Love the Coen brothers, particularly Blood Simple. Nothing like the dead flat evil of west Texas, the stupidity of it, the scary open spaces. They still make movies that make the audience think (even if someone was snoring loudly in No Country For Old Men much to the giggles of the audience -- even an amoral psychopath with a Dorothy Hamill haircut and a cattle killer prod dealy couldn't keep everyone awake), make the audience scared without buckets of blood or stupid plots twists about hillbillies out to get the hapless city folk (the only good one in this genre is Deliverance) or beautiful women in bikinis who get tortured in mildly pornographic ways.
I don't understand how the Coens understand Texas so well given that they grew up in the suburbs of Minnesota. But my friend Hank contended that we are not the sum of our environment, but rather what we love. We become experts on our passions, whatever they may be. It's a dark time in the world and I'm glad the movies are starting to reflect it. A lot of people I know bitched about the ending of No Country, said that it was too amorphous, that it didn't make a hill of sense. But evil never does. That the Coens know. That and in Texas, you're on your own.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"Do not repeat the means of victory. But respond to form from the inexhaustible." Sun Tzu
Cocktail Hour
Drinking scotch suggestion: Dalwhinnie
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Monday!
8 comments:
The Coens understand human nature, including evil, and are able to translate it into art, e.g., "Fargo." I, too, understand art. That's why I read your blog. Well done, Michelle!--Oscar Winner
Joel Coen did "Fargo" by himself. How evil of him.--Oscar Winner
These are hardly the dark times. Read "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara Tuchman. But only if you can take a little religious introspection.
I should move to Texas, but I have a much older sister there and I wouldn't want to be scared to death without buckets of blood and rampaging chainsaws.
Peace
mark
Rodney Dangerfield said: If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you, if you know what I mean.
Because you are over looking the fact that Minnesotans are the shit. Pound for Pound it would rival any creative center on the globe. A new kind of Shake Sphere.
"But my friend Hank contended that we are not the sum of our environment, but rather what we love. We become experts on our passions, whatever they may be."
I LOVE this - very true.
I think we are physically born in a physical place and nurtured in that place...but our spirits are born in a spiritual place - where they thrive creatively and grow - and this is our true 'nature.' Greece is my spiritual birthplace.
I've always felt that on the scales of 'nurture' vs 'nature;' nature weighs much heavier.
Mmmmm, I think I'll write about this. Thanks Hank and thanks Michelle!
Enjoy the snow:)
Very good point that we are what we love. BLood simple was a great movie. I'm looking forward to seeing "No country for old men."
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