Poor Anton Chigurh

No Country for Old Men, was an amazing film and deserved all the critical acclaim and awards it got, but i do have a little tiff with it. I think anyone could guess what this tiff is about, the death of Llewelyn Moss. When Moss dies, it alsmost seems pointless to watch the rest of the movie. I mean i know that a lot of people could consider Moss to not be the protaginist and consider Sherriff Bell to be the main character, and i know that thats how it is in the book, because in the book, Moss' story is interrupted by little soliloquys by Bell. Although this is not the case in the movie, and it seems as if Moss is the Main character, and Bell is some sort of an ombipotent narrater and outside force that does most of his work within a little diner.
Anyway, about Llewelyn's death, to me it's not the fact that he died that does it for me, its the way his death is portrayed. I mean at the point of his death, Moss withstands so much and survives, he outruns a dog after outrunning a truck with a machine gun mounted on it drivin by some Mexican drug dealers, and most impressive of all he survives the seemingly unstopable force that is Anton Chigurh. Not only does he survive Chigurh, which is something no one had been able to do before him, he pulls off a shot at him and slows him down. and just as your ready for the apparent climax of the film, a showdown between Chigurh and Moss and it doesnt matter who wins, because the scene will be great regardless... and then boom, Moss is dead, killed by some amateur drug dealers with uzis, and you dont even get to see it, it just happens and all that suspense and anticipation is simply taken away from the viewer, leaving with you thinking, "...what the hell just happened and why??..."

Its just really disapointing to see, i mean this guy got shot in the shoulder by a machine gun mounted on a car and a shotgun hit from the best professional killer known to man and he is taken down by a few punks with some uzis. i just expected so much more, its not that he died at all. I would be perfectly happy if he died in a showdown with Chigurh, it would at least draw some emotions and show that no matter what Chigurh is gonna win due to his determination and skill.

You almost feel bad for Chigurh, he dedicated a lot of time and was even shot just to kill this guy and the satisfaction of finishing what he started is taken away by a few amateurs, just imagine how much that would suck. its like this, imagine if you were an archeologist and you spend a lot of time and money and even get hurt trying to uncover some really big important fossil, and then some kid trying to dig to china just finds it, that would totally suck, and applied to the profession of the assassin it would still suck. Poor Anton Chigurh all he wanted was to kill this guy and it turns out he cant cause he just died. Professional assassins have feelings too.

Narrative and Cinematic ADD is not so bad after all

It seems as if in all three of the Robert Altman films we watched in class, ( The Long Goodbye, The Player, and Nashville) there are very few unifying constants, relative to the other directors we've studied of course. The three films are all very different in their own respects, which could be considered good or bad, but there are some underlying aspects of the three films that connect them.

My favorite of the three, The Long Goodbye, and my least favorite, Nashville, seemed to have the least in common. First of all, the most signifecant difference in the two is the narrative. The Long Goodbye is on one side of the scale with a concrete plotline with a single, lone protaganist (Phillip Marlow) who appears in nearly every scene and arguably goes through a change in character by the end of the film. Now Nashville is on the other side of the scale and it's narrative style is essentially the polar opposite of The Long Goodbye. Nashville has at least 20 protaganists, if you could call them that, who may or may not have any importance to the development of the film, and they are completely static characters who go through no changes by the end. The plot of Nashville is also radically different from The Long Goodbye, well in that it basically has no plot. The only thing that could be considered a plot is the assassination in the ending and the development of the music. It's almost as if the only similarities between the two films is that they both deal with murder and death and they both have Elliot Gould as either an actor or a character.

Elliot Gould also plays a short camio as himself in The Player. Despite one of the only unifying themes between the three being Elliot Gould, there are a few similarities between The Player and Nashville, at least more then there are between The Long Goodbye and Nashville. Nashville and The Player both take place in real life with a lot of real life scenarios in american culture, Hollywood and Country Music. This unification makes the two films in my opinion fall under the genre, realistic fiction, the fact that these two films share the same genre is enough for me for them to be pretty similar.

Some people may say that having three of your films lacking a similar style and plot is a result of the directer being uncreative and having ADD, but I think that it is very impressive to have three of your most famous films be so radically different, it takes an immense amount of creativity. So I give kudos to Mr. Robert Altman, you make indeciciveness and ADD seem not so bad.

Sergio Leone's The Good the Bad and the Ugly

From what I know of Sergio Leone, The Good the Bad and the Ugly is pretty typical of his directing style, which by no means is a bad thing. I think Leone's style is very artistic and really works with his stories to compell the audience. his style, in this film at least seems to have a lot of close ups, extreme close ups, long shots, and the duration of the shots are usually pretty long, making every shot more dramatic. For example in the scene where Blondie and Tuco are walking down the street of an old deserted town to get to Angel-Eyes as the camara is following them from a distance there is some tension because you know that Angel-Eyes' minions are all crowding around to kill them, when you see a close up of the shooter, then he shoots then you see a close up of Blondie shooting him then the bandit falling. This is a perfect example of Leone's direction style.

The characters are also typical of a Leone film, all three of the main characters are very typical. For one, Blondie is a great character. For someone who has probably the least lines of the main characters in the film, he has a lot of character. He is a very mysterious character yet you can understand him though his favial expressions and just plane silence. Leone seems to love this character, since he is in all three films of the trilogy.

One thing that I think is amazing about Leone's direction is the music. I think the music in this film is one of the best parts of the film and he has the same person, Enio Morricone, do the music for all of his films. I think the choice of music is brillient, from the repeated, well known trills and whistles to the really cool sounding steel guitar parts, repeated throughout the film it just gives the audience a taste of the time period and fits perfectly with the story and the characters. there really is no better way of describing the music then just really cool and amazing.

If i were to relate Leone's directing style to another director it would be Stanley Kubrick. Both Leone and Kubrick seem to focus a lot on very artistic and cool photography with shots that just amaze the audience. They both do a lot of close up shots and really long lasting shots, which both are known for, but primarily Kubrick. Although Kubrick is more famous for his artistic photography, Leone has a lot more emphasis on story telling in his films. I love Stanley Kubrick, he is probably my favorite director, but one thing he lacks in is the ability to tell a story thuroughly, but Leone seems to put a lot more emphasis on creating a great story, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly, certainly is an amazing story that is well told and is full of artistic direction, amazing music and complex characters.