POST 916 is coming true before our very eyes:
"We are saving Israel for last. Very specific reason not mentioned a single time. Q"
(www.bitchute.com)
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Thanks for educating me about Haman. After reading that, I think it may factor heavily into the character Chigurh (the creep). I'll have to read more on it.
I could write a lengthy essay about No Country. The Cohens left a lot of the work to the viewer to decode it.
The story is basically a clash of antithetical worlds -- one built on a Judeo/Christian tradition of morality, and one based on the amoral and animalistic valuation of power. The latter of course produces evil.
When Josh Brolin decides to take the case of money, he metaphorically opened a portal from the other world, and Chigurh is the demon that passed through it. Chigurh represents several concepts: Death, consequence, evil; but all that's important to remember is that he does not operate by the same logic or code as those who live in a good and moral world. He's an alien operating under an alien code. He doesn't understand us (i.e. the gas station scene), and we don't understand him.
In a way he reminds me of Javert from Les Miserables. Javert's moral code was so rigid that it could not compute a complex scenario with conflicting logic. Javert's solution was to end his own life. Chigurh's solution was to accept chance as an escape path from those incomputable situations. Flipping the coin prevents his rigid logic from short circuiting.
So it's not important to understand Chigurh's principles or code, but to know they are rigid and based on a worldview that's so amoral it's alien. The alien nature of this amorality is what disturbs Tommy Lee Jones so deeply. By contrast, Jones doesn't need a code, he has lived his whole life like the dream he describes to his wife; he follows the torch light his father held high for him, and he rides toward it through the darkness. He -- like most of us -- doesn't need rules, just values.
I guess you could say Chigurh is one of those humans who misused his intellect.
Brolin represents a capable man who survives just fine in his own world, and maybe is strong enough to stand a chance against some of the vicious forces from the other side, but he's out of his depth against the more hardened elements from that world. Woody Harrelson plainly tells him this. The point of Brolin's story is to inform the viewer that even the strong among us have no business flirting with that side. The only solution is to keep it out entirely.
The Cohen's approach themes of morality like no one else in recent history, and I think No Country is the most challenging to interpret yet conveys the most severe statements. It also helps that so many scenes are beautifully shot. I need to watch it again soon.
You ever watch a movie and kind of half space out and feel like you missed the plot? That's what No Country For Old Men did for me. I mean.... the death of Brolin's character was so abrupt, I couldn't even figure out it happened. I was rewinding the VCR (hint on how long ago it was) and thinking: "He's dead? I didn't see him get shot..."
That's interesting interpretation that even Churgyn couldn't quite live up to being fully depraved so the Two-Face coin flip was sort of his attempt at a saving grace.
What other Cohen movie... Fargo. That would be a fun one to see again, though I think the morality is much more clear cut. A small sin leading to bigger ones. Pinocchio, basically.
One movie that I like for the trick it plays on the viewer... it's not a great movie, and I think Roger Ebert mocked the ending... Jakob the Liar, where Robin Williams is a Jew under Nazi occupation and starts making up stories (claiming he heard them on the radio) to give hope to the other inhabitants. At the end, Williams' character is shot and the ghetto is evacuated to the death camps. And Williams' final voice over was: "They went to the camps. None were ever seen again. Or.... no, I think they were rescued by the Americans, along with some Jazz singers." Once again, putting a lie to make the audience more comfortable, the same way he did in the movie.
No Country is anti climatic because it intentionally subverts expectations. They make Brolin's demise as unexpected as death tends to be in real life. Brolin let his guard down, and the demons he released from that other world caught up with him.
I just showed Fargo to my nephew last week. I always challenge him to explain the theme of a movie. One theme I detected in Fargo is that good can only be sustained by people of strong character, while weak character invites evil. The car dealer, Jerry, is so weak that his evil decisions seem to fit him like a glove.
Viewers also thought the Cohens were just making fun of Midwesterners by portraying them like hicks, which they kind of were, but they were also portraying them as a strong culture of decent folk. So a regular Midwestern gal like Margie, though pregnant, has strong enough character that her goodness is really her power, which is what drives her to track down the vile murderers who invaded her town.
I remember when Jakob the Liar came out. I had decided to skip it because it had Robin Williams. His films got sappy during that era. I already watch a lot of WW2 and holocaust docs, even been to Dachau, so I wasn't in the mood to see a holocaust film get the Hollywood treatment at that time. Maybe I'll check it out eventually, but there are plenty of good options in that genre.