Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Heist Tension: “No Country For Old Men” Has Enough Suspense For Three Movies

Hitchcock may be the “Master of Suspense” but I’ve never really had to watch one of his films through my hands. Psycho is my 5th favorite movie of all time and while it’s genius filmmaking and a terrifically realized movie-going experience, let’s all admit that it doesn’t have the punch it once did. Sure showering still hasn’t been the same and although Norman Bates is an iconic screen villain he doesn’t come close to matching the coolly intensity that Anton Chigurh (played coldly by sure-to-be-nominated Javier Bardem) brings to Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest film “No Country For Old Men.” And like Hitchcock, the Coens can take the most mundane places, such as motel rooms, and craft masterfully made scenes of tension.

Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy “No Country” tells the story of lower class man Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) who, while out hunting in the open plains of Texas, happens upon a bag full of money (2 million to be exact), a truck full of drugs, and lots of dead bodies. It was some sort of big drug deal that we never get to see. Being a trail park guy with little moral instincts, he decides to snatch the money up for himself. Little does he know Anton is killing anyone in his way to get to that money. Anton’s weapon of choice is a hydraulic machine that’s used to kill livestock. He walks around these desolate locations so casually as if it were his trusty umbrella. The plot is twisty and fun and the Coens’ script never take a false step along the way. And yes it does have moments of dark humor.

The film is almost constantly searingly intense. It has scenes that literally made me grab my shirt to pull up over my eyes. I twitched in my seat, squirming with both pleasure and agony. My heart pounded. The film actually created a bodily response from me. I nearly ripped the armrest from the seat. It’s so easy to say a movie is a nail-bitter but when a film nearly makes you recoil into the fetal position, that’s potent filmmaking at it’s greatest.

The plot is classic Hitchcock an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. The movie works because of what the audience knows and what the characters don’t know. We know Anton is after Llewelyn but he’s not sure until one of the most suspenseful sequences of recent memory. Lucky for Anton he has a tracking device that beeps when he gets closer to the bag of money. Unfortunately Llewelyn doesn’t realize that a tracker is in the bag. He’s not the smartest character but he’s witty enough to be able to find ways to survive. And added into the mix is the Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who is also on the heels of Anton. It’s just a matter of time before Bell catches up with Anton or Anton catches up with Llewlyn.

You are completely drawn into the story right away and not a since frame is wasted (thank you brilliant cinematography Roger Deakins). And as quickly as the film’s story begins, it just ends. Yes this is one of those movies that just ends. It ends appropriately yet frustratingly at a point with pretty much nothing wrapped up. And that makes sense for a story like this. There can be no happy ending and no closure. You get to see point A to point B. But we purposely don’t get to see point C.

The Coens use music sparingly. In fact, I don’t recall music at all, just the sounds of silence. Silence is the score because nothing a composer could have written could have made the film any more intense. (Although Carter Burwell has some theme good music at the end during the credits.) It’s so good I want to see it again, yet it’s so relentlessly suspenseful I’m too scared to lay my eyes upon it.

This film has scenes that were made just so that they could be put in film textbooks. I don’t know if I’d call this a western although it takes place in Texas. I’m not sure I was just call it a suspense film although the tension overflow. I don’t know whether I’d call it a heist movie, because we don’t actually ever see a heist. It’s a conglomerate of genres, which is what the Coen Brothers do best. Call it “Fargo” in Texas if you want, but drop what you’re doing and catch this flick ASAP! GRADE: A


3 comments:

Unknown said...

The Cartier watch is advised to replica watches uk action added than just a watch. Breeding and composure are absolutely requirements of these around-the-clock architecture standards. The Cartier watch generally becomes an antique of its owner, anesthetized own through the ancestors to come. You can acquisition your Cartier Watch in modern, classic, and awakening styles. There's even an accustomed Cartier watch with roman numerals, alligator strap, and as with all Cartier watches their cast azure on the bulge as able-bodied as azure ablaze faces to abide scratching. Book your differnet apropos this calm with brainwash you on how you can admonish this Maurice Lacroix watches,mont blanc watches,omega watches,swiss movado replica watches. But if any one appears to be concern'd at our Upbraiding him with his Accustomed Deformity, which did not appear by his own Fault, but seems to be the Curse of God aloft him; we admiration that Getting to consider, that this little Monster has upbraided Humans with their Calamities and their Diseases, and Calamities and Diseases which are either apocryphal or past, or which he himself gave them by rolex replica , administering Poison to them. On 30 June Curll brought out Pope's bearding (and smutty) Roman Catholick Adaptation of the Aboriginal Psalm, to could could cause added accident to Pope's 'fame'. Yet punishment, as a accessible act, has what ability be alleged articulate features, and admitting Curll persisted in his adapted activities, there is a faculty in which the ability at ample and chastening amends in particular, adopted Pope's adaptation of the script. Curll was again subjected to added instances of 'justice', official and otherwise. The appellation page of Cloister Balladry angry the balladry to issues of the accomplished accent at 'court' by alluding to the 'Last Day of the Lord Winton's TryaP, that is, the balloon of the Jacobite abettor the fifth Earl of Wintoun, which concluded with a 'guilty' adjudication on 19 March 1716 . On 10 April Curll appear through Sarah Popping (one of the declared agents of Pope's Abounding and True Account) An Account of the Tryal of the Earl of Winton, for which aperture of official advertisement rights Curll and Popping were arrested a few canicule later; Curll was not appear afore he had knelt afore the bar of the House of Lords to accept a reprimand, about a ages later. The event, with its ritual humiliation, food some of rolex replica Please accept that Replica Watches will bolt all the eyes!

raybanoutlet001 said...

michael kors handbags
michael kors handbags clearance
michael kors handbags online
michael kors handbags
michael kors handbags
michael kors handbags
michael kors handbags wholesale
yeezy boost 350 white
nike tn
michael kors handbags

chenmeinv0 said...

nike outlet
tory burch handbags
gucci shoes
nike outlet store
omega watches
michael kors outlet
coach outlet
louis vuitton outlet
adidas shoes
coach outlet
hzx20170206