Frenchy’s Fracas

General Info
Title: No Country For Old Men
Year: 2007

In Short
In the Texas Back Country, a man finds a bag of drug money at a very bloody murder scene. He decides to take the money and from that moment on, Trouble follows him wherever he goes.

The Movie
Visuals
Well, it’s an incredibly sober visual setup: everything, from landscape shots to close ups are effective, nothing fancy.

Plot
It’s a reasonable straight plot: one guy on the run, being hunted by a very bad character and an old police man observing the situation from afar, trying to help the prey.

*SPOILER ALERT*
The fact that the main character gets killed 20% from the ending is a real surprise, but what really stuck in my head was how his killing was portrayed: it wasn’t, we just arrive at the scene with the police investigating the scene. A very nice Touch.
*SPOILER ALERT*

Even though it’s been done before many a time, I really enjoyed the older sherrif character combining old age, desperation and bewilderment in one look or sentence, it’s incredibly well done.

Cast
Had to look up Josh Brolin, his face isn’t familiar, but his performance was solid and impressive. Oscar winner Javiar Bardem shows us one of the scariest movie characters of this decade, wow..
Tommy Lee Jones is in full auto pilot, but he gets the job done with style. Nice cameo from Woody Harrelson.

Conclusion
Excellent movie from the always interesting Coen Brothers!

Rating: (Coen Bros deliver the goods..)

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General Info
Title: The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada
Year: 2005

(image from Apple Trailers)

In Short
Melquaides Estrada, an illegal alien is shot dead and his friend and colleague Pete wants to give him a decent burial. This takes quite some effort, because he promised Melquaides he’d bury him in the village he was born, on the other side of the border.

The Movie
Visuals
A Modern Western with all the visual treats: dry desert landscapes, incredible mountain ranges, muted colors, wide and narrow shots.. Combined with a very strong depiction of life in Nowheresville, West Texas - excellent!

Plot
Well, an innocent man is shot dead and his friend tries to solve the mystery. Once solved, the body is taken across the border in a quest to find the proper burial place.
Why three burials? Well, the first one’s where the body’s found and so on..
So, no mind-boggling stuff, just the Pure Things That Matter like friendship, honor, revenge, etc. We’re talking Westerns here, not Eisenstein (come to think of it: would there be any significant difference?)
First-time director and lead actor Tommy Lee Jones and “Amores Perros” scribe Guillermo Arriaga present a clear story with interesting developments.

Cast
Tommy Lee Jones does what he does best in portraying a wise, frustrated man with a strong sense of duty and obligation who’s kinda broken up by grief. His strong presence carries quite a large part of the movie. Interesting parts by Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam as the sheriff and Melissa Leo as the.. well.. smartest character of the cast, I guess..
Not really impressed by January Jones‘ performance..

Conclusion
Western Quest: it works, providing you can keep people interested during the whole enterprise and that didn’t really always work that well. I liked the direction, although some of the scenes were a bit crudely edited, don’t know if that’s done on purpose but it kinda missed its mark sometimes. But the plot was good enough and the acting was solid.
I missed this one during the Rotterdam Film Festival (it was on my list..) and I’m glad I got the chance to see it afterwards. Decent movie, not the wrong type of ego-project, but the right one: there’s a sense of really caring about the movie and the whole process of making it.

Rating:

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