No Country For Old Men

Last weekend there was one movie that I rented and wasn't able to fit in to the viewing schedule. Last night, during dinner we sat down and watched it. The Cohen brothers film: No Country For Old Men.

Two quick disclaimers: 1.I really don't care for them all the time. Fargo tried too hard to be funny while showing all of these horrible events. 2. I did like Oh Brother Where Art Thou. I enjoy bluegrass music and most George Clooney movies.

Originally I was pretty apprehensive because I knew this film was violent and I try to keep my mind free of violence and imagery that is violent in nature. So I wasn't up to subjecting myself to that over the weekend but after the day I had yesterday I figured I could handle some edgy material to put my life into perspective. Also, some folks I know had said that they didn't too much care for it when they saw it and normally that tells me I need to make my own decision. (Sorry to those people if you know who you are.)

The Cohen bros have a mastery of Americana. Oh Brother to me was an artful use of depression era language and imagery. Fargo was an over the top use of this that smacked of satire and made the grotesque events too much to appreciate let alone enjoy. No Country was to me a sublime and pithy use of Americana that tells a story of our society and the changes it has undergone in the last century.

I really enjoy etymology and the understanding of language from a cultural standpoint. The west Texas characters and their colloquialisms provided me with an opportunity to look past the violent nature of the events that unfold throughout this film. Being from a midwest/flinthills family and having grown up in a "cowtown" grown into a small city, I appreciate the subtlety of words like "spec" and "reccon" .

An intriguing aspect of this story is the incorporation of technology. The drug money that goes missing has a transponder in the case it is carried in. This allows Anton to easily track it down and execute his task of bringing it back. Before the 1980's this was only something available to spies. Anton also uses a pneumatic device to punch out locks on doors and punch in some poor Texan's forehead. Since all this technology is so new to the characters it is a consternation to them and adds to their confusion and feelings of being "over matched".

In the closing scene the sheriff, played by Tommy Lee Jones, discusses his eerily symbolic dreams about his deceased father, who was a sheriff in west Texas also, with his wife. He talks about how he is now 20 years older than his father ever was and when he dreams of him, Tommy Lee is the older man. He gets a sense of his father having "gone before".

Not a good movie for your kids. I would recommend this for anyone who likes cowboy type movies. Also, if you enjoy complex characters and books turned into good film, this one is exemplary.