Did he die off camera in the book, too? :shake:

well it is basically the same as the book. The only scene in the movie that wasn't in the book was when the dog was chasing him through that river. I know it's a strange way to kill off a main character, but I think the film is flawless.

I thought it was flawless right up until the ending, which made me want to beat the shit out of somebody.

I feel the same way. And its not like I have a problem with the bad guy winning in the end, I dont. I just have a problem with this epic 2+ hour movie ending SO anti-climactically. It felt really unfinished or something. Great movie though

it definately made you wonder what happened. Very strange ending for sure, but that is exactly how the book ended. I guess the Coen brothers just wanted to stay true to the book? They couldn't have found a better guy to play the killer, Javier Bardem was fantastic IMO.

We've discussed this before, though I'm not sure where, but that anti-climactic disappointment was the PURPOSE of the ending. We're used to those cinema tropes, where the protagonist is tried mightily, but ultimately prevails. But this is NCFOM, where evil is a new [or just the same old] unstoppable force that comes out of left field, effs shit up, and carries on. The white hat doesn't get the girl any more, the showdown doesn't play out by the rules at high noon, you're as likely to be taken out by Mexican yahoos as a worthy adversary. It's bleak and dystopian, and I love it.

I think they should do a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones is killed off screen by a German lackey, Marion gets raped to death by the Gestapo guy, and the Ark itself is destroyed in a nasty camel accident on the way to the airport.

I'm sure the critics would declare such a film to be absolutely devine! :rolleyes:

What you apparently don't get is that Raiders of the Lost Ark is fantasy adventure.

No Country For Old Men is supposed to be realistic.

No, I do get it. That was just an example of how to take a great movie, smear shit all over the ending and call it art.

I get it. I got it when I saw it. That doesn't mean that it doesn't suck.

See, I don't think you do, actually. If you got it, you wouldn't be so upset over it.

In the context of the NCFOM universe, the ending makes sense.

In fact, I actually look forward to the ending now. It's so...so...normal. There's no grand stage. It just...IS. And Tommy Lee Jones essentially saying "**** this, it ain't worth it," is also awesome.

yep-loved that movie

Yeah I get that. Like I said, I have no problem with a movie ending with the bad guy winning. The only difference here is that the movie didn't feel like it had an ending. You go on this experience with the guy (Brolin) that your supposed to get invested in and then suddenly he's just dead? I get thats how it was in the book and I hate it when movies change things huge like that from the original source they're coming from, but I agree that it feels like they (and i mean McCarthy) ended it like that for the sake of being artistic, not to make a good book, and that pisses me off

*Note: I have never read the book.

I like this assessment.

I really enjoyed the movie, and I thought the ending was almost a breath of fresh air. Just because it didn't conform to the way most big movies end, doesn't make the ending bad.

It was different.

For every movie 'ruined' the way NCFOM was, there's a billion ruined by focus groups and industry notes like you seem to be advocating. Think the parody abortion of a film Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts were making at the end of 'The Player'

And critiquing a film for not being more like everything we've already seen, and not being more like an entirely different type of film, is the epitome of weak sauce.

"Titanic sucks, maybe I'll remake Star Wars and the Millenium Falcon will crash into the Death Star, Luke Skywalker floats off into space, and the story is told from the POV of a 90 y.o spinster Leia."

'Chinatown sucked ass, maybe I'll remake Transformers, and the Decepticons will win the day and Megan Fox will have been raped by her father.'