Gruyere!

Rating: 3/10 (11 August 2009)

Gruyere! Maybe it was meant to be humorous. Some kind of post-modern skit on dim Americans as seen from, perhaps, a French point of view.
****************SPOILERS*********************
Maybe it was just rubbish.
Otherwise, let's do a bit of Fisking:
1. Why did Llewellyn go back to the scene of a massacre where he knew that a) 2 million dollars had been left lying around b) a huge quantity of drugs had been left on the back of a pickup c) when the drug gang member he'd left some 10 hours earlier was practically dead anyway
2. Why did he hide the money in the air-conditioning system just so he could take it out by going into another room?
3. Why did he tie the rope to the case with the money in it when he was going to improvise some silly device made from coat hangers which didn't use the rope?
4. Why did the killer know that Llewellyn would go to Del Rio? Not, say, El Paso, Houston, LA, Seven Lakes North Carolina or Disneyworld? Let alone, Australia, Borneo, Malaysia, Scotland, the Faeroes, Tierra del Fuego...
5. Del Rio, TX "has a population of 33,867 with 11,895 housing units", but the killer managed to drive past the one location where his transponder detection device would notice? That was jolly lucky!
6. Why were the Mexicans at the motel virtually unarmed and why were there three of them in a room? (I've never been there, but I get the impression that all Mexicans must be murderers and gangsters, I wonder who runs the restaurants)
7. How did the killer know where to find Llewellyn in the second town (I've forgotten its name, was it El Paso?), and at which hotel (most American towns, even small ones, have lots of places to stay, perhaps you get a discount for staying at the 'Hotel for Potential Murder Victims', or 'Hotel Feeble Plot Device')
8. Why was the transponder a) so poorly hidden, surely a decent drug gang would have hidden it in the fabric of the case rather than sticking it between a few notes on the top layer.
9. Why was the transponder flashing? Surely you'd want to keep the power consumption to a minimum - I was surprised it wasn't going BEEP BEEP too.
10. What kind of idiot sits right behind the door than an armed murderer is coming through? (Hint - Llewellyn), a smart murderer with a silenced gun might even put a couple of bullets through first in case there's someone sitting etc.
11. As others have remarked, do the Texas police regard the murder of one of their colleagues as of no more significance than a parking offence?
12. Why was there only one policeman in the whole of Texas? (I suppose there were two deputies as well, but both of these were certifiable idiots and there was a fat guy late on, but what he was for is a mystery), have the FBI / DEA etc been closed down while no-one was looking?
13. Can you just walk over the border into Mexico, are all Mexican border guards permanently asleep or is this just another witty racial slur (surely he should have had a sombrero and a big moustache and have a radio playing 'La Cucaracha'))?
14. Do the nice Mexicans always wake up American bums with a nice Mariachi band in the morning? (Is this what the non-gang members do?)
15. Are Mexican hospitals all free for Americans? Someone should tell Obama so he could sort out US health care by just saying 'Go South, the Mexicans will fix you up for no charge.' Didn't anyone tell the US consulate in Juarez that one of their citizens was all shot up and in hospital - obviously the 'Murderers and stupid Gunmen's' news service is much better than the US government can manage.
16. I suppose it proves that Mexicans really are stupid by the fact that we all know (from watching this film) that all you have to do to get into the USA is to say 'I was in Vietnam'(Point of information - would this have worked for ex-Viet Cong too?) and check out when some unit was there - you even get a lift into town... Why do they all try to go through the desert? Silly people.
17. How did Carson Wells and Chigurh both work out where Llewellyn had gone? He'd told no-one, even his girlfriend had no idea and there was no compelling or even uncompelling reason given, and it seemed as though he was just trying to find the most difficult place to move around unconstrained? Given that a) all the dead people in the initial scene were Mexican, b) he knew that people were after him, and that c) they were Mexican, why not go, oh I don't know, north, to somewhere like, I don't know Fargo, North Dakota, where there aren't many Mexicans and the local police might take some interest at a van full of men in sombreros waving guns and no doubt shouting 'Arriba arriba!' while dancing on their hats and beating up a toy donkey. Besides a pregnant Frances McDormand is a much better bet than a mumbling Tommy Lee Jones if you want protection.
18. In fact, why wait anywhere? A 48 hour drive will take you a long way (say 16 hours a day at 60-65 mph - that's 1000 miles a day - Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, etc), and you don't really need to stay in a nice unsafe motel overnight.
OK, I've decided.
It was rubbish.