Adieu, mon amour

Dear Revolutiontonight;

We’ve come a long way. You were a muse, a personal whim of mine, and we just got better at knowing each other as time goes by.

I wrote you love poems and you shared my sorrow. And I thank you for that.

But alas, like all good things on Earth, it was meant to be ended. Call me heartless, call me a cheating scum, but I’ve found a new partner – www.Whyismyblogat.wordpress.com

She’s my new apple of the eye, my new fawn. You probably know me better than others, and you do know that I like fresh things, that I like change.

I know it’s hard for you to take, so I’m going to stop excessive buttering aimed at coaxing away the pain.

I bid you farewell.
The Charmer

No Country For Old Men

I actually started out with a film called Burn After Reading. I kinda liked it, so I did a search on the directors and found out that they would directed this masterpiece too. At first, the title of the show didn’t sound too convincing. But the reviews were good so I thought I’d give it a try. Now one habit of mine is, whenever I watch a film, I would often like to start it without knowing anything about the plot. I would just wiki it and look at the reviews. If it’s good then it’s worth watching. So when the show starts rolling in the back of my mind I was guessing this was a comedy film about an old folks home. Boy was I in for a surprise.

The premise is established straight away near the start of the film. A man picks up two million dollars, and he is subsequently hunted. The hunter and the hunted. A structure retold time and time again. Yet why is No Country For Old Men one of the best films made in the decade?

Visual

I know it sounds quite simple. But having a visual feel in a film is by no means an easy feat. Why? Because it’s not easy to explain with pictures. Which is why most directors often opt the easy way out, using dialogues or narratives. That doesn’t mean they are not important aspects of the story-telling part, but they are being used excessively to be of liking. Like the master of slow sensuous & stylized films, Wong Kar Wai, once said of his art – A form of physicalized memory that can be experienced again and again, or recorded over, or screened until it literally falls apart, until it pixilates right in front of you. This film had a different sensation, a slow seemingly degenerative burn that moves towards the impending finale. The actors don’t speak much, they do what they do best – portraying it out.

Suspense

Suspense in itself is the essence to a thriller. Combine that with the structure and it’s enough to keep the viewers on their toes. Throughout the film the lighting further enhance the anticipation lying ahead. It’s dark in the room, the footsteps out in the corridor inches closer and louder. The shadow falls upon the door….. and then walks away. However, the knot in the viewer’s stomach doesn’t go away. We are aching to find out what happens next. A well crafted scene littered with just the right amount of suspense goes a long way. And one that is sustained and stretched throughout the movie, growing thinner and thinner till it snaps, yet at the same time keeping the quality constant, is a gift to the viewer to savour.

Gore

Why does gore play such an important part in this story? Because it reminds us that despite the facts that they are all efficient killers, they are still human. Their greatest achilles heel is being of flesh and blood. And we are constantly reminded of that. As the film goes on, the death tow jumps higher. More and more people are caught into this intricate web, and most often the only way out is to go on another journey to meet the grim reaper himself. And those who are dealing out the punishments are not being unpunished as well, the characters start to bleed, like an indication of the progress of the film, the deeper it advances, the more damage they suffer. It’s like a slow lead up to the climax. We all know somebody’s gonna die, the question is who – is it the hunter or the hunted.

Subtle themes

I like the way the film offers another perspective, in the form of the character Sheriff Bell. It’s like adding another dimension away from all that fast paced action.

Sheriff Bell takes on the role of the bystander in the film, having witness the events that eventually leads to the climax, and the death of one of the characters. To him, it’s just another passing case that he’s had to undertake, but which he still does with the utmost seriousness and professionalism, albeit without the sharpness that he once had, having been worn out and disillusioned with crime and it’s violent face. I like films that have underlying meanings to be interpreted, rather than just offering a linear window of thought. Some of the questions he brought in really got me thinking. He opens the prologue of the film with the first few opening lines, as follows -

I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five years old. Hard to believe. My grandfather was a lawman; father too. Me and him was sheriffs at the same time; him up in Plano and me out here. I think he’s pretty proud of that. I know I was. Some of the old time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lotta folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough’d never carry one; that’s the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn’t wear one up in Camanche County. I always liked to hear about the oldtimers. Never missed a chance to do so. You can’t help but compare yourself against the oldtimers. Can’t help but wonder how they’d have operated these times. There was this boy I sent to the electric chair at Huntsville Hill here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killed a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn’t any passion to it. Told me that he’d been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he’d do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. “Be there in about fifteen minutes”. I don’t know what to make of that. I sure don’t. The crime you see now, it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He’d have to say, “O.K, I’ll be part of this world.”

The questions that he wanted answered were simple. Is society moving forward or degenerating backwards? Age and experience were beginning to hint the latter. He’s the kind of person that seems to have seen so much, that he doesn’t want to see anymore. And I like it that the film was set in Wild West’ Texas. There’s a sort of sleepy and time weary feel to it, as does the character governing there – Sheriff Bell himself.

I think a good movie doesn’t just end after credits, it asks questions, it leaves an aftertaste in the viewer. No Country For Old Men has managed to balance them all in that aspect, and even gone to achieve more. Some might not like the ending, but I think it’s meant to be interpreted, the directors (Coen Brothers) seemingly giving that option of penning the last chapter to the viewer. What’s my say and the stroke of my pen?

I would say - O.K, I’ll be part of this world.