RARA-AVIS: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the movie

From: Jack Bludis ( buildsnburns@yahoo.com)
Date: 01 Dec 2007


Today, I saw NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. It was pretty faithful to the book, up to and including the denouement, which wraps up nothing.

The book was noir, so was the movie. (My definitions, Jim, not yours.) I was looking for a tacked-on happy ending based on what I had read of comments here and in other places, I was wrong.

It started off slowly. After that, it was stop and go with periods of action followed by slow spots of more movement than tension. My original thought was that it was paced well, but after thinking about it, my opinion is that the pace was iffy. Most of the acting was fine to terrific, although I thought Woody Harleson was a bit weak, but so was his character in the book. Tommy Lee Jones was born to play the sheriff, but he's born to play most of the parts he takes.

They used an Hispanic actor for Chaghur(sp). He was almost perfect. He spoke pure Texas English except for one scene when his Spanish accent showed relatively big. They should have re-shot that scene.

It has plenty of blood and gore, like the book, but I heard some disappointed movie-goers, including a loud "That's it?" from a 60-something gentleman in the seat behind me when the screen went to black.

It did not drag on like the book. In the book, about the last 40 pages were poetic philosophy, what the Coen Brothers integrated well over the course of the two hours and four minutes.

The figures of speech that came straight from the novel were on target.

I'd say, "wait for the DVD," but I don't think it will play on a smallish screen. It might be fine if you have a '48 screen or better and don't sit too far away, but less than that, eh, I don't think so. The other problem, I think, is that it is too slow for TV. I haven't gotten the knack of watching big scenery films on the TV screen.

Jack Bludis

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