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"No Country" for odd endings
Published: 12/6/2007 5:31 PM
Last Modified: 12/6/2007 5:31 PM

I understand that a lot of people like things neat and tidy when it comes to storytelling: beginning, middle, end.

But art is meant to be flexible. It’s meant to shake up the senses sometimes, to mean something more than it seems on the surface, to mean something different each time you see it or consider it for more than a moment’s contemplation.

Sometimes that means monkeying around with a story’s narrative, or non-narrative, structure. Sometimes that means ending up with something like the ending of the “Sopranos” finale, for which reactions ranged from wonder to anger.

Or like “No Country for Old Men,” which has a bunch of people asking “What was that ending all about?” as they walk out of the theater.

I admit it: I don’t know exactly what the final couple of minutes of dialogue are supposed to mean, and I’m OK with that. The Coen brothers have made movies before with some degree of ambiguity, and they’ve done it again, leaving me to ponder.

I talked about evil a great deal in my 4-star review, and since then I’ve been thinking about the concept of fate, and of fathers’ and sons’ bonding and estrangements. I screened this movie a month ago, and I’m still thinking about it almost daily.

“No Country for Old Men” is great art, in my opinion, and much of what qualifies starts out as odd, or at least very different, or even despised.

Consider “The Wild Bunch,” Sam Peckinpah’s greatest film, which at the time of its 1969 release gained notoriety for its bloodletting shootouts between William Holden and Robert Ryan and the rest of the gang and posse – rather than for its quality.

Today the violence would be considered rather tame, and the picture is thought to be something more significant: a masterful ode to the passing of the Old West, with craggy old men fighting to retain a certain way of life, but meeting up with opponents they can’t defeat: the passage of time, and a new world order.

“The Wild Bunch” was one of the American Film Institute’s 100 greatest movies when that list was released several years ago. I believe “No Country for Old Men” may be on a list like that one day.

From “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “Star Wars,” from “Vertigo” to “Easy Rider” – all members of that top 100 – many of the best films have come to mean something deeper to us than we first believed while walking to our car in the multiplex parking lot.

Just think about it.

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jay (5 years ago)

Why are you so in love with NCFOM? It was good, but it wasn't thaaaaaaaaaaaat good. Maybe it's cause everything else sucks so when something decent comes along and you are all stoked. I wouldn't call it great art either. Unless you consider violence and gore art. A lot of the graphic shots of dead people and people getting shot in the face overshadowed what could have been a strong movie. The ending was cheesy and a cop out. Too bad our standards of a 4 Star movie have dropped so low. It's Hollywood's fault - but hey we still buy tickets and are suckered in. Guess it's our fault.

jay (5 years ago)

Samson (5 years ago)

Forgive me for saying so, but your reaction to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN seems largely indicative that you didn't understand the film. I know it is snotty, but ... well ...

If you think NO COUNTRY is gory, you've never seen true gore, that's for sure.

As for the ending being a cop out, that's an odd statement ... I'd wager you probably didn't initially understand the conclusion (as a lot of people, myself included, didn't) and simply chose not to invest any thought into it as opposed to contemplating it a bit. Maybe you'll find the film a tad richer if you were to, oh, say, spend a few moments thinking about the film itself, and not just drawing back because of the "gore."

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“I was born a poor, black child” … not me, actually, but Steve Martin’s character in the “The Jerk.” That absurd opening line is just one of the absurd number of film facts, quotes and minutiae contained in movie critic Michael Smith’s brain, at his disposal to toss out on a moment’s notice. It’s a key requirement as Tulsa World film critic to know these things. Michael learned a few other life facts along the way (seven years as a Crystal’s Pizza & Spaghetti manager) before attempting journalism and joining the Tulsa World in 1996, where he’s covered everything from a school shooting in Fort Gibson to a tornado in Stroud to witnessing an execution. A little community theater coverage was sprinkled in there, too. Movies engender many of his happiest memories, from standing in line for “Star Wars” and “Grease” at the Southroads Cinema to the James Bond and Pink Panther movies that always premiered at the enormous Continental Theater.

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