Two good movies

[Striker5]

Saw two good movies last week that would be of interest to M4C.

1. Saw "Rescue Dawn" on DVD. It never made it to the theater in J'ville, which really surprised me as it is a military town. It's about Navy Lt Dieter Dengler, the only guy to bust out of a POW camp in Vietnam. not a lot of action, but very close to the actual story, as far as i could tell. Evidently Charles Manson worked for Air America and did time w/ Dengler before escaping and making it back to SoCal:D (you'll see what i mean).

2.No Country For Old Men. Best movie I've seen all year - but I'm biased, being a big Cormac McCarthy fan. The Coen brothers stuck to the book very carefully, to their credit as there are some very movie-unfriendly plot twists. The guns and gun handling are excellent, I don't know if you can suppress a shotgun, but over all good. There is a great scene of "emergency preventative maintenence" on a nickel-plated 1911. Plot is about vietnam vet/good old boy who finds and keeps drug money. He is then caught between Good (world-weary sheriff Tommy Lee Jones) and Evil (psycho killer Javier Bardem). Bardem's character is one of the best movie bad guys ever.
better than the book in some ways. they left out my favorite line from the book: I have no enemies. I don't allow such a thing.

If you have some time to kill, I highly recommend them.

[Mojo58]

I agree. "No Country for Old Men" is a great film. The dialogue is very clever. The lighting, especially at night, produces that ominous feeling that something very bad it going to happen. Bardem pulls off his character brilliantly. The gun handling was believable for the most part and I didn't leave thinking that the technical advisor was clueless. One of the best films I've seen in a long time. Two thumbs up!

[Greyman09]

I will be checking both out soon.

[Shooter McGavin]

i just rented Rescue Dawn yesterday. I never remember it hitting the theaters here in NJ. I saw a preview of it on another DVD I watched.

I really thought there was going to be more of a showdown between Bale and "Manson".

Very good movie.

I'll check out No Country for Old Men when it comes out on DVD.

[9x19]

I will always go see a Coen brothers flick. I like movies that are unique. Besides Raising Arizona, I really liked Blood Simple, an early one.

[f.2]

I read the book the week before last and almost finished it in one day. Only a few pages the next day and then it was done. "Then" I saw the movie last week and I loved it. I'll be getting the dvd to catch the dialog I missed. Most harp about the ending, but after reading the book I knew.

Here are some comments, albeit spoilers:

s p o i l e r s b e l o w !

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Striker5,

Do you know who the old man at the end (also in the book) was? Listening to the movie dialog I thought it wasn't Ed Tom's / Tommy Lee Jones' grandfather or father.

more comments comparing the book to the movie:

The movie skips over some visuals with Moss and the 14 yo girl - in the movie that's the very short scene with the girl at the pool offering him beer - and there is a visual with Moss and the girl at the morgue, dead, laying on the gurney with the sheriff id'ing them, and there was a bit more to his wife's last scene (Moss' wife, who's 19 in the book, Moss is 36 I think), and she does call the coin toss, and loses of course - with not as much luck as that first gas station guy - who called heads and won with the 1958 quarter.

I absolutely love that scene at the motel where Moss is talking with the lady who gives him shit about just choosing a room rate, then he sees someone is in his room (turns out these are the 3 mexicans) with the curtain open a tad, then goes to the lady to get "another room" and she give him more shit, shows him the map, then Chigurh (the bad guy, "Sugar? - no, shoo gar") walks in, looking at the room map and slowly looks up and gives that lady the evil eye. Hilarious!

In the book, Moss was a Vietnam sniper.

The book had more visuals. Imagine that, a book with more visuals than the flick. Well, not too hard.

The movie does depict that handcuff garroting of the deputy very well. And of course woody whateverhisnameis? harrelson? was miss cast as the Col / Wells. I would think Ed Harris, or someone else.

I think in the book Chigurh is using bird shot, but when he takes out the 3 mexicans in the motel room they clearly depict at least 00 buck when he shoots the wall.

In the book, when Chigurh gets t boned and one kid sells him his shirt, they steal his machine pistol and are later interviewed by the sheriff / Ed Tom.

Tommy Lee Jones and that lady who played his wife were a perfect cast, imo.

I read the book very quickly - after one day I only had a few pages left, which was finished off the next morning.

I missed who the old man was at the ending scene. And Ed Tom (the sheriff / Tommy Lee Jones) tells this man about his Silver Star in the book with a confession on what really happened.

When Wells / woody gets shot, the book has him holding up his hand which loses some fingers as Chigurh shoots him in the head. He then stands and walks over to the wall to pick at the bird shot in the wall with interest.

The movie also leaves out a final scene with Chigurh taking the money to either the buyers, suppliers, or someone else, and offering his services.

[Rmplstlskn]

Added both to my Netflix...

Rmpl

[rayray]

No Country for old Men was mostly filmed here in my home town of Las Vegas,NM. :)

[HolyRoller]

I saw Rescue Dawn when it was in Fayetteville NC, along with my GF who's not a military buff, and our friend Z, retired Special Forces. GF thought it was a pretty good drama, and Z said it could be used as a survival training film.

But!

check out http://rescuedawnthetruth.com/ which is very harsh on some of the Hollywoodisms you wouldn't know about from just watching the film, including the extreme unfairness to Gene DeBruin, the guy who's made to look like Charlie Manson. Far from the muddleheaded tool portrayed in the movie, Gene DeBruin had already been a POW for 30 months when Dieter Dengler got there, and was a true selfless leader. In the movie, the actions of DeBruin and Dengler are almost reversed. They were both good men and there was no need to make one of them a clueless sidekick and the other a flawless hero.

Rescue Dawn is a great movie if you watch it in a vacuum, but it's up to your conscience if you want to see a good man's memory mangled just to advance the plot.

[Cold Zero]

I just watched Rescue Dawn from Blockbuster, thumbs up.

[Striker5]

9X19,

It is their best movie in a while. It is more akin to Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing. Very dark w/ almost no Coen quirkiness.

f.2

While I'm glad you read the book, and it is a good book, it is McCarthy's worst. Chigurh is one of his greatest creations though.

Read Blood Meridian. It is McCarthy's greatest novel, so far. It is one of the most beautifully written and violent books created. It is about an illiterate 16 yr old from Tennessee moving to Texas in the 1850's and joining a band of white scalp hunters who have been hired by the Mexican government to hunt Apaches. It's a brilliant observation of how the classic American identity is completely intertwined with violence. Not for the faint hearted!

When I plug the book to my friends, I offer to pay them their $17.00 back if they don't like it. So far so good. I am NOT putting that offer out on the internet, however.:)

[9x19]

9X19,

It is their best movie in a while. It is more akin to Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing. Very dark w/ almost no Coen quirkiness.


Great! I loved Miller's Crossing too. Hmm. This is making me think of starting a recommended movies thread.