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Wow! I Hate This Guy! One Of Our Spies Saw NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I took a lot of shit for writing an open-letter editorial about the Coen Bros a few years ago. I love Joel and Ethan Coen’s work, and I believed in them as much as, if not more than, any other working filmmakers. Until INTOLERABLE CRUELTY and THE LADYKILLERS, both of which I thought were empty, plastic, a sad shadow of what the Coens are capable of. Those films... they broke my heart as a fan.
So I’m really excited to hear about this film, a dark, dark, dark adaptation of a dark, dark, dark Cormac McCarthy book. McCarthy’s hotshot right now, thanks to Oprah’s endorsement of THE ROAD, and if this film marks a return to form for the Bros, I will dance a happy jig. I was excited before, but this guy’s reaction...
... well, read it for yourself:
Hi Harry,
I just came out of the screening for No Country for Old Men that was held at the Lincoln Center AMC.
This is the second time in a row I've seen a Coen Bros. movie for free (the first being The Ladykillers), and this was by far more worth my time. I'm a huge Coen Bros fan, like most everyone in their right mind. I had never heard of Cormac McCarthy before Oprah put THE ROAD on her bookclub. For some reason, when she described it, I bought it and devoured it in one sitting. Perhaps one of the greatest books I ever read. Then I went out and bought NCfOM, and told myself I'd read it at some point this year.
This past Friday I got a call from my movie guy saying there was going to be a screening for "NCfOM, a new movie by the Coen Bros." Well, I flipped out and signed up immediately. I then picked up the book and was immediately sucked in and again finished a Cormac McCarthy book in one sitting. I loved the banter between the characters and imagining the settings and of course the intense violence. As i read the book I tried to picture how the Coen Bros would handle this material. I was hoping it would be more BLOOD SIMPLE and less FARGO. I wanted them to retain the intensity and the amazing dialogue without making it tongue in cheek or over the top.
From the beginning of the movie I could tell that this movie was a true return to form for the great Coens. This is a slow, methodical telling that is surprisingly funny in parts. The laughter sometimes comes from the uncomfortable situations, and sometimes from a few unexpected things... like the mariachi band in particular.
The performances in this are top notch. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurgh, the killer, is one of the scariest portrayals as someone without a sense of empathy or humanity. He does have morals and he does live by a code, but they are so warped by his psychosis that if you didn't laugh, you'd probably flee in fear. Josh Brolin - who the hell is this guy? He was great in Planet Terror and he was great in this. If he's done anything else, he's been invisible and never made an impression on me. I hope he continues to work with good directors so that he can continue to improve and grow. Woody Harrelson - a small part, and probably what you'd call the "comic relief" of the film. He is sarcastic rather than ha ha funny. Stephen Root - glad to see him working with the Coens again. He's more different than he's ever been. A very small part, but yet again he's great in it.
Tommy Lee Jones. This is the Tommy Lee we learned to love and admire all those years ago. He exudes a quiet intensity. A man who is tired with life and doesn't know what else he can contribute. It’s a sad performance. I can't say its a heroic performance because, well, the ending is too realistic
As for the technical side of the film, Roger Deakins yet again turns in an amazing job. His colors are beautiful, his composition is crisp. I don't really know what I'm talking about. All i know is that the movie is drop dead beautiful. The west Texas landscape is desolate but full of colors (all of them being a variant of beige).
The music - the best I've never heard in a movie.
That's right, there was no music whatsoever in the film, except the good ol' mariachi band. I loved this touch. When we read books, there is no soundtrack to accompany them. This is a good thing. When the story is strong and the dialogue is strong, and they do their job of creating an emotional feeling in you, a soundtrack is superfluous.
In closing, I look forward to this coming out for real. I'm curious to see how it plays at Cannes and if the American audience is able to handle such an intense (sorry I know I've used the word 100 times, but it fits) story.
thanks,
Darth Noodle
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Enough said
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It's not The Big Lebowski but for me it totally works as a Coen Brothers movie!
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it's Plasticky
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Thanks for such a non review. What's it about? What characters do the named actors play? "This was an intense film with actors in it, and a mariachi band". Ah stuff it - I'll go read the book review at Amazon.
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Clooney is great in, CZJ looks mucho fuckable, the comedy is fast and well executed (until the 3rd act murder plot misstep). I liked the flick a lot. The Ladykillers was awful, though.
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does it for me. I'll forgive them anything. That said, I avoided the last two cos I didn't want to get Copolla'ed. If they WEREN'T by the Coens, would they be any good, if you catch my drift?
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I don't know. I thought Tom Hanks was pretty hilarious. J.K. Simmons even moreso. It's no Fargo, sure, but is it really awful? Shouldn't that term be reserved for things like Blair Witch 2 (to this day, the worst movie I have ever seen) or John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (probably the second worst)?
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I don't really know what I'm talking about." This guy either has a good sense of humor, or he can't write a review to save his life. I also liked the "full of colors, all variants of beige" part.
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. . . I immediately assumed this revier was "hated" because he was saying the movie disappointed. Hearing the Coens have returned to form is music to my ears. Can't wait to see for myself. And give it up, defenders, Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers SUCKED SUCKED SUCKED.
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You know its gonna end bad.
Wait let me get a little high! -
Why the hate? It was a farce from start to finish! Fantastic film. Heinz The Baron Krauss Von Espy
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If Darth thought NCFOM and The Road were dark, wait till he reads McCarthy's masterpiece, Blood Meridian. Now THAT is either going to make a classic film or a complete catastrophe.
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The only one of his I've read, I think Cormac just won the Pulitzer or something. I don't care if this guy is a plant I couldn't be looking forward to this more. The Coens for me are meant to make this.
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Wonder when this guy just decided to up and become an awesome character actor...
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although i do like to sit around in the sun and get watered, i'm just a regular ol' overweight movie goer like the rest of you. i didn't want to give the whole spoiler, plot summary break down b/c you're either gonna see it based on your love of the coens or mccarthy, and not on how well of a synopsis i write.
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I'm glad to see some love for Intolerable Cruelty in this talkback...I really enjoyed it. Hanks really was the only reason to watch The Ladykillers though...It was like the Coens making a kids' movie (that changing portrait of the old woman's husband was ridiculous, and not in a funny way).
As for No Country For Old Men...I'll be first in line. -
Without looking on IMDB, the only movies I remember Brolin in other than The Goonies and Planet Terror are Mimic, Nightwatch, and Into the Blue.
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"Blood Meridian" is without a doubt, the most dense, dark, and disturbing book I've ever read. Talk about no hope or redemption! As bad as the antagonist sounds in "No Country for Old Men", he's got nothing on The Judge or John Glanton.Interesting that Tommy Lee Jones is in NCFOM. It was to my understanding that he owned the rights to "Blood Meridian" for quite sometime. But according to rumor (and now IMDB), Sir Ridley Scott is directing a film version of "Blood Meridian" which is slated for a 2009 release. It will be interesting to see exactly how he's going to pull off that very dark, macabre, and mostly symbolic story.I just started "The Road" a few nights ago and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm excited to see that the director of "The Proposition" is going to be filming this story. It seems like a good fit since "The Proposition" reminded me so much of "Blood Meridian" anyway.The strangest thing to come out of the resurged interest in McCarthy? Well, not only was "The Road" chosen for Oprah's Book Club, but she has apparently scheduled him for a TV appearance sometime this year. If you know anything about McCarthy, you know that he's about as reclusive as Jimmy Hoffa.
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Dammit, now I love that book just alittle bit less. But hey, its apocalypse lit, which is the bomb. Can't wait for the movie.
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Also annoying to read (note to Mr. McCarthy, the quote marks are near the L), but that's a minor quibble. Just a cruel book.
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If one day we woke up and there was no such thing as Oprah, not even a memory of her carbon footprint, the universe would simply be better. Her association with something ruins it for me. If she ever sponsors a cure for cancer, I will die out of spite. She needs a boot to the head.
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No Country is good, but Cormac McCarthy's classic is his border trilogy, which is better than any of the other books mentioned.
Sadly the first book All the Pretty Horses (an outstanding book) was ruined for the screen in a rambling Billy Bob Thornton Movie.
If you really want to get into him read it.
The subsequent two books in the trilogy (come on guys its a trilogy) The Crossing (good) and Cities of the Plains (v.good) should also be read.
Somebody else already mentioned Blood Meridien - a great read. -
Uh, I am sure that winning the pulitzer is what makes him a hotshot right now. Oprah is just gravy.
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Ive tried to read his books several times including The Road but his writing style is just very off putting for me. I know I'm in the minority.
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"When the story is strong and the dialogue is strong, and they do their job of creating an emotional feeling in you, a soundtrack is superfluous."Scorekeeper might argue that if the visuals and music are lush enough, the dialogue is superfluous...
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Lady Killers though. I saw the origonal waaaaaay back when during a sick day from school. There's no topping that. But Hanks was good.Ditto though, I really don't understand all the hate for Cruelty. Clooney ALONE was halarious!Gotta pick up a few Cormac books now and do some reading - thanks .....
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Coenbro - good call. I forgot that he just won that a couple of weeks ago.
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Dammit, Coen music is my farvorite part.
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Yeah, I really enjoyed IC too, and even Ladykillers. People shat on Hudsucker when that came out, but looking back its a really good homage, even if it sometimes misfires. If their worst film is Ladykillers, surely that makes them some of the best filmakers about...it's sad that people can't embrace these newer films just cos they seem to cross over into 'mainstream'
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i understand Moriarty's reaction to Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers. From the very first scene in Intolerable Cruelty, the incredibly slight humour of Geoffrey Rush's character gave me a bad feeling about the whole enterprise. But it's a film that definitely grows on a second viewing: it somehow had a lot more goofball charm than i remembered. Ladykillers, otoh, i only saw once in the cinema. Again, the humour was pretty gentle - for my money, the weakest Cohen bros film.
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And The Big Lebowski rules suckas!
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Saw it with friends, after being told it was crap crap crap, and we were all pleasantly surprised. We loved the language play throughout, and really got caught up in the ambiance of the film.
If you've been turned off of the movie by other reviews, give it a shot. -
If you have seen the original- otherwise it isn't that bad. IC is dire, dire, dire.
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It's been said that bad books often make better movies, and good books often stink when they're translated to film. "No Country for Old Men" is probably Cormac McCarthy's worst novel. It's incredibly uneven, and McCarthy can't decide if he wants to really go for it and write a tough little pulp novel (like he should have) or fall back on getting way too self-consciously "literary" and pretentious, as he does in the last third of the novel, and like he seems to feel he's expected to do. As a film, though, the Coens can jettison the overwrought prose McCarthy shovels on in the last hundred pages, and the material in "No Country for Old Men" might just work. In contrast, Cormac McCarthy's novel "All the Pretty Horses" is a really good novel-- its characters and language feel genuinely rich and poetic-- but it made a really bad movie. Maybe the Coen's film will balance the scales. (What I'd really like to see is someone like Tarantino tackle Cormac McCarthy's ultra-dark and ultra-violent "Blood Meridian." That novel is uncompromised in a way that "No Country For Old Men" is not).
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not have heard of Cormac McCarthy?
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That must suck.
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Josh Brolin's ability to look like Dean Cain is unparalleled.
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Really!
I got it as a christmas gift after asking for it on a whim and ended up really liking it. Bleak fucking book. -
There's music from the movie posted on Carter Burwell's site. Is it possible they just haven't added it in yet? I've heard he went for an experimental approach, so maybe it just hides within the film.
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it was very subliminable. on carter burwell's site he said they were going for something subliminable. it may have been so subliminable that i don't remember seeing his name in the opening credits. they handed out grading sheets afterwards and i sat through the credits and didn't hear anything. maybe they will put it in for when it is realeased. if they do, i will definitely see it again so i can see/hear/feel how the movie changes.
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Ladykillers was a riot.
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I ain't afraid of no ghost, but I'm damn scared of Knowles-titties.
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I usually expect a review to review the plot in some way. Sorry if I'm unfamiliar with the book, but I'd like to know what I'm reading about...
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... that a Coen fan's never heard of Cormac McCarthy (pre-Oprah) or that he's never heard of Josh Brolin. (Or that he's created a new word with "subliminable"? (It's just "subliminal", dude.)) Setting aside THE GOONIES back when he was a kid, Brolin was also awesome in FLIRTING WITH DISASTER and has been doing great character work ever since. He was one of the best things in last year's THE DEAD GIRL too.
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it doesn't take all that much to get oprah's endorsement (to wit - her love for people like ellen pompeo), but to get a pulitzer...well, my god!
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we lovers of ALL things coen are sorry, darthnoodle, you found ladykillers and intolerable cruelty plastic and shallow. we find them endlessly snicker-worthy. give 'em another shot. "we first stopped at this store that had nice pewter things in it..."
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i did not create the word "subliminable". our esteemed leader George W. Bush did way back in those Halcyon days of the year 2000 before he was appointed president of the USA. i'm sorry i haven't heard of cormac mccarthy. i haven't discovered a novelist in the past 3 years. i've had my head immersed in law books. The Road was the first book by a new author i have read since 2004. if it makes you any happier, come this fall i will devote myself to reading more mccarthy books.
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i never said IC and Ladykillers were plastic and shallow. that was moriarity. you see, his comments are in red above my review. my comments are in black, right below the red type. do a search for "plastic" and for "shallow" you will see that neither of those words appear in my review.
i happen to like IC. i think its a guilty pleasure and if it wasn't a coen bros movie it would be a top notch romantic comedy. Ladykillers had good moments but it was overall a little disappointing. i've only seen it once, so maybe i should give it another chance. -
Sure, I hear about screenings for "Hot Rod," but the new Coen Bros movie? Nope. Oh well. Can't wait.
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Sure, I hear about screenings for "Hot Rod," but the new Coen Bros movie? Nope. Oh well. Can't wait.
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my bad!! i am on heavy medication right now and have been messing things up all morning. i plan on finding moriarty and punching him repeatedly for saying such mean things about our coens. but i WILL say that as a lawyer in america if you want to know the true voice of the people, read cormac mccarthy. you will not be disappointed and his command of language is among the most inspiring of any american authors in our country's history.
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...is my all-time favorite movie ever. Hudsucker is definitely in the top ten. I show that to my students in TV production class to illustrate symbolism and emotion through a camera lens. I liked Cruelty a lot (especially Wheezy Joe), but I agree with many that Ladykillers was their worst (even though it was still pretty good.) Coens own.
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thanks for the mea culpa and the cormac recommendation. i just ordered the border trilogy and blood meridian. come september i will start them. i can't wait.
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Has anyone heard about that one in a while? I wonder if it's still a go. (Sounded interesting)
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i'm going to a screening of 1408 on thursday. i'll post a review that night.
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I hear Harvey cut the shit out of that movie. Would love to see Billy Bob's version, which I heard ran between 3 and 4 hours.
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I had to start Blood Meridian about 5 times but it is now one of the few books that I actually push on people. According to the imdb, Ridley Scott is attached to direct it, with William Monahan (The Departed) to script. Now THAT makes me need to change my undies!
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chameleonic multifacetic and amazing.
but is his english understandable by now?this movie sounds spectacular. -
Oh god...
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I read blood meridian and all the pretty horses in high school. 12 years ago. Glad to see this guy getting some press. In that though, all the pretty horses was a real dark, ugly read.
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really? sure, ATPH has some grim parts but hardly deserves "real dark, ugly" description. either that or you've just got a real sunny disposition.
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He's got both Ridley Scott and Paul Haggis films comming up for release this year.
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Hey Darth -- Sorry 'bout bringing the snipe this morning. (I should never interact with people before my cup of coffee.) Yes, you should definitely enjoy digging into more McCarthy. My first was ALL THE PRETTY HORSES back in '98 or so. The first 20 pages were tough going, but then something clicked and the rest of the book was one of the most stream-of-consciousness reading experiences I've ever had. The guy can work miracles on the page and ATPH may still be my fave (though THE ROAD and NCFOM have recently reminded me how great and versitile he is). And seriously, Brolin's awesome -- glad he might finally get the attention he deserves with this one. Stoked for the film.
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Oprah's recommendation doesn't necessarily detract from the quality of the novel, as it's not like she actually reads what's on her Book Club anyway.
Do you think she'd endorse Daniel Quinn's Ishmael after reading the passages where he basically suggests that the US should stop sending aid to Africa?
That being said, Oprah's recommendation doesn't necessarily ADD to the quality of a novel either. -
The Ladykillers was a great movie (IMO, bitches), and not deserving of the comparison with the Coens' worst (but still... not that bad!) movie.
Marlon Wayans has a certain...dare I say it... minstrel quality to his acting that seems to make most folks a little uncomfortable, regardless of race.
That said... hollow? Ladykillers was different, even for the Coens, but I wouldn't call it hollow. There are themes of community, race, and christianity throughout, and the messages aren't as clear as you might have thought. -
yea moriarty or whoever you are - funny that mccarthy is blowing up now because of oprah's selection, never mind the bloody pulitzer he just won! "outer dark" is also a ridiculously dark and good novel. there are (at least) 2 mccarthies - pre-no country and post. his earlier writing is much more lyrical, dense, and descriptive. have a dictionary handy for all manner of desert flora. the phrase "a ridge" appears a lot. 'no country' and 'the road' are punchier, boiled hemmingway novels in some of their sparse prose. his name's cormac and he visited his roots in ireland. but of course he fucking did.
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...the National Book Award is a much better award to get in the literary circle, which All the Pretty Horses received.
Pulitzer for Fiction is like the Oscar, more fluff than anything substantial. National Book Award is more akin to the Guild award.
All the Pretty Horses is the much better book compared to The Road. -
...that thinks Cormac McCarthy is EXTREMELY overrated? The story was okay, nothing special, but the writing on NCFOM absolutely drove me to hate it. Every single page, every single paragraph is an unending stream of "and": He opened the door and he went outside and he looked up at the sky and he saw that it was blue and then he went back inside and he shut the door behind him. I mean, EVERY frickin' page is like that. That wins awards? That gets made into major films? That wins the all-important Oprah seal? The man is virtually unreadable...
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let the cash exchange hands...
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Coen brs. back to form?
Wow, can't wait to see it.
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