Comments on: Exit, leaving no footprints.

By: LA Mary

LA Mary — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:37:40 +0000

I agree, Brian, but I think Cormac McCarthy does deal with consequences.

By: brian stouder

brian stouder — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:04:35 +0000

Mary, in my opinion this relentless, remorseless movie (or book) violence is like movie (or print) pornography. If the movie makers (or publishers) expend all their craftiness on immersing us in the experience itself, and not the ramifications and consequences and the right and the wrong; if it is devoid of any recognizeable humanity - then the whole effort strikes me as simply a prurient appeal to - what? - the savage within us? Given the choice between violence for its own sake, or reprodcutive activity (for example) for its own sake, I prefer naked brunettes wildly over-acting their orgasms as some mysterious and unstoppable fellow with a funny haircut and an odd tool goes tirelessly about his work (and even THAT gets old very quickly, but we digress!)

By: LA Mary

LA Mary — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:11:30 +0000

Blood Meridian is a tough read by McCarthy. A good book though. I like his stuff. The Crossing is a favorite.

By: brian stouder

brian stouder — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:39:00 +0000

Good point about Terminator; hell, Ahnuld (wasn’t that a Cameron movie?) probably ripped off McCarthy, come to think of it!

The nihilism (literally pointless, for most of the murder victims) is strikingly similar in both movies.

Here’s a parlor game question that occurred to me: leave aside the all the dead guys (but including the two suits that Anton kills there) at the desert site that Luellen finds — how many people get killed in the movie?

I’m thinking the body count is north of 12, with several shown in excruciating detail.

Excruciating enough that if the Coen brothers make the movie with “baby eater” in it, I’ll be sure to skip it!

By: nancy

nancy — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:22:35 +0000

You're blaming an awful lot on the Coens, Brian. That movie is an almost page-for-page-faithful adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, and trust me, he doesn't rip off Terminator movies in search of plot twists. I think he was playing variations on the theme of Evil And Its Inevitability, personally, as that's one that runs through all of his work that I've read, which is not a lot -- he's really not my grim cuppa tea. "The Road" was the one that made me put him aside once and for all. That movie is coming this fall, and will make "No Country" look like musical comedy, I'll bet. (Just look at the character names: Baby Eater, Well-Fed Cannibal, Amputee Man #1 in Cellar, etc. I smell a Christmas movie!)

By: brian stouder

brian stouder — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:14:44 +0000

Dex, it blew right past me — until you pointed it out — that indeed the sexy woman by the pool said “yeah, but ya never see that comin’“ (I was busy pondering the temptation that Luellen had deftly skirted) — and of course she ends up a floater.

But Woody clearly ‘saw it comin’, or should have — since he was the one guy in the whole movie who had any concept of what Anton was…yet the movie makers have him leave a public space (where Woody has some small chance — judging by the trailer park lady who was saved by the toilet flush) and go to a private room, where there is no chance at all.

After simmering for the past two days, I think the source of my anger at the movie is the way we (the audience) are lead into (what we will only in hindsight recognize as) a slaughter house, and introduced to many characters that we like and will root for, and then subjected to their slaughter.

Bleh!

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:36:41 +0000

Nope, i’m talking about the sheriff, and his despair at the end, and the mystery of how he survived “almost” being found by Chigurh. I’m wondering if the point is that, undepicted in the movie, in a sequence that is mostly the pov of Jones’ character, is Chigurh finding him, having him weaponless, flipping the cursed coin, and not killing him based on the outcome — leaving him to live, but having trouble coming to terms with the randomness of that fact.

And not able, even, to say or recall how it is that he survived. It would be awful and well nigh impossible for a man like him to admit he was faced with a situation like that and could do nothing, other than stand there.

It’s a thought, anyhow. But has nothing to do with dead meat Woody.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:31:16 +0000

Speaking of Pullman:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090503/NEWS01/305030047

By: Dexter

Dexter — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:06:57 +0000

Well, fellas, it was on again Sunday night ... I watched a bit of it, and of course what threw me was Jeff's referral of Woody (Carson) as a sheriff, when he was a sort-of bounty hunter, as brian references above. A theme was indeed "ya can't stop what's comin' " as well as the beer-drinking woman who was trying to bed Lewelyn...Lewelyn says he he's just looking for what's coming next, and the woman says "yeah, but ya never see that comin' "

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:37:41 +0000

“This was partly because Gill was more than a touch eccentric…”

You just made my week, and it’s only Sunday night. My Gills were in the Pittsburgh area, but fled federal warrants (i’m so proud) after 1794 to the hinterlands of Clearfield County, due to some unpleasantness over whiskey and rebelliousness. So it would seem possible that they were related in some way, but i’ve got no Jonathan’s in my genealogical database, let alone clergy … i’m the first one in the family to add that offense to our proudly eccentric line (our forebearer came over to fight in the British Army, deserted at Saratoga and then joined the Continentals in time to spend the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge).

But i’ll have to check up on Rev. Jonathan; grazie, Brian!