多情菜籽：Comments on 《No country for old men》and 《Fargo》etc

《No country for old men》、《Fargo》and 《The Big Lebowski》


《No country for old men》is a Coen brother's movie. It's another product from their assembly line that produced 《Fargo》, ..., etc.

 

When I first watched 《Fargo》, I didn't think it was funny. For most Chinese, we are always, sort of, "people with a mission". Be it "getting rich is glorious", "bringing democracy to China", ... , we are always busy doing something "important".

 

《Fargo》is very much a movie for people for whom all the important things in the world was already taken cared of. All you need to do is just relax, and do whatever that makes you happy.

In 《Fargo》, the police just do their job, as victims died left and right. For the police men and women, urgency, justice, ..., never came into the picture.

 

《No country for old men》is also laid back. Even the most evil person in the film, Chighur, was laid back.

Both movies are very violent. A lot of swearing. Some comedies, and some "noir". For example, when Llewelyn Moss asked his wife to meet him in El Plso, his mother in law would yell behind his wife over the phone. It was hilarious.

 

There was a lot of stereotypes in 《No country for old men》。In fact, except Chighur, all characters are stereotypes. Hollywood people are experts in stereotypes. Stereotypes is the most often used tool in all entertainment.

 

I listened to "car talk" on NPR today. If a guy or a gal from San Francisco called with a question, the two hosts would try to associate the caller with either drug or homosexuality. For example, a gal named Stephna called, the hosts would ask "were your parents on high when they gave you your name?" The hosts, the caller, and all listeners would get the undertone and start laughing. So, using stereotype is definitely not just a Hollywood thing.

 

A good movie can not be all stereotypes though. In 《No country for old men》, Chighur, played by Javier Bardem is a new and mysterious character. Often, one new and well presented character is enough.


《The Big Lebowski》is another film from the Coen brothers that achieved cult status.

I laughed out loud many times during the movie.

Like 《Fargo》and 《No country for old men》，《The big Lebowski》is less a typical story, and more a character study. There are conflicts, climax, etc. But the biggest thing is to let us watch interesting characters that we would not normally see in our daily life.

We would see those characters in real life to a certain degree. But we definitely don't see characters that extreme in our real life. That's the value we get by going to movie theatres to watch 《The Big Lebowski》