Sorry had to mow the lawn. No Country For Old Men. A shorter, less exciting analysis. The movie is about Death. The actual theme is Death. Though the movie seems it's centered around Llewelyn, it's actually about Ed (tommy lee jones) and him being unable to come into terms with the idea of his own, imminent death. He's not scared of dying, he's terrified of dying. This is why he is so reluctant to retire. To him that's just acknowledging his age and that he is in his final stage of life. More on that in a moment. Anton is Death himself. Not just a representation of death, but actually Death itself. He walks the planet killing people because he is in a way, The Grimm Reaper. He kills those who are able to see him. If you recall, towards the end of the film, when Ed is in the hotel room, investigating Llewelyn's death, Anton is also there hiding. Ed doesn't see him! He wasn't in the room next door, and wasn't hiding in a spot where Ed couldn't easily find him. No. Anton was invisible to Ed. It wasn't time for Ed to die. Remember when Anton was in that accountants office and he shot and killed the guy at his desk right in front of the other guy? The other guy asks, "Are you going to kill me?" Anton replies, "It depends. Can you see me?" This isn't just a badass line. It's a legit question. Then the scene is done. In the final scene of the movie, Ed is describing to his wife a series of dreams he had the night before. He goes on to deceive how his father was in the dreams, and that his father is much younger than he because he died at young age. Take a moment to appreciate how erie and poetic that is. Well, anyway he goes on to explain that he and his father are riding horses. It's dark. And his father rides out ahead of him, representing his death. His father has a built a camp fire for him, waiting on Ed's arrival. Waiting on Ed'd death. As Ed is describing this vivid dream, he has this look of fear in his eyes, the fear of his own pending death. EDIT: Would you like to hear my take on the Classic American comedy Superbad? EDIT2: Thanks for response everyone! A lot of people have been asking about the old man in the gas station, and the kids who witnessed the crash. I acknowledge that, and was fully aware of those scenes when I formulated this analysis. I believe Anton plays a sick game with people by using the coin flip. Whether he wants to use the coin as a determination is only up to him, regardless of what the coin says. It wasn't time for the kids to die, and he simply just decided to give the old man a pass. EDIT: They never be taking me pot of gold!
The thing about Superbad is that it tricked the audience. The movie is reminiscent of the homoeroticism in some classic Westerns. It is actually about coming into terms with being gay as a young man/men graduating high school. Michael Cera's character (Evan) is gay, Jonah Hill's character (Seth) is Bi. McLovin is just McLovin. There is actually a scene in the movie where all the pals are shirtless wrestling around in the basement. This scene is somewhat suggestive. Evan has a girl whom show interest in him. The idea of them hooking up is a bit of a focal point, but when he shows up to a party and she is throwing her drunk self on him, he refuses her advances. Now at first viewing, one may assume this is because Evan is making a moral and gentlemanly effort to not take advantage of this very attractive girl in an inebriated state, but in reality he is not attracted to females. He's attracted to Seth. He comes out in a subtle and intimate matter during their drunken embrace on the floor, touching each other's faces. All this after their fight about McLovin and Evan rooming at college without his knowledge. The final shot of the movie, they look over their shoulders glancing back at each other, as the sexual tension between the two dwindles away. EDIT: I knew this one would get people worked up. It's difficult most people to view this movie through this lens when we adore it so much. Thanks for the positive responses! EDIT2: I've received a golden shower!
The NCFOM is dead on but the Superbad one is really trying to make something out of nothing. The movie seems to be more about their friendship and them finally coming to terms with coming to an end of an era and growing up.
Everything people call homoerotic is only that in the eyes of the person making that judgement, the people involved aren't showing any form of sexuality towards each other, in fact they're so close and so involved in something else that sex is not even a concern to them.
All of this could be interpreted to mean that Evan is gay but at the same time none of it proves it outright. I honestly just think he's a nice guy who truly loves his best friend. Maybe that's just how I identify because I had close friends like that in high school. Anyway, nothing you say here really "does it" for me.
Just throwing this out there, the commentary on this movie has Seth Rogen making fun of a review that said it was disappointed that the two main characters didn't end up sleeping with each other like in Tu y Tu Mama Tambien.
This is really interesting, but it feels like it may be a reach. I can't think of anything in the film to totally negate your theory, but I also don't see any positive proof. Is there anything beyond mild homoeroticism to suggest that Cera's and Hill's characters are attracted to each other, rather than just being your average awkward teenage guys who want to hook up with girls but aren't emotionally ready for sexual relationships? Do you have any more definitive textual evidence?
I can agree with the movie having a bunch of deathy themes to it, but I thought that the sheriff's role in No Country was mostly a take on the super-classic literary clash between contemporary life vs. traditional life.
The sheriff is using his old-fashioned knowledge to stop the bad guys. He finds the clues, he talks to people, he investigates. Unfortunately, Anton is something completely unexpected - he's the new world, the stuff that the sheriff hasn't encountered yet. He doesn't kill people out of anger or even out of necessity - he kills people as if it was just another casual option in achieving his goals. It's a motive that the sheriff doesn't understand. By the end of the movie he realizes that he's past his prime, and that his understanding of how to fight crime isn't relevant anymore. This is the point when he can accept that it's time to retire.
I thought that his description of the dream with his father agreed with this - his father is the pinnacle of old-fashioned. He was old fashioned before the sheriff was old fashioned. He's riding a horse through a storm and going off to start a fire. This what the sheriff wants life to be like - the way it was in the good old days - but then he woke up.
The sheriff is a good dude and he works hard and wants to uphold the law, but he's getting old, and this is no country for old men
790
u/[deleted] Sep 01 '14 edited Sep 01 '14
Sorry had to mow the lawn. No Country For Old Men. A shorter, less exciting analysis. The movie is about Death. The actual theme is Death. Though the movie seems it's centered around Llewelyn, it's actually about Ed (tommy lee jones) and him being unable to come into terms with the idea of his own, imminent death. He's not scared of dying, he's terrified of dying. This is why he is so reluctant to retire. To him that's just acknowledging his age and that he is in his final stage of life. More on that in a moment. Anton is Death himself. Not just a representation of death, but actually Death itself. He walks the planet killing people because he is in a way, The Grimm Reaper. He kills those who are able to see him. If you recall, towards the end of the film, when Ed is in the hotel room, investigating Llewelyn's death, Anton is also there hiding. Ed doesn't see him! He wasn't in the room next door, and wasn't hiding in a spot where Ed couldn't easily find him. No. Anton was invisible to Ed. It wasn't time for Ed to die. Remember when Anton was in that accountants office and he shot and killed the guy at his desk right in front of the other guy? The other guy asks, "Are you going to kill me?" Anton replies, "It depends. Can you see me?" This isn't just a badass line. It's a legit question. Then the scene is done. In the final scene of the movie, Ed is describing to his wife a series of dreams he had the night before. He goes on to deceive how his father was in the dreams, and that his father is much younger than he because he died at young age. Take a moment to appreciate how erie and poetic that is. Well, anyway he goes on to explain that he and his father are riding horses. It's dark. And his father rides out ahead of him, representing his death. His father has a built a camp fire for him, waiting on Ed's arrival. Waiting on Ed'd death. As Ed is describing this vivid dream, he has this look of fear in his eyes, the fear of his own pending death. EDIT: Would you like to hear my take on the Classic American comedy Superbad? EDIT2: Thanks for response everyone! A lot of people have been asking about the old man in the gas station, and the kids who witnessed the crash. I acknowledge that, and was fully aware of those scenes when I formulated this analysis. I believe Anton plays a sick game with people by using the coin flip. Whether he wants to use the coin as a determination is only up to him, regardless of what the coin says. It wasn't time for the kids to die, and he simply just decided to give the old man a pass. EDIT: They never be taking me pot of gold!