Sunday, February 17, 2008

No Country For Old Men

I really like this gripping gritty film in the bleached scrubby open country of West Texas based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy. Seldom do you see a film that does not succumb to the need to assuage our sense of uneasiness with a pre-determined moral universe. Here, the implacable and inexplicable evil is Anton Chigurh played by Javier Bardem, who descends upon his victims like the scourge, meting out death impassively and randomly. It is one of those rare films which disrupts our sense of an ordered universe and forces unto us an elemental anxiety. Ah those wonderful Coen brothers.
The other Oscar contender which is also being shown on GV screens is the apocalyptic There Will Be Blood. I only managed to catch the trailer, but compared to the austere brooding desolateness of No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, reminds me of those old Hollywood trailers promising adventure, romance, war... basically a colossal over-the-top drama that has something for everyone. Well, maybe it's just advertising, so I'll have to see.

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