing Carla shook Anton to his core by refusing to call the coin flip. And yes, I think he killed her, and you called out the detail that makes me think that: Anton checking his boots for blood.
But Anton had the green light, it was the other car that ran the intersection and caused the accident. I always thought the accident as furthering the the theme of the randomness of bad things happening and how death (who Anton comes to signify) isn't immune from the chaos of the universe.
@@Scary__fun There's definitely some truth to the randomness point, but I think it goes deeper than that. At his core, Anton is an extremely observant man. He is always on high alert, and throughout the movie, we see this pay off over and over again. From realizing he can kill the deputy in the beginning to managing to sneak up on Woody Harrelson's character, he wins by not taking anything for granted. Until the end scene, where he is so preoccupied with watching the kids in his rearview mirror that he doesn't think to check for cross traffic.
Was the accident his fault? No.
Does the knowledge that the accident was not his fault heal his broken arm? No.
Would the accident not being his fault stop the police from arresting him if they showed up and realized who he is? No.
Could he have prevented the accident? Yes, by checking both ways before going.
As my truck driver dad used to say: Hospitals and morgues are full of people who had the right of way and thought that would protect them. Or as Anton says earlier in the movie: "If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"
The scene with the coin toss is one of the most intimidating scenes in the movie and it’s all indirect. He never says anything threatening outright.
“Anton is Chaos without Conscience” great quote Tyler. We definitely need more Tyler.
As opposed to "chaos WITH conscience"? Chaos by its very nature has no conscience. So, I'm not sure how great a quote it really is but I get what he's saying.
@@rustincohle2135 Thank you. Kind of a statement I've heard loads of times that would make me want to leave a party . . .
@@rustincohle2135 It sounds antithetical to any conventional morality; but it is in its own way its own morality. If Anton has convinced himself that he isn’t killing out of self-interest or out of some sick compulsion; but rather is simply serving as a rational agent of “Chance”, then he can divorce himself from the horrible things that he does. It’s a rationalization. I wonder if I rewatch it; maybe the other characters have similar coping paradigms. Maybe, religion itself is a just another coping paradigm.
@@leephoenix4041 Chaos affects everyone without discretion, good, bad, grey, whoever. It doesn't discriminate, it has no conscience.
@@rustincohle2135 Yes. Exactly; and that’s why Anton uses it as his moral compass. Llewelin’s was his humanity towards other’s; which is why he had to take that wounded man water in the middle of the night even though he was surely already dead. Sheriff Ed and Ellis had their devotion to God.
Chigurh got the money, he broke into the motel room after the crime scene clean up, the money was hidden in the vent like the previous motel, the coin and screws on the floor was left after taken, he wasn’t in the room when the sheriff went in (he was long gone on route to visit his wife) one of my top 5 films ever! Much love and respect from the UK 🇬🇧
stop...talking
rude
@@skaterhater maybe
This movie came out when I was 16 and I watched it with my dad and just couldn’t understand why he enjoyed it so much. Rewatching it in my 30’s, I get it now and love it
Yeah well, this is…
No movie for sixteen year old boys.
I’m sorry. Couldn’t help myself.
This movie is so rewatchable
I have lost count how many times I have seen it
In case anyone wanted to know... if you are wearing boots, especially cowboy boots, you want to remove them when you swim. They will fill up with water and will weigh you down, making swimming very difficult. I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but I know because my Dad never wore his boots when we went fishing on his boat due to this reason.
IMO this movie is the Cohen brothers' masterpiece - and they have made so may great films it's crazy! The story, the cast, the editing, the music (and lack thereof), and Roger Deakins' flawless cinematography. Absolutely perfect!
I hate when TH-cam is late notifying me, just popped up on my feed now. This is one of my FAVORITE all time movies!!
Javier Bardem was one of the scariest psychopathic villains of all time, equal to the joker in The Dark Knight and Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange.
That scene in the final hotel room where the sheriff returns in the night. Anton had already been there and left by the time we see the sheriff arrive for the second time. The sheriff just imagines that Anton (his idea of death/the end) is waiting for him on the other side of the door. We see the locked window at the end to reinforce the idea that Anton could not have escaped had he actually been there at the same time.
the way i interpret the motel scene with anton and the sheriff is that anton is long gone before the sheriff arrives, but the possibility of him still being in there is what terrifies the sheriff. i know we see anton in the room and the reflection but there is just no way anton could leave. he cant fit through an air vent, the window was locked on the other side, what hte sheriff was seeing was basically his fears.
if he confronts anton he is guaranteed to die. but like the sheriff said at the beginning "I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand" and he does just that. its like he fulfilled his role as a sheriff, more than anyone could ask, confronting a man he doesnt understand at all with the possibility of dying to him.
The sheriff does not arrive while Chigurh is there. You are seeing the eye of his mind. He is imagining where Anton might be if he is still there, but Anton had already left by the time the sheriff arrived.
Psychologists analyzed a bunch of different media and determined that Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem’s character) is the most realistic portrayal of a psychopath ever portrayed on film
The scene with the tracker also gives an idea to why the drug deal went wrong. If you look closely all the bills behind the 20 are $1 bills. So it's *considerably* less than what is actually being "presented"
No, those were just the bills used to conceal the tracker.
Love this movie! Also, I swear beanie Natalie is so gorgeous 😍
You should give these movies a try, Unbreakable, Split, and Glass in order.
The West Texas Wind is the soundtrack. The sheriff and his deputy are Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. The Coen Brothers wrote Miller's Crossing ( men who wear hats ) This movie is men who wear cowboy boots. Getaways. They didn't show Karla Jean's mother die . They didn't show Llewellyn die. They didn't show Karla Jean die. The moral of the story is that there are No Clean Getaways.