No Country For Old Men

Moses Smith

Dr Elaine Childs

1301 English

December 7, 2012

No Country for Old Men, Just telling a story.

The film No Country For Old Men was really good in its ability to just tell a story, simple and sweet, with also being violent and raw. It also did so without beating your head over with a bible filled with righteous acts, morals and people always taking the high ground. Like we see in pretty much every high dollar film created and produced now days. It is good to just sit and watch a story is told. Instead of going off the deep end into 'why' things have to be a certain way. or into the why this person had to die, why he refuses to sleep with the woman or even why did this person want revenge etc... It is OK for a story to just tell its self and for the viewer to take what they want form it. Instead of the way Hollywood likes to always dumb things down for the viewer and overly creates reasons for actions to take place in every scene of every film. Like how Llewelyn Moss said early in the movie, "Things happen and I can't take them back.” Meaning there isn't always a rhyme or reason as to why, things just happen some times. But that's just a reality to some situations, no moral high ground to take, nothing to be learned. Just a really bad thing or things and you can't do anything about it. Just be strong and move on, while trying to learn from it if you can. That is what is good about this movie. It depicted life as we live it, a simple story plain and, not literally, true.

While It is understood that it is important to have stories in film and media that can teach and explain good examples of morality and character. That can be uplifting and enjoyable to watch some times. That gives hope to a sometimes harsh and unforgiving world. This is more of what is displayed in the movie No Country for Old Men. Being that we do live in such a world a getaway from things, or an escape, giving you someone or something to believe in can be helpful. Also it really helps for people who don't believe in going to church or follow a faith, giving people examples of how to properly interact with each other. But when it's done in EVERY movie that is intended for the general population to see and all movies directed towards kids, the message gets lost and becomes redundant. There is a scene at the end of the movie Underworld, which is about a war between Werewolves and Vampires. That shows the main character finding out at the last minute that the king Vampire, whom is currently trying to kill her, killed her father. This is used to give her extra, and extremely unneeded, cause for her to justly kill him in return, while she is already in a kill or be killed situation. This was a movie about Vampires and Werewolves being at war, yet they felt the need to put justification of killing someone, when they are already being hunted. When things get to this point in popular movies it is easy to get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. You just want to be told a story.

As adults most of us have some of the same simple understandings of what's right and wrong. Not needing it beaten into us every time we venture out to be entertained. This is also why the movie 8mm, although being quite disturbing, was still a very good movie. It depicted a man thrown in to a seedy sexual underworld to find the makers of a snuff film, a film that shows a woman being murdered. One of the characters in the film made the statement, "There are some things that you can't un-see." to the private detective trying to find the people involved.  But this was more of a warning to the viewing audience of the movie it's self. Scenes were shown that were not for most viewers, to put it lightly. But this was a rated R movie and being the point of rated R movies. We as adults have the unstated understanding that killing women, or anyone for that matter, is wrong. We don't need to be told why.

As we go through life, quite literally thousands of things can happen to you each day. This is true especially if you look at basic interactions and things coming in contact. These things, no matter how mundane or drastically important, usually quite often have absolutely no meaning or moral at all. You could have a day to where you’re late for work because there's construction going on right in front of your house from a pipe exploding. On your way to work you see someone get ran off the road so you had to chase them down can call the cops. When you arrive at work you are lucky to find that you are somehow still the first person there to open. Someone comes into your office off the streets trying to sell you a bag of sex toys they 'found'. You could also even meat someone hot that ask you out for a date later. Now while these could all exist as interesting things and you could be dying to call your best friend to tell them all about it. There is no moral to be learned, no high ground to be taken, and no hidden lesson in these actions. They are just some interesting things that happened in your day. So you just tell your story to your friend.

Instead of taking any moral high ground the story chooses to go further into the detail of who and what the characters are. Following them around almost like a documentary, not showing examples of proper etiquette or moral fortitude.  A paper by Jeptha Hines "The Dark Side of the Coin" goes into the dark side of the character Chigurh and the meaning of his coin toss. Rather then, is what he doing right or wrong? Roger Ebret goes on to say in his article about No Country for Old Men that, "It involves elements of the thriller and the chase but is essentially a character study." The right and wrong are taken away and you are left with just a story about people and how they interact. The characters themselves may have their own set of morals that drives to be who they are. As explained by Douglas McFarland in "No Country for Old Men as Moral Philosophy". If the characters had no morals themselves then the story would be flat and uninteresting; like watching robots moving around a parking lot. The characters may have morals themselves but the story its self does not.

With the lack of morality in the overall statement of the film, it led some authors, like Bernard Beck, to write an article that focused mainly on the killing, titled "Cold, Cold Heat: Who's afraid of No Country for Old Men?"  Where he talks about our lack of sensitivity to violence and states, "The monster that made people swoon in the other times occasions a chuckle now." (pg. 215). While Richard Schickel's could only talk about the ride No Country for Old Men took you on. In "Hypnotized by No Country for Old Men.". Where he says, “You’re caught in the movies grip; you are simply hypnotized by the damn thing.". No Country for Old Men was so well written that KeTesha Johnson wrote about parallels she saw between No Country for Old Men and Shakespeare. Stating that, "No Country for Old Men could easily be listed as an example of Aristotle's definition of tragedy." With Aristotle 6 definitions of tragedy being where Shakespeare drew his inspiration from. 

In most movies there is usually a specific hero and bad guy, and these roles of character are usually well defined for them before you ever even see them on the screen. Once you see which character is which, you basically can guess there moral compass and know what they will and will not do to some extent. Making most movies of the modern era a little boring and predictable. In the movie The Book of Eli there is a scene to where a woman meets the main, good guy, character alone in a room. Before a word is said, and being that this scene has been played out many times before, you know that she will offer herself to him, and she dose. You know that he will refuse her, and he does, but also do to this interaction they will be thrown back together later in the story because of the stated good and moral relationship. This takes away from actually telling a story and just reiterates the same old thing we've been taught and told over and over for as long as I can remember. No sex until marriage.  A statement often told but hardly ever listened to. If it were not completely over and unrealistically done, then people might actually listen to the message. Like how Francisco Collado-Rodriguez explains the importance of just telling a story in his article "Trauma and Story Telling in No Country for Old Men and The Road where he states, "The writer has done their job, and it is now the turn of the reader-as-witness to make sense" (pg. 68)

With the way that most movies bombard you with self righteous meanings and morals the message becomes lost and makes things unbalanced. The point of the message disappears and you only get tired of hearing the message. We have all heard the message "Stay in school" about a million times growing up. While we as adults now know the importance of that statement, how sick of it were we as kids grown up? It’s simply because it was beaten into our heads over and over again, like Chinese water torture. Or how about the phrase "Just say no", did that really work? That was repeated so much that musicians used it in reverse in their songs. The rapper Easy E said, "I can't just say no, because I too busy saying YEAH!" If a message of any form is overstated to a point past redundancy, then the message is lost and the viewer only wants to seek a balance in the anti message or no message at all. The lack of message can be a relief from the message it's self. This is what the movie No Country for Old Men was able to accomplish. The telling of a story without having a redundant morality and thou shall do as such meanings. There was no discerning good guy, the damsel in distress actually got killed, the main authority figure actually did nothing in the film but talk to people, and the bad guy did actually walk off into the sunset. This unbalance of the normal equation we all see is what made things balanced and provide a good story

Make a note about the unsee word 8mm for Chides

Works Cited 

Beck, Benard. Multi-cultural Perspectives. 2008, Vol. 10 Issue 4, p214-217. 4p

Collado-Rodriguez.Papers on Language & Literature. 2012, Vol. 48, p45-69. 25p

Ebret, Roger. "No Country for Old Men." Rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun Times, 8 November 2007. Web 7           December 2012 

Hines, Jeptha.

Johnson, KeTasha.

McFarland, Douglas.

Schickel, Richard. "Hypnotized by No Country for Old Men." www.time.com. N.p., 9 November 2007. Web. 7          December 2012

My Neighbor Totoro Review

My Neighbor Totoro is a Japanese animation movie from the late 1980s that has been dubbed into English. It was marketed as a children movie and the story revolved around 2 young girls who just moved two a new house out in the country. The movie portrays good family values and depicts good interaction between child and parent. But it fails as a modern example of how children should interact with the world around them and by leading you aimlessly through a story with no clear meaning making it painful to watch. Although this movie and it's director may have had the best intentions at the time, My Neighbor Totoro is not a movie children should watch with out adult supervision to explain why they shouldn't do the things shown in the movie.

There were several things that did not sit right with me in the movie but I'll start with the bathing scene. This is a simple and seemingly innocent scene where the two girls are taking a bath with there father. Now at different times and places through our history as human beings this may have been OK. But in modern American society it is clearly, and with out any doubt, not. There seems to be a constant flow of people trying to teach children that some form of inappropriate behavior is OK when it's not. There are also more sick people out there then ever trying to harm children in ways that are unspeakable. And, unfortunately, more often then not it is the people the children are close to and or family. So to show a situation as to where the adolescent children are alone and naked with an adult being common place, sends a message that is just wrong and out of place.

I also did not like how they have the children wondering off into the woods, going through small places that only they can go through, and disappearing for hours unsupervised. This too is a very bad example to set as well. Children should always be in the sight of their parent or guarding. Even an animal as simple as a dog is big enough to carry off a child. Let alone ANY animal that lives in a forest. That is just too dangerous for a child to do and should  not be dictated to them on a film.

There is also a scene where you see one of the children excepting a gift from the giant creature Totoro whom she JUST met. This as well is a big no no in our modern world. Children should never except gifts from strangers with out adult supervision. Just as children should never go Trick or Treating with out an adult. Only an adult has the knowledge and experiences to know what is and isn't an appropriate gift. Also the ability to tell if it has been tampered with or not. So, once again, this was a truly bad example of what to show a child as normal behavior is clearly not OK.

In this story you will also see the children running off with strange creatures that the adults can't see or know much about. This screams foul to me as well. A child should never go anywhere with anyone, with out consulting their custodial guardian or parental figure first. To not do so should, and normal would, incur some form of punishment. But to do so with such carelessness is just irresponsible. This film could have easily shown these things being done but adding in the quick detail of the child going to ask the father first. Instead so just being another example of what not to do.


Now the movie was not completely bad and did have some uplifting elements that were enjoyable. Like how the children were written very accurately to their ages and maturity  It was fun to watch them interact as well because you could relate to their innocent and child like nature. Unlike the overly exaggerated characters we see now in most American cartoons. Where way too often the child like character is taking on the roles and responsibilities of an adult from having to be somehow forced into an adult situation or an adult decision. It was nice to see kids being kids for a change, although the messages given were all wrong. It was also nice to see the gentle interactions between the father and the children. How well the got along and respected each other for who they were. That too is something I rarely see in today's entertainment media. Even if the family gets a long it's usually just on the surface and they seem to talk 'at' each other because they have to, not like they want to and have or get any enjoyment from their interaction. But in My Neighbor Totoro the love and admiration seems genuine. It was interesting as well to see no evil characters and that is was just a simple story. But from having seen so many anime movies already, that factor missing mad this film seem dull and slow. But the thought was nice to view a world that we don't live in but should. As to wear children could be that overly trusting of strangers and those around them.

So while this film does a good job portraying the children as children. It dose not portray the realities of the wold children live in today. Children are extremely impressionable, and they only know what they see and are taught. They are not good at forming complex decisions as to what may or may not hurt them in the long run. Being why we must look after them in the manner that we do. My Neighbor Totoro is not a movie for children of this era unless watched with and adult to explain why.