#83, 11/18 – No Country for Old Men (2007) (tofw)
My fascination with Cormac McCarthy is pretty recent. It started just this winter (late February), when The Road came up in several different conversations and I decided I had to give it a look. Soon after I’d eventually read that novel (in June, for my book club), I was hanging out with a friend from book club and a friend of hers who loved McCarthy’s earlier stuff but who really didn’t care for his more recent work. And I’m not sure why or how, given my take-it-or-leave-it attitude about The Road, but that whole conversation made me interested in experiencing more of the author’s work.
So, No Country for Old Men is the first McCarthy-inspired work I’ve seen in this, my era of McCarthy fascination (hmmm, I almost wrote McCarthy-ism there). And I’m itching to read the novel now, because I’m wonder what liberties, if any, the brothers Coen took with the material.
As heretical as this may seem, I’m not a big Coen brothers fan. Oh, I like most of what I’ve seen from them, but whenever I hear they’ve come out with something new I usually can’t seem to make myself care. Which is why I was surprised when I walked out of this and thought "flaws and all, this is my favorite Coen brothers movie yet". How that happened I’m not really sure.
Maybe I was in the mood for something icily dispassionate and yet incredibly suspenseful. No Country for Old Men is certainly both of those. Perhaps I was taken in by Javier Bardem’s absolutely perfect performance, or Josh Brolin’s, or Tommy Lee Jones’s. Or maybe it was something else. I really don’t know.
But I’m pretty sure I liked it more than Fargo. Yes, seriously. And I know I’m going to read the book soon. Well, sooner or later. I think I’ll tackle Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy first.