Comments on: No Country For Old Men http://goodisthenewbad.com/film-review-no-country-for-old-men-4.htm Everyone has an opinion. Yours is probably wrong. Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:45:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Jeffrey Williams http://goodisthenewbad.com/film-review-no-country-for-old-men-4.htm/comment-page-1#comment-14 Jeffrey Williams Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:10:37 +0000 http://www.goodisthenewbad.com/wordpress/?p=4#comment-14 OK, guilty on the bad metaphor. I could have accurately and with first-hand knowledge said "the drive from Omaha to Ogallala" instead, but I wanted to stick with the Texas metaphor. The repeated accounts I've heard from friends who have made that drive left me feeling it was accurate Still, the point remains that there's very little artistic development that's happened between <i>Barton Fink</i> and <i>No Country</i>. The Coens have perfected their style, but they haven't pushed it to any new ground. Bottom line is that I enjoyed watching <i>No Country</i>, but it's hollow - more technical achievement than emotional engagement. It's a well made chase picture, but the profundity stops there. The book is a vastly different experience, and any errors in translation aren't necessarily the fault of the Coen's, but of problems with the whole process of adapting a work to the screen. As for the fly-over states, all my relatives in the mid-west are puzzled by the hype over both <i>There Will Be Blood</i> and <i>No Country</i>. The only Best Picture Oscar entrant that they're rooting for is <i>Michael Clayton</i>. OK, guilty on the bad metaphor. I could have accurately and with first-hand knowledge said “the drive from Omaha to Ogallala” instead, but I wanted to stick with the Texas metaphor. The repeated accounts I’ve heard from friends who have made that drive left me feeling it was accurate

Still, the point remains that there’s very little artistic development that’s happened between Barton Fink and No Country. The Coens have perfected their style, but they haven’t pushed it to any new ground.

Bottom line is that I enjoyed watching No Country, but it’s hollow – more technical achievement than emotional engagement. It’s a well made chase picture, but the profundity stops there. The book is a vastly different experience, and any errors in translation aren’t necessarily the fault of the Coen’s, but of problems with the whole process of adapting a work to the screen.

As for the fly-over states, all my relatives in the mid-west are puzzled by the hype over both There Will Be Blood and No Country. The only Best Picture Oscar entrant that they’re rooting for is Michael Clayton.

]]> By: Russell http://goodisthenewbad.com/film-review-no-country-for-old-men-4.htm/comment-page-1#comment-13 Russell Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:37:30 +0000 http://www.goodisthenewbad.com/wordpress/?p=4#comment-13 "...would be as flat and empty as the drive from Abilene to El Paso." Hmmm...you've obviously never made that drive. Then again, just like the "fly-over" areas of the country you have apparently looked over, a person's experience with a film is all relative to what they focus on. “…would be as flat and empty as the drive from Abilene to El Paso.” Hmmm…you’ve obviously never made that drive. Then again, just like the “fly-over” areas of the country you have apparently looked over, a person’s experience with a film is all relative to what they focus on.

]]> By: There Will Be Blood | Good Is The New Bad - Film Reviews And More http://goodisthenewbad.com/film-review-no-country-for-old-men-4.htm/comment-page-1#comment-10 There Will Be Blood | Good Is The New Bad - Film Reviews And More Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:11:47 +0000 http://www.goodisthenewbad.com/wordpress/?p=4#comment-10 [...] like the Coen’s static No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood is just an icy facade, devoid of substance. In a year or two, after a dozen [...] [...] like the Coen’s static No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood is just an icy facade, devoid of substance. In a year or two, after a dozen [...]

]]> By: Jeffrey Williams http://goodisthenewbad.com/film-review-no-country-for-old-men-4.htm/comment-page-1#comment-6 Jeffrey Williams Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:34:42 +0000 http://www.goodisthenewbad.com/wordpress/?p=4#comment-6 I've been reading an old review of Barton Fink, and Terrence Raferty exquisitely skewers the Coens for their empty, isolated films: "The Coens started out…as genre movie parodists and cynical wits, but in Barton Fink, the Coens appear to be taking their lack of seriousness seriously: they’ve become nihilist showoffs." "Joel Coen's smooth, precisely choreographed, decorative camera style gives even the most horrifying events a high gloss: the movie makes its argument, proceeds from its hypothesis to its conclusion, with the polished, haughty manner of a professor delivering a lecture he's been trotting out for years." And most damningly: "Maybe the best way to understand the Coens - to put their intellectual agility and fundamental coldness into perspective - is to think of them as jaded graduate students amusing themselves by working up rarefied, wittily erudite interpretations of their favorite authors." That was written 17 years ago about <i>Barton Fink</i>, and it's all directly applicable to <i>No Country For Old Men</i>. The Coens have been remaking one of two movies - a comedy or an oblique drama - for the better part of the last 18 years. I’ve been reading an old review of Barton Fink, and Terrence Raferty exquisitely skewers the Coens for their empty, isolated films:

“The Coens started out…as genre movie parodists and cynical wits, but in Barton Fink, the Coens appear to be taking their lack of seriousness seriously: they’ve become nihilist showoffs.”

“Joel Coen’s smooth, precisely choreographed, decorative camera style gives even the most horrifying events a high gloss: the movie makes its argument, proceeds from its hypothesis to its conclusion, with the polished, haughty manner of a professor delivering a lecture he’s been trotting out for years.”

And most damningly:

“Maybe the best way to understand the Coens – to put their intellectual agility and fundamental coldness into perspective – is to think of them as jaded graduate students amusing themselves by working up rarefied, wittily erudite interpretations of their favorite authors.”

That was written 17 years ago about Barton Fink, and it’s all directly applicable to No Country For Old Men. The Coens have been remaking one of two movies – a comedy or an oblique drama – for the better part of the last 18 years.

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