Call It
There’s an interesting comment thread going, a few days old now, at Jeffrey Wells’ site, with one truly wacky -but fascinating none the less- analysis of the final scenes of the Coen brothers’ masterful rendering of Cormac McCarthy’s blunt instrumental No Country For Old Men. It’s at the bottom, and it begins THE ENDING IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK. NEITHER IS THE MOVIE. We saw No Country twice over Thanksgiving and loved every second-viewing second as much as, if not more than, the first.
- UPDATE: Variety scribe Glenn Kenny lays out his theory. (with pix!)
Shouldn’t we still be debating whether or not Marsellus Wallace is the devil? What’s behind that band-aid? What’s in the suitcase?!?!
The ending of “No Country” was W.U.R.S.T. There’s a reason that movies don’t end like that. It was unfair and cruel of the Coen Brothers (sorry, haven’t read McCarthy’s book) to get us (meaning, the audience) so emotionally invested in J. Brolin’s character and then not provide us with the kinds of details necessary for us to come to grips with the resulting outcome. (hopefully that was spoiler-free)
Terrible Spice. Especially after 90+ minutes of some of the most masterful filmmaking we’ve been witness to in years.
Uncle Grams, I didn’t like the ending at first either but didn’t it make you think about the movie more than had it ended in an textbook way? And how things aren’t always tied up neatly?
Like Chrissie Hynde once said, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for unconventional, unhappy, unHollywood endings. As long as they work. This one, at least for me, didn’t.
That said, I’m looking forward to seeing the movie a second time, especially after diving deep into the comment thread our almighty Fiddler so bestfully pointed out.
I know it doesn’t matter, but the Brolin resolution played pretty much exactly as it had in the book. I’d expected it to be re-worked, was thrilled it wasn’t.
Was also thrilled we didn’t spend 40 minutes in that trailer with the cats.
I loved that Carter Burwell got a “Music by” credit. And sort of wish the flick (which I liked, quite a bit, since you asked) was called These Kids These Days, I Just Can’t Right Figure ‘Em.
it looked like the man in the black and white movie on t.v. when TLJ inspects Llewelyn’s trailer was James Brolin. Couldn’t get a good look.
“Knowed.”
nice presentation of a theory by Kenny. i think everyone (who liked it) will have their own.
Saw it last night. I thought the movie was great and while the ending may be disappointing to some in a (Hollywood sense)I felt it kept with the flow of the movie and the title of the film. This is probably exactly what would happen to you if you stumbled across that much money and took it.
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It really is a “rare” ending. It takes some time to process and think about the movie and how deep it is. What probably surprises most people is how its so action-packed and then comes to an eerie quiet close.