Yesterday, our local movie theater showed all 5 Oscar-nominated movies back-to-back. 12 hours of movies! I only ended up seeing 3 - Michael Clayton, Atonement, and No Country for Old Men. (I'd already seen Juno.) Out of all of them, No Country for Old Men was in another league entirely. I found Michael Clayton to be exciting but forgettable, Atonement was very genuine and emotional but had been done before, many times. Juno, well I
love Juno, it's witty and smart and hilarious and again, very genuine. But No Country for Old Men was a masterpiece on so many levels.
The movie was about many different things, as it turned out. Set against the stark backdrop of Marfa, TX, a border town, it centers around 3 people. There is a man who, out hunting, discovers what seems to be a busted drug deal - lots of dead people, a drug stash in the trunk of a truck, and a briefcase with 2 million dollars inside. There is a killer who is positively psychopathic, and decides a person's fate by a flip of a coin or a whim. And there is the sheriff who tries to track him down, and attempts to get a handle on the situation.
There are a few themes in this movie. The key, I thought, was the idea that
things just happen. Things aren't "fated", no "bishert", none of that. He stumbles on the money, plain and simple. Leading to the second theme of
control and choice. He doesn't NEED to pick up the money. He doesn't need to escape into Mexico. Every step of the way (for all the characters) involves some form of choice, despite the inevitability they
feel. The killer doesn't
need to kill, even if he thinks he does. He doesn't get caught. He could stop.
Another key theme is when things get
out of control. The sheriff, as it turns out, is the main character, the one observing and attempting to contain the chaos. And to him, the killer's outlook is totally beyond his ability to comprehend.
I suppose the idea of the movie, for me, was that things happen, you can't control other people, you can't control when you stumble upon things, or when you get struck by lightning, or anything really. The only thing you have power over is yourself, your reaction to things, what you do in a given situation. And that you only play out a "fated path" or an inevitability when you feel you have
no choice. You resign yourself to fate, you have to
choose that fate. It only happens if you want it to.
It really touched on things I've been thinking for awhile. I'm a person who loves being given assignments and completing them. Giving myself a task to do doesn't feel "genuine", it's just coming from me. I'm a person who needs a
reason. We're supposed to be together. I'm supposed to do this, it's my calling. But more and more I see that it simply isn't the case. Things just
happen based on external, out-of-control events. Music wasn't an inevitability. I was exposed to it as a kid and it happened, but what if I wasn't? And certainly I could have been with someone who wasn't Bren, given the right circumstances. Even now I could choose to stop writing music forever, leave our apartment and run off somewhere. Nothing larger than my choices is holding me here. The universe is huge and vast but emotionless; only we have created the morals we live by, and we like to think they come from God, but they don't, it's simply us.
Some people find that empowering. I know Bren does, he is very humanistic and seems to live by the idea that people are all people really have, we control our own destinies. And I, coming to the same conclusion, am filled with a sense of dread. If we are the only measure of ourselves, if all we have are our choices, then what's the point? Why bother to write? What's the reason for it? Self-gratification? Fleeting pleasure? Just to get through the day?
I guess that's why they say the only full life is one lived for others. Others are greater than you, because they are external. I can see that. Right now though, I've got to say, I feel a bit aimless.
Labels: personal, review
