That would be the title of An Inconvenient Truth, if it had been produced by the Coen brothers -- since young men (and women) are poised to suffer through the worst consequences of our immoral short-sightedness. (This is not such an odd pairing of movies, considering that No Country star Tommy Lee Jones was the Harvard roommate of Al Gore).
I do think No Country for Old Men deserves the Oscar for best movie of the year because it is brilliantly constructed and acted -- and delivers a powerful, coherent message to all of us from the Coen brothers and Cormac McCarthy.
Yet this is easily one of the most depressing and nihilistic major movies ever made. On the nihilistic/life-affirming story scale, where Hamlet is a 1 and It's a Wonderful Life is a 10, No Country is easily a zero and perhaps deserves negative numbers.
Normally I do not like movies with an unhappy ending, and this movie arguably has about the unhappiest ending a movie of its kind could possibly have -- but the movie did seem to me a perfect metaphor for modern American politics and global warming.
[You can read the basic plotline here. Since Wikipedia is untroubled by spoilers, with nary a warning, why should I be? Note to people who haven't seen the movie: (1) I'm assuming you have figured out that when a film is titled No Country for Old Men, you can be sure it does not end well, and (2) this post will not make much sense to you.]
Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin, in a career-relaunching role) stumbles upon a drug-deal gone bad and walks away with a case containing $2 million (and a transmitter). Let's say he represents humanity, taking and burning the fossil fuel resources of the world. He is more ingenious than he at first seems, like humanity, but over the course of the movie he slowly realizes just what a terrible mistake he has made, how he has set himself on a path toward destroying himself and everyone he loves.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem in a chilling Oscar-nominated performance) is the relentless, consciousless killer who pursues him. Let's say he represents both modern American politics and the consequences of global warming, both of which respect neither person nor place.
The local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones, another terrific performance), though jaded by the mystery of modern evil, seems to be as smart as Chigurh, and the only one who can save Moss. Now I bet you're thinking I'm going to say he represents Al Gore [don't worry, I know you're really thinking Joe has gone off his meds -- again]. But no!
Al Gore is, in fact, symbolically represented by Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), a bounty hunter who shows up briefly in the middle of the movie. Like Gore, he explains to Moss/humanity that Chigurh/warming is relentless and will prove fatal if Moss/humanity stays on its current path. Like Gore, Wells offers M/h a way out. And like Gore (so far), M/h chooses to ignore Wells until it is too late. [Okay, Gore hasn't been killed heartlessly by warming, but he is (or was) metaphorically killed by modern American politics -- if you're still with me and not, say, filing papers to have me committed.]
So who -- or what -- does Sheriff Bell represent? Here is where things get interesting ...
In the movie, Bell, shockingly, not only fails to save the day, but he actually chooses to quit and live out his life peacefully, rather than confront evil incarnate, which he doesn't understand and which he fears will destroy him, as it has destroyed almost everything that crosses its path. Certainly Bell's name is no accident. It must come from John Dunne, "For Whom the Bell Tolls":
"Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (1623), Meditation XVII
Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris: "Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must die."
... No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
The clod is Moss, of course (yes, I know what you're thinking, Those electroshock treatments didn't work out as Joe hoped they would Dunne, in Nostradamus-like fashion, has anticipated sea level rise).
But let me back up a few scenes.
In a powerful twist, after dispatching Wells, Chigurh tells Moss that if he turns himself and the money over to him, he will not hunt down and kill Moss's wife -- Moss, of course, cannot be saved, or won't be saved by Chigurh because he is not innocent. But Moss won't sacrifice himself -- no doubt he thinks he will be saved by his own cleverness (even though Wells has warned him he won't) or at least by Bell.
Bell shows up too late to save Moss, seemingly tracks down Chigurh, but by refusing to confront him, by quitting, he dooms Moss's wife, who presumably represents all of the countless members of the human race unaware of the terrible fate that awaits them who will suffer because we refused to make any sacrifice and/or because our Bell never tried to save them.
Who is Bell? He is anyone who understands the nature of the threat we face and who does not do everything in his or her power to stop it. He is the cognescenti, the intelligentsia, the people who should know better, the folks who know in their hearts that "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. " I'm afraid he is us.
The Coen brothers and McCarthy are obviously sending a message, not about global warming specifically, but moral apathy in general. I'd like to think they wouldn't mind my narrower allegorical interpretation. Consider that the Village Voice reviewer said of the movie, "in the end, everyone in No Country for Old Men is both hunter and hunted, members of some endangered species trying to forestall their extinction."
Because of accelerating global warming, America today is no country for young men (and women). It is only the older men and women who can stop the impending catastrophe, who must heed the warning chimes:
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
It tolls for all of us. The time to act is nigh.
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Climate Citizen: Mary Stuart Masterson
Happy birthday, EMA Awards ... and you other groups, too
Comments
View as Threaded
Mary Menville Posted 4:23 am
24 Feb 2008
-Mary
Permalink
Delay And Deny Posted 4:37 am
24 Feb 2008
Joel Daniel Coen
b. November 29, 1954 (age 53)
Ethan Coen
b. September 21, 1957 (age 50)
Reminds me when a 30 year old acquaintance of mine called Johnny Depp "the best actor of HIS generation..." (!)
John Christopher Depp II
b. June 9, 1963 (age 44)
Permalink
Kit Stolz Posted 5:04 am
24 Feb 2008
http://www.awardsdaily.com/?p=1243
To quote:
Rudin says that the ending was one of the things that made him immediately want to do it. "It's the only ending it could ever have," he says. "It begins with a guy whose describing how much he doesn't want to be part of this world anymore, and recognizes that he has to be part of the world and that it ends with that man saying, `and then I woke up.' It's a dream of a kind of peace that he knows is not available in life."
"I'm fascinated by this killer, who shows up at the end of the movie to kill this guy's wife because he said he would," he says. "And, at the same time, Llewellen Moss, as much as he is a kind of an everyman guy, he's also a guy who took a suitcase with 2 million dollars and then goes back to try to save a guy who he left for dead. He goes back with a jug of water, and it's the jug of water that sets everything in motion."
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 6:00 am
24 Feb 2008
"King Lear" is a true, unredeemable 1.
"Antony and Cleopatra" and "Julius Caesar" should both be 1, but let us reflect the beauty of the love, however misguided, of Antony and Cleopatra, and the odd friendship of Brutus and Cassius, and raise them to 2.
"Richard III" is probably more a 1 than a 2, but I am uncertain, he is so very very bad/cute!
"Henry V" is tentatively a 7. But the jingoism is tiring.
"The Tempest" can skip from 4 to 8, even 9, depending on the interpretation of the particular production.
On the other hand, I would prefer to grade "A Wonderful Life" a 9+, and reserve 10 for those Julie Andrews classics, "Mary Poppins," and "The Sound of Music." Evil is indeed present in "The Sound of Music," but it takes the form of readily demonizable characterless Nazis and Nazi-sympathizers. In "A Wonderful Life," the evil is clearly recognizable as systemic in American society. Also, the crucial recurring decision of George Bailey always to remain at home, never to follow his dreams to go away, is never altogether resolved.
On the allegorization of "No Place for Old Men": Well, it would leave me cold, were that the only "correct" way to interpret this fine existential drama. But if the usually frigid critical device of allegory is the only way some otherwise occupied people have of gaining entry into art, then more power to it.
Also, a problem with the allegory: Javier Bardem's character is intentionally given an ethnically indecipherable name: Anton Chigurh. That suggests, he is the complete Other, who is like none of us, nor like anyone in the theater with us as we together view this spectacle. So, to say that Chigurh somehow symbolizes American politics and the consequences of global warming would seem to alienate both of those things from us, and to put both of them outside our responsibility.
The stuff about Dunne's bell and clod is cute. Sure, why not.
But "Moss" also is a step away from "Moses," a name with all kinds of interesting connotations. So the story might be open to a rather different allegorical interpretation.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink
charteredstreets Posted 4:16 am
25 Feb 2008
No Country I think is open to all sorts of interpretations; not sure about the Moses thing because he was a leader, and I don't know who Moss is leading, other than his own interests. An intelligent and intriguing response though.
The sunshines bores the daylights out of me
Permalink
randino Posted 6:24 am
25 Feb 2008
In the movie you had both class and technological hubris and arrogance propelling humanity towards disaster. The Titanic represents civilization. The elite have the best cabins and facilities, they even have life boats. Meanwhile the majority of humanity is locked down below decks in steerage. The ship's captain and engineer assume that their creation in unsinkable. All civilizations are incapable of imagining the world without them.
The iceberg represents the environment, the environment that civilization assumes it can ignore and take for granted. When the iceberg and the Titanic meet, it is civilization that goes to the bottom.
Randy Cunningham
Randy Cunningham
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 7:50 am
25 Feb 2008
Just [a pretty fourth] singin' in the rain ... "
Gene Kelly movies do indeed tend to be 10-ish.
Yes, CharteredStreets, I know how you feel about "Sound of Music." The Von Trapp family go "climbing every mountain" at the end, to run off to build a popular Austrian-style resort chalet in Vermont, while the nun who sabotaged the Nazi pursuit car, and all her convent, are in fact put to death, though we are not told that.
Toward the end of her life, while she was an invalid, a great aunt of mine was shut up in the TV room with her daughter, my godmother, who has a fixation on "The Sound of Music," and would play it almost daily. When she would start it playing, my great aunt is reported to have commented, "Ah!, ancora una volta!" If the poor lady deserved any time in Purgatory at all, she certainly prepaid much of it.
And I am not at all serious about the Moss=Moses thing. The point of that quarter-baked suggestion is, if you are clever enough, you can probably manage to make it work, and end up with an allegory no more interesting, really, than one with the Moss=clod thing.
Randy baby,
yes, you are brilliant on "Titanic," especially on the issues of class, and competence of the authorities. But it is not lower than a 2. There is the aged Kate Winslet character, and her diamond, after all, and that Celine Dion song.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 8:41 am
25 Feb 2008
I wander through these chartered streets
near where the chartered Thames does flow
and mark in every face I meet
marks of weakness, marks of woe
in every cry of every man
in every infant's cry of fear
in every voice, in every ban
the mind-forged manacles I hear
how the chimney-sweeper's cry
every blackening church appals
and the hapless soldier's sigh
runs in blood down palace walls
but most, through midnight streets I hear
how the youthful harlot's curse
blasts the new-born infant's tear
and blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
I wander through each chartered street
near where the chartered Thames does flow
and mark in every face I meet
marks of weakness, marks of woe
William Blake [1757 - 1827]
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 8:43 am
25 Feb 2008
I wander through these chartered streets
near where the chartered Thames does flow
and mark in every face I meet
marks of weakness, marks of woe
in every cry of every man
in every infant's cry of fear
in every voice, in every ban
the mind-forged manacles I hear
how the chimney-sweeper's cry
every blackening church appals
and the hapless soldier's sigh
runs in blood down palace walls
but most, through midnight streets I hear
how the youthful harlot's curse
blasts the new-born infant's tear
and blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
I wander through each chartered street
near where the chartered Thames does flow
and mark in every face I meet
marks of weakness, marks of woe
William Blake [1757 - 1827]
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 8:51 am
25 Feb 2008
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 10:02 am
25 Feb 2008
And thanks, CharteredStreets!
It just goes to show, I do not know Blake as well as I should.
Or Whitman.
Or Yeats.
"Songs of Experience," I am guessing.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 11:54 am
25 Feb 2008
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Permalink
charteredstreets Posted 8:02 am
27 Feb 2008
Sorry, went on a tangent there.
spaceshaper, 5 points to you and a special prize for, as far as I can recollect, being the first person online to point out where my username (which I've had for about 7 years) comes from. The fact that you misquote the first line (it's 'I wander through each chartered street') suggests you quoted it from memory, which is doubly impressive. Either that or you left in an intentional mistake to make it look like you did, which is frankly just as impressive.
The sunshines bores the daylights out of me
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 9:57 am
27 Feb 2008
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
Though anything but upbeat, it's a compelling poem with great imagery. I like the suggestion that our suffering comes from the weak acceptance of our own 'mind-forg'd manacles'. And you gotta love that marriage hearse!
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Permalink