A Film That Stays with You For a Long Time

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2015)

Note: this is one of the new films that takes place twenty-thirty years before it was released that is not a desperate play for the audience's nostalgia and dollars. In fact, there is not much explicitly commercial about this film. This is not to say it's some avant-garde European film; even if you can't take in all that's at play, you can appreciate it for being a gritty, action-packed, well-paced adventure through the wilds of Texas.
The people who made The Last of Us were inspired by this film. I can certainly see why and how. In both that and this, there is an undercurrent of somberness and loss even as the full-throated action scenes pull out. Neither bonk you over the head with objective calls of 'This isn't going to end well,' but in both, you can feel a sort of flowing misery in the air. The sort of misery that reduces the world's players to mere shadows at sunset, left to wonder to who knows where for who knows what time.
2007 had a lot of good movies. That it also was the year that jumpstarted Michael Bay's spleen-splitting Transformers franchise does not dampen it. You had this film, There Will Be Blood, Ratatouille, Juno, The Bourne Ultimatum, Atonement, and so on. But I do feel confident in saying that this was the correct choice for Best Picture. It is the best movie the Coens have ever made, and that is saying something. It pierces deep into issues of time and age and obsolescence while never stopping being an entertaining and gripping thriller.
Based on a 2005 novel of the same name by one of the greatest novelists alive today, Cormac McCarthy (82 years old and still writing, something that makes me wonder what else the Fitzgeralds and the Hemingways could have done if their lives weren't so short), this movie takes place in a small region of Texas borderland, where an old sheriff, played by Tommy Lee Jones in the best performance of his career, sees himself unable to do much of anything when a serial killer chases a 'Nam vet and welder, Llewelyn (I am never going to forget that name from here on out, though I'm likely never going to be able spell it right without checking first) Moss across the rolling, isolated wastelands of Texas.
Though it takes place on the border, this movie is not about the Drug Wars or anything of that sort. If you wanted that, I recommend Traffic. Even if you're not, go check out Traffic; it is one of the best films I've seen. This film is different; this film is more intimate and cold. Whereas Traffic goes all around, this film stays in one place and deals with trying to keep out the miserable winds of the world around. The air is terse and tense. No one talks about how much despair is in the air, but it can be felt. There are a lot of shadows and dark tones.
If I had to file a complain, it would be about the characters, which are helped out by some strong writing but are not as complex as they could have been, not that such is a major issue. If I had a second issue, it would be that the film seems a bit trapped between two ways of going; the whisper-on-the-wind's breath way, and the grand epic masterpiece. I never have liked the two-hour length for a film, but there are some films that can transcend it. This is not one of them. Even as I listen in awe to Tommy Lee Jones' ending monologue and bask in the swatches of contemplative emptiness it leaves in my heart, I am left to wonder if the film earned it length-wise.
But again, these are just minor nitpicks to a film that deserves to be loved and appreciated by the generations to come. The cinematography is some of the best in any movie, and showcases the landscape of the film, both literally and metaphorically. Even the little details are exceptional; as I take a bath, I wonder how anyone can make washing off a wound look so artful. Mr. Deakins, possibly the greatest man at his job that the world has ever seen, makes his camera sing.
The tone of the film seems to be halfway between a Clint Eastwood Western and something like a Mad Max movie. It is evocative and entertaining, knowing when to rush ahead and when to lean back. And also how to betray your expectations About thirty minutes from the end, when you most expect the climax, the action just abruptly stops. I won't spoil what happens, but it makes you rewind your Blu-Ray players and check if your eyes did not deserve you. From there, the film embarks on a Scouring of the Shire-style wind-down that involves the retirement of Tommy Lee Jones' characters, who claims that what he has seen is too much for them.
At the very end, he talks about two dreams he had last night. This deserves close examination, but it basically comes down to him talking about how the world needs more younger men, like his father was, in this world. And then the credits roll. It takes time to absorb. After letting it gesticulate in me, I decided that it was kind of like Princess Mononoke in one fundamental way; you roll down a raucous river for the majority of the film, then, in the last twenty minutes, the film's truest thematic colors emerge and you are left to absorb.
I make all these comparisons, but they are all only sort of accurate. This is a unique film, and one that needs to be taken it. I suggest that you do so.