Random versus Meaning

The first time I saw the Internet, I was in graduate school.

 

No Country for Old Men. The American wild West was very dangerous 150 years ago. It was lawless. You had to be a good fighter, dangerous man, killer, etc., in order to survive.

 

2007. But it is set in 1980. It is directed and written by the Cohen brothers. Also, it is based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, who is an excellent and original author.

 

That guy in the movie is unexpected. He is poor and leads a simple life, but we find out he is quite trained at survival, guns, etc. He was a soldier in the Vietnam war, in the marines.

 

We need to talk about camera work from time to time. Match cuts in film are to move from scene to scene. Or to show time progressing. They take two similar images and match them. The rug / carpets melts to the field. They have similar texture and colors.

 

Random is the opposite of purpose or meaning. He tells her to call the coin flip heads or tails. If she wins, she can live. She says she won’t. It is him, not the coin. Coin tosses are random. They don’t kill. He does and he is crazy.

 

Match cut to this psychotic guy that is impossible to kill randomly getting hit by a car.

 

When I read Cormac McCarthy, I need to use a dictionary a lot. I have to look up the landscape vocabulary he uses. The names of different rocks and how the land changes shape. I think the director gets this idea and makes the land a character. There is no music because they you to hear what’s coming from the land and the noises of it.

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

 

Homework: Explain the following. 

·              I think the old sheriff is disillusioned. Do you agree? Why is he retiring?

·              I said Lleywelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) is an unexpected character. What I mean is he surprises us, the viewers. How?

·              Why do you suppose there is no music in No Country for Old Men? Do you agree with the director’s decision to avoid music? Explain.