Bill Hader reacts to Joel and Ethan Coen's 2007 masterpiece No Country for Old Men. Source: The Rewatchables Apple: podcasts.apple... Spotify: open.spotify.c...
"Offscreen" got me in the gut. Excellent phrasing. By the time we die, people have been trying not to think about us for years if we're lucky enough to die old; or suffer enough to pick our time ourselves. In both cases, our people distance themselves from our suffering and decline so they're not sucked into it. A drowning person might grab your head and pull you under with them and suffering is the same way. Otherwise, we die suddenly and unexpectedly out in the world, and our people hear about it from a phone call or chatter at work.
PFFFT, seriously! Listening to like the funniest and animated actor in the world since Christopher Walken who turns out to also be the raddest and surprisingly phenomenal director talk about other badass directors about one of the most badass movies ever is all like exponentially badass! High Five!
@@KennethHabeck-yg7ln I like to think he is the small bit of hope there is for a future in TV or Movies. We are right at the precipice of losing all our greats. It's already begun. I see us losing Eastwood, Walken, Nicholson, DeNiro, Pacino, Scorcese, Lynch, Keitel, etc and then who's left? We will have some fine actors left for a while and I can only hope they direct, otherwise it will just be Michael Bays (Bay ? Not sure, never knowingly watch his films). I guess we double up on liking Wes Anderson., then, since Tarantino retired. I don't buy that for an Abel Fererra New York Minute, thank God!
Cormac McCarthy came up with the car explosion scene for Chigurh after watching the cheapo horror film Hallow Gate in a motel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, the same hotel where the shootout scene was filmed by the Coen Bros in the movie adaptation. That same motel was used by John Carpenter during the filming of Vampires in the 90s.
When I saw this movie in the theater, a woman in front of me had a meltdown during the credits about how “the main character died, they didn’t catch the bad guy, etc” basically everything great and meaningful about the movie.
OH and it is too, is it not? Dood! The Ronny/Lilly Episode MIC DROP~! Tarantino should bow down to that shit. 'Barry ' is the finest, most underrated piece of television since Breaking Bad, or even Twin Peaks, as far as I'm concerned (Psycho fanatic for both, so I don't say that lightly).
One thing I think is important and really a credit to the Coens---in the book Carla Jean calls the coin flip. This works in the book, but in the movie her decision not to is an amazing, strong, pivotal moment, and helps pull the themes together. It was a really smart thing to change, and not one that most people would have thought of. They took a near perfect book and made somehow made a near perfect film, and it's very different and very similar all at the same time. It's staggering.
The book and the movie are each at a high level . . . but the plots are somewhat different. For example, the character and sub-plot that I most admire in the book . . . is entirely missing in the movie.
I think it's important too. Coens make wise decisions as far as the eye can see. I have a friend who can't stand them. I wonder what the polite way to get out of the frienship is. Coens > Most shit
I loved the fact that the characters didn't seem to know everything that was happening, and it was like they were experiencing it for the first time as well, not like they have done it all before like most action flicks. this story was about humans and life, and violence not any one of the characters.
We all agree it's good. But have you read the book (?) The character and sub-plot that I most admire in the book . . . is entirely missing in the movie. So it's just _possible_ that the movie could even have been better. That may contradict what you've said. I'm not sure . . .
I could listen to Bill Hader talk about movies every single day. I love how great he is as an actor (he cracks me up in so many of his roles) and that he also REALLY knows about film. It's always incredibly refreshing to know when an actor isn't just an actor but also a fan like the rest of us.
It's all about giving that final scene the incomparable weight of the mundane. The mass of the mundane is the only thing that can hold up the true profundity of that very last scene, so it had to be rendered exquisitely. That's the strength of the book, faithfully brought to the screen.
Only when we sit in silence and stillness, can we gain even a sliver of comprehension about the enormity and longevity of our existence. A masterwork depiction of the human experience.
Between the inspiration from No Country For Old Men, and the Cronenberg films he's talked about before, it's no wonder that Barry turned out as wonderful as it did. Hader's take on action and violence was definitely his own, but he still managed to frame it with a level of absurdity and cinematic flair that is remniscent of these huge directors. I'm so excited to see what Hader does next. He's one of the most engaging minds in TV and film.
Fucking awesome that they had Bill Hader on the Rewatchables, one of the best movie podcasts imo, they always have some great discussions about film on there, No Country is one of the most lauded movies and Bill still finds a new way of explaining how good it is and why.
I fell off with the rewatchables. I feel like those discussions generally really shallow and surface level, and they stick to their silly categories and segments in lieu of really discussion. It's really only worth listening to when there's a good guest like Bill Hader.
Oh, man. Everytime I think about this movie, I want to see it again. And everytime I see it, I find/appreciate new details. Such a brilliant film. Oh, and I enjoy listening to Bill Hader talk about movies. He's a funny, insightful guy that doesn't waste time on pretensions.
This is like watching interviews of my favorite bands talking about how they love my other favorite bands. It’s validating & weird. This channel fucking rules!
@@birdorienteering It's clips from various podcasts, that as far as I can tell the creator is not affiliated with. To their credit, they do a good job editing in footage from the movies, and always link the source they got the clip from in the description. I don't know how I feel about that $1 Patreon they're putting some videos behind though...
It's hard to pick a favourite scene from this terrific movie, but I really love the one towards the end when Ed Tom visits cousin Ellis. Ellis sums up one of the main messages of the story, and why Llewelyn doesn't die a hero's death on-screen: "You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."
No one is better than the Coens at scenes involving a main character and a "civilian" performing his job by his usual script without knowing what we viewers know about the character and his situation. Jones, Brolin, and Bardem do scene after scene with actors whose names are known to almost none of us. "Burn After Reading" and "Fargo" are filled with those scenes, and they are delightful.
The biggest thing for me about this movie is that I don’t even remember a lot of it…but I remember the feelings it gave me during and after I watched it and it was wild! So so good
I absolutely love No Country for Old Men, I think it’s not only the Coen Bros best work and met personal favorite of theirs, either No Country of Fargo depends on what day you ask me lol and O Brother but mainly I would say No Country, either way it’s not only their best work, it’s also I feel one of the greatest, easily top 10 best films of the 21st century so far. It’s also either the first or second best film of what I personally consider to be the best year for films in the 21st century and that’s 2007. That being said, the only true I guess you could say “big” thing that bothered me was Llewelyn, upon coming across all that money and finally gets in his truck and back to his house, doesn’t take the time to empty it out to make sure there’s nothing else in there, like a tracker or some kind of explosive. I mean put yourself in his shoes, he’s simple not stupid, he clearly knows he just stole money from some kind of Mexican drug operation, it was a shootout he found the drugs and the money, keeps the money, if you’re gonna go through with it, you can tell from the shooting these are serious people you’re stealing from, you better make damn sure they can’t find you and with him being a Vietnam veteran on top of being a skilled hunter out in the deserts of West Texas, you would think he would have more a survivalist mindset and make sure they can’t trace it back to me. Hell, I’d get me and my wife out of there that very night, never too return and hire someone to come get her mom in a day or two. I’d also dump the money into my own bag or bags and would throw out that black bag it was originally in on the far side of town or some shit. But ya that’s the only thing that bugs me about an otherwise near perfect film.
I’ll admit I didn’t get this film upon first viewing. My mistake was confusing Plot A with Plot B. I thought the main plot was the hit man being hired to retrieve the money. But that’s merely incidental. The story is about a sheriff who is seeing his world and understanding come crashing down around him because it’s 1980 just before the drug trade between Mexico and the United States really takes off. He doesn’t yet know how corrupt things will get after he retires, but he can only do his best while he can.
Haha I was thinking about if DDL would’ve made No county better if he was in it and then this fact popped up. Maybe he did by walking on the same ground 😂
A perfect pairing of one of the best contemporary American writers in Cormac McCarthy, and some of the best contemporary filmmakers in the Coen Brothers. Easily a top 10 favorite film for me. And anyone who enjoys the film should most definitely read the book as well.
Greatest part of this movie is tommy lee's expression, when he takes off his hat when Carla jean arrives at lewellyn's murder scene.you cannot teach that . Amazing!
I bought a paperback copy of All The Pretty Horses in a thrift shop in downtown Colorado Springs while on a carless, solo backpacking trip to Pikes Peak. One of the most memorable reading experiences of my life. A great "road" novel.
i was 11 and my mom heard it won best picture and took us both. first time she ever apologized when we got out and said it wasn't what she thought it was.. but no foul play cause I loved the movie.
I watched no country for old men as a pretty young kid, like ten, and when I’d think back on it I always assumed I must have misremembered Llewelyn’s death and how they basically portrayed it with the same gravitas as they would an extra dying. I was so shocked when I rewatched it and it was exactly how I remembered it. That has to be the biggest what the fuck ever if you’re going into that movie with no information. Like, what do you mean he’s dead, and the main villain had nothing to do with it
I watched “No Country for Old Men” along with “Hell and High Water”together one night and was taken aback by how (arguably to a degree)similar both films are,with the world weary older lawman who sees the world around him changing and his difficulty keeping up with it , the Southwest and its own moral code,culture and sense of justice, and probably more importantly the lives of everyday people caught up in unforeseen circumstances that have led to them making decisions they would otherwise not have made…fantastic films
It’s also a morality tale about greed. Llewelyn is the protagonist but in the end he chose money over safety. The corrupting power of money is also driven home in the scene of wounded Llewelyn crossing the border and the ending scene with the two kids who give Bardem the shirt.
My friends and I basically have had a years long discussion about this films that fires up every once in a while. Its just pinnical film making. That moment in Barry, first episode I think. He tells the guys to put their guns down its quiet in the street. Thsts very No Country. Bravo. Now I have to watch it all over again to see the nods in the film making. So good.
I was working in a movie theater when this came out. You could tell the smart people from the dumb ones (or the ones who just went in expecting some Tarantino style cartoon violence) by the people who came out saying, "So what happened to the money? I don't get it..." Explaining to people that the Old Men of the title is Tommy Lee Jones and the entire film is about his character; everyone else is just window dressing for him to come to realise it's time to retire because the world is so messed up he can't cope any more. The intro footage with Tommy's narration is still one of my favourite opening sequences. It's perfect.
That’s exactly what was intended to be highlighted by that scene. Even someone like Chigurh is still just another victim of the seemingly random chaos of the world and the violence it so often begets. After all is said and done, Chigurh is just as human and vulnerable as anyone else in this world.
This is the first time I've heard a non-Irish person pronounce the name Cormac properly, like "Korr-m'k", not "Korr-makk". One of the greatest writers of all time adapted by two of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Bill Hader is pretty cool too.
@@QED_ maybe it’s just cause I saw the movie before I read the book. But I like that that part is unique to the text only. I think they kinda compensated for that in the movie with a lady at the motel pool if I’m remembering right. I love how that part shows that Llewelyn is actually a good dude in the book. Probably the best written passage in the book also.
@@go2damoon555 Props. You got both points exactly right: this sub-plot gives us crucial insight into Lleweyln . . . and the writing in it is brilliant. I'd maybe have a chance of writing big chunks of the rest of the novel myself . . . but not this sub-plot.
Its interesting that not only do the kids help Chigurgh at the end, but midway through the movie the same sort of transaction occurs when Llewellyn buys the jacket off the kid at the border. Both the protagonist and the antagonist are trying to get away from something and are essentially bailed out by naitivity and greed.
I love No Country for Old Men. It reminded me a lot of the Terminator. instead of a T-800 coldly programmed to kill and taking no pleasure in it, Anton Chigurh was just as methodical and relentless as the cyborg but the only time he showed emotion was when he was terrorizing people or killing people and making it patently obvious that he enjoyed it.
Agreed. Anton presented himself as an emotionless, unbiased agent of some kind of universal fate, which was bullshyt. Again and again, we see him drag out the kill, just so he can relish the terror in his victim's eyes. Anton was a sick puppy... and incredibly well-written. 👍🏼👍🏼
The car accident scene lays bare Chigurh's hypocrisy. That car got there the way the coin did. Chigurh's rule brought him there so what good was it? "Everyone says that" ("The coin don't have no say, it's just you") when they're pleading for their life. Well, Chigurh pleaded for help when he needed it and didn't accept his fate. He wanted a special dispensation to protect him when chance said his number was up. That kid saying "I'll give you my shirt," and Chigurh accepting it puts the lie to his whole sociopathic schtick, shows him to be a small, pathetic BS artist.
I've had this discussion with multiple people who don't seem to realize that Chigurh is insane. He may have been a professional killer in the past, but he's lost the plot. A pro would have answered the store clerks question with a yep and left. Or if he was gonna terrorize him for fun at least kill him and leave no witness. Instead Chigurh takes the worst possible path of terrorizing the guy, and then letting him live. As Hader says here, you know that guy called the cops. And then his mental illness caused him to go kill Norma Jean. In the book it's revealed that this whole mess, for Chigurh, has been a chance to get the money, give it back to crime boss who lost it, and cut out the middleman and try to work for him directly. It's an audition to him. And then he ruins that by going to kill a woman, off the clock, for his own perverse pleasure, and ends up hobbling away from a crime scene and a bunch of witness with a broken arm and a bleeding leg. Even if he doesn't get caught over this, he's now in no shape to take on any work for months if the guy he was trying to impress calls. "Oh, but you don't understand, he's got this code, this unique philosophy about life and fate that only an assassin would come up with so he can make sense of his actions..." But like you just you said above, yeah, and his code led him to the one place in the world where something as humdrum as a guy running a stop sign could now end his career and or life. So what the fuck good did his crazy ass code of honor do him? Chigurh is less Michael Myers from Halloween, and more Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman. Chigurh has wasted his life by living in delusions and according to shallow values. If he wasn't caught in the days after the car accident, he'll get caught a few days later when he does something even dumber.
@@SK-ny5ei Interesting perspective, but the arguments don't really hold up. For example, what would the guy in the gas station/convenience shack tell the cops?; Some guy insisted that I call a coin toss and then when I guessed right he gave me the quarter, so you'd better go arrest him? Hader made a funny, flippant response to the scene but didn't think it through. And had he let Carla-Jean off the hook after a coin toss, she wouldn't have been able to identify him or have any evidence against him either. Chigurh gave a perfectly clear reason why he objected to the middleman's actions, "Choose the one right tool," but gave no indication he had any other problem with the middleman or with working through one. But if you need another reason to explain killing him, how about the fact that he complicated Chigurh's life by forcing him to kill a squad of other hitters? Chigurh seems to have preferred working as a lone and anonymous contractor rather than an employee and he apparently had a long history of working that way. Could you by any chance cite the passage from the book that established this audition idea?; that would save me a rereading-which I'm always happy to do with McCarthy in any case. Why do you think Chigurh is going to "get caught a few days later when he does something even dumber?" Did he leave a single living witness who could identify him in connection to any crime other than leaving the scene of an accident? No, he didn't, and that kid isn't talking. Wasted his life? That's a funny comment to make about someone whose business is wasting people. Didn't he just walk off with nearly two million that no one knows he has? He's not going to have to work for awhile. Might be fun to see what he would do with his down time, huh? I'm inclined to see Chigurh as akin to the Judge in Blood Meridian or the creeping terror in Outer Dark. More mythological nemesis and avatar of Fate than human.
You've made a fair case. But . . . I think you're maybe making a problematical assumption. You're assuming that good guys play by the rules . . . bad guys don't . . . and that's how we define good guys and bad guys. Isn't it really worse than that (?) Isn't it instead that good guys play by the rules . . . and bad guys _do or don't depending on what's advantageous to them_ (?) That's what Chighurgh does . . . and it's not "hypocritical" at all. It's just being a competent bad guy . . .
I just listened to Bill Hader on The Rewatchables with Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan. They covered No Country for Old Men. Bill Simmons brought up a very good point. They had tracking devices in suitcases during 1980?!
A classic McCarthy story in his Southern Gothic style. It's one of my favorites as is the movie. I agree with Hader in that the scene in the convenience store is one of the greatest scenes in movie history. It was exceptionally close to the description in the book too. The Judge in Blood Meridian is similar, if not scarier, than the villan in No Country for Old Men.
The only difference between Bill Hader and directors like the Coen brothers, Michael Mann, Quinten Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, etc, etc, etc, is that he does impressions, improve and can act.
This was the first episode of the Rewatchables I ever listened to. Which was good because it's Bill was great on it, I thought Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan were really entertaining and informative about the movie so I was hooked pretty much instantly. It's one of their episodes I listen to again every once in a while.
I think he’s right about the futility part. But the most important part of the whole story is Sheriff Bell’s monologue at the end. You must try to carry the light through the hopeless darkness.
This movie was mostly filmed in my hometown of Las Vegas New Mexico. I know the movie takes place in Texas, but it was mostly filmed in New Mexico. Wonderful film.
The Coens treat action procedurally. Blood Simple is the same. Think about having to reconstruct the action in your film like a crime scene. How much time would he have to get from here to here. The bullet travelled from where to there. De Palma said the same thing: you have to understand the space that you're in and where everybody is at all times. While shaky cam judiciously used can bring a lot of energy to an action scene, the reason people complain about it is it gets treated as a shortcut to get around all this stuff.
They made Barry and put parts of my life in that character. They did the same thing with the sidekicks movie in 1992. That actor Jonathan Brandis was murdered. Same way my friend Corey was murdered in 1996
This was an amazing movie, BUUUUT everyone wants to give credit to the Coen brothers and the actors without realizing that virtually every scene is taken directly from the book. Even most of the dialogue is word for word from the book. So let's give the real credit to Cormac McCarthy, the author.
@@dcal6365 You were talking about giving the “real credit” FOR THE MOVIE to the author of THE BOOK on which it was based. Your observation was the one that made no sense. We all know it’s a great book with incredible dialogue, sweetheart. But McCarthy didn’t shoot that photography, or cast those actors, or direct those performances, or edit it all together or any of the dozens of other things that make it one of the greatest movies of all time. Lesser filmmakers and performers could have taken McCarthy’s words and scenes and made a mediocre film. Hell, if McCarthy himself had tried to make a movie from his own book, I guarantee it wouldn’t have been half as good as the Coen’s. You’re obviously not as smart as you’re trying to appear, or you’d have understood that that’s what my “observation” was really getting at. Be honest with yourself. Your original comment was nothing more than a childish attempt to show off that you’ve read the novel and know the name of the author. You can do that without trying to deny credit to the filmmakers.
They're both brilliant. It's why the whole concept of pitting movies against each other is ridiculous. They're both equally great in different ways. But to your point, I think they picked "No Country" because it's simply more accessible to most audiences.
