SFist: Ask SFist: No Country for Old Men?

Tendernob

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:23:54 -0800

Why is everyone complaining? It's about damn time the Academy gave an award to a Coen Brothers film. Besides, as long as Atonement didn't win Best Pic, it was a good night.

peej66

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:44:06 -0800

Actually, There Will Be Blood is much more than just a story about a mean crazy oil man from the early 20th century. I loved them both precisely because they required thought and inspired second viewing - like a good book does. I'm totally bored by having every film tied up with a smiley face at the end.

tps

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:39:09 -0800

So could anybody who only saw the movie follow the plot? I guess having a conventional plotline is too mainstream. Funny piece by Nora Ephron about NCFOM: Saw the Movie

wsanders

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:01:44 -0800

I dunno I thought the "sandbox" comment and the story about "Henry Kissinger - Man Of Action!" was pretty cool. My favorite Cormac McCarthy is "Suttree". Very Beat. No psycho killer stuff. When Kerouac blathers on like "hey man we met this hep cat in a bar and he was real"; well Suttree was the guy in the bar who was way more "real".

megang

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:30:55 -0800

Maybe they were being considerate by letting the other producer talk when awarded best picture because they already had two chances to talk. A quick trip to imdb.com shows they both have only won one Oscar previously for writing Fargo.

thejosephboys

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:15:49 -0800

oops: "wiser" brother.

thejosephboys

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:05:57 -0800

i like to think of this as a long-belated "make-up call" (the sports kind) for not having given Fargo the BP award in 1997. had the Coens released something even remotely similar in tone to during the last 10 years, i think it too might have nabbed a BP. but they, instead, made The Man Who Wasn't There, which was way too stylized to be a BP, and then a handful of movies featuring zany, screwball antics. great movies, mind you, but way too silly for BP consideration. (ooh- i take that back. Intolerable Cruelty and that remake of The Ladykillers were terrible.) No Country was definitely the safe vote this year - Coens are critical darlings, ditto for McCarthy, and both deserve every bit of it. let's not forget, people, that any year in which the Coens are the "safe" vote means it was a f*cking great year for film! P.S. for the record, i liked There Will Be Blood better too, but it was the opposite of 'No Country' in as much as TWBB was through the roof with the stylization: cinematography, dialogue, music, acting, you name it. NCFOM, on the other hand, looked like its wider, mellower older brother by comparison.

deadbrother

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:53:26 -0800

*importantly *conceited ..sorry.

deadbrother

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:52:54 -0800

More importsntly why were the Coen's such tards? Oh right, because they have so many Oscars that they are desensitized by the whole thing. They didn't even say anything when they were given their Best Picture one. What concieted tards.

yatdave

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:48:30 -0800

Blood was a good movie, to be sure. But I found No Country to be so much more interesting. Blood was really a very simple, straightforward movie about a crazy man. Good story, captivating performance, etc., etc., but that's really all it was. In addition to being a more compelling story, IMO, No Country also had more depth to it; it's story went beyond the individual characters portrayed in the movie. So I thought it deserved the best picture win over Blood. That's my $0.02.

Brock Keeling

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:39:10 -0800

by that, pancakebreakfast, i mean it's not the most Hollywood-y film. a very chin-scratching kind of movie, one you might find at the Embarcadero Cinemas.

ievans

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:31:12 -0800

Yeah, nothing flatters the bowtie-wearing Yankee blue-blood sensibilities more than a good Texas border-town thriller.

pancakebreakfast

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:28:59 -0800

I admit it's been weeks since I saw No Country, but what on Earth do you mean by "East-Coast friendly"?

Incandenza

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:16:29 -0800

I love Cormac, but I didn't like No Counrty for Old Men. I didn't think it was a great book. I went to see No Country, in convenient movie form, and didn't think it was all that hot, either. I'm guessing it won best picture due to all of the buzz generated for Cormac by Oprah. Which is great for Cormac (and me. Even my mom read Blood Meridian. Now we can talk about literature instead of having the "when-are-you-getting-married" chat.)

Brock Keeling

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:03:37 -0800

aside for stripping away some indie cred, i don't see how oprah's book club has ever hurt anyone.

plumpy

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:58:44 -0800

Whatever, Cormac was rad long before Oprah ever decided to help him sell a billion books.

Incandenza

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:03:11 -0800

er, Cormac.

Incandenza

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:02:56 -0800

Fucking Corman McWinfrey.