Movie Review - A Rave

George and I watched a Blu-Ray of "No Country for Old Men".  I loved "Blood Simple" and I loved this too.  What I especially enjoyed was the almost complete absence of music in the background.  Lately it feels to me that a movie just smacks me in the face with sounds, grabbing me by the aural scruff and rubbing my face in phony emotion.  (Wow.  I beat the snot out of that poor metaphor.) This movie was silent for long periods, using silence as a visual artist uses space.  You could hear footsteps, and breathing, and wind, and birds.  I loved it for that. 

 

The NY Times wrote of the sound editor, Skip Lievsay:

 

"[M]ost musical instruments didn’t fit with the minimalist sound sculpture he had in mind, so he used singing bowls, standing metal bells traditionally employed in Buddhist meditation practice that produce a sustained tone when rubbed."

 

Tommy Lee Jones -- I could spend an awful lot of time watching his seamed, weary face and the little bald place on the back of his head.  This is a beautiful man, getting better with age.

 

This movie was demanding somehow -- enigmatic, tense, awful.  I'm glad we saw it at home because if we were in a theater and somebody rustled a candy wrapper I'd have to stomp out in a snit because I was paying attention.

 

I'd like to watch it again, and listen again.