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Edited on Thu Jul-31-08 02:43 AM by Wetzelbill
Very fascinating adaptation, when I first read the novel, I just knew it had to be made into a film. I was searching for the film rights because I actually wanted to adapt it and I saw the Coens were doing it. I actually thought in my head as I was reading it, "This is perfect for a film.... the Coens would be perfect to make it."
I would say start with "Blood Meridian" it's a different style of writing, he's very adaptable, unique in that he's such an artist he has actually switched his style and voice a little bit over time. That's kind of like a person switching their fingerprints almost, lol. Also check out "The Road."
I think he means not just Texas, but his particular part of Texas. He's a rural guy, he thinks of the world in his local terms. Country or derivatives like "this country" means the basic area where they are from. Like I'm from the Montana highline and people like my dad, a farmer, and lots of middle aged and older people frequently use the phrase "This country." I even do it, lol. But what it is, is a metaphor for not just his own "country" rural Texas, but, yes, the United States as a whole. He literally means his local part of Texas, but, figuratively and metaphorically, he also means the United States.
Yes I think his position is sympathetic, I'll address that better in a moment.
Part of it is he's lamenting a generation gap. It's a societal phenomenon that every generation thinks the country is going to go to hell because these young kids coming up listen to crazy music and pierce their ears or wear low ankle socks etc. In his case, the world is changing, he came across something he has never seen, with Chigurh, and, for the first time he doesn't know how to deal with it. So in a sense, yeah he does think things are going to hell because people don't say "Please or thank you" like they used to, but that is a sort of generational phenomenon we all get. Hell, I'm 33 and already I think these kids coming up listen to shitty music, lol. We all get like that. But what's sympathetic is the personal aspect of it. At some point in our lives, we all face our own mortality, we all feel like maybe something has passed us by. He is lamenting life. He knows now that he can't handle this new breed of psychotic criminal, he's too old to do it. When he goes and visits his friend, the man in the wheelchair, the friend says "This country is hard on people" (paraphrase) but he also adds that Sheriff Bell hasn't "got anything new." Everybody feels like that to a point. The main point is, life is hard, it takes a toll on us, especially us regular people who work and strive and deal with everyday pressures that come with being, say middle or lower middle class, or even impoverished. Life is tough, but in rural areas, people always feel this sense that they are different and they had to tough it out and strive in a different way than some people have. Life is simpler, in a sense, but life is also a little tougher in ways too.
The ending is telling. Bell is thinking of his own mortality. He realizes that he is twenty years older than his father ever was. In his dream, he meets up with his dad and his dad goes ahead. And he looks up and sees the fire up ahead where his dad has set up camp. And he sees it getting closer and closer and closer. He knows soon he will be at that fire, right where his father is. And where is his father? Well his father in reality has passed on. Bell is wary of that, he knows his time is limited and soon enough, he'll be gone too. It's hard for him, because he was a sheriff in a rural community. An active man of a certain prestige and wisdom. Now he's just a retired guy with little to do but hang around at his house. He can't do the things he used to do as a young man, and for the first time it's hitting him. He thinks right now, that in this tough world, there is no use for an old guy like himself who can't be as productive as he once was. I think he's somewhat wrong, but that is up for interpretation. I believe there is room for the wisdom of elders etc. And if you notice, in the beginning of the book and the film, Bell talks about how he always loved listening to the old-timers talk. "He never failed to do so" he says. Well Bell is an old-timer. Probably some young cop wouldn't mind having a career like Bell. Like his partner, played by Garret Dillahunt in the film. On film you can see he looks up to Bell a little. I get that from the book too. He listens to Bell, asks him for his opinion on a few things. Bell doesn't yet realize his worth, he just knows he's older and doesn't feel that he is the man that he once was. We all reconcile with that. I have, even as a relatively young man, I retired from my athletic career, and still in my head, I dream of doing things that my body probably couldn't do anymore. It's why Brett Favre decided to retire than comeback, you know? It's hard to move on when you still think you might kind of have it, but then you sort of know you don't. Not with Favre or athletics exactly, but with anything. Bell is living that right now. I'd like to think that he settles in and becomes happier over the course of the next few years. He was a sheriff since his mid-20s, now he isn't, that takes time to move on from.
I don't think he is conservative so much in the political sense. I'm from a rural background and most people are naturally a little conservative, they go to church, they have guns, they are appalled at certain things as human beings that policymakers have to deal with politically. I am naturally conservative in many ways too. I would think Bell and most people in the area generally vote for Republicans or the old school Texas type Democrat, but they are more conservative in the sense that they believe in certain values they grew up with and don't identify a lot with politics to begin with. Older people tend to be a little more conservative too. I think part of it is he is getting older. He's beginning to be appalled by the newer world. Keep in mind this was set I think in 1980. Roe vs Wade hadn't been around all that long, shit in a small town like that probably nobody had abortions, it's a foreign and dangerous concept to him that only happens in "big cities." A guy like Bell, he doesn't look at abortion and think: "Well hundreds of thousands of women die around the world from nonmedical abortions, and they are tortured with coathangers and bicycle spokes, and plus I believe a woman has a right to have her own say about her body and medical care." That's something policymakers should consider, but not just your regular Joe, so to speak. He thinks of abortion and thinks the same things I always thought growing up, that it's heinous. That you are killing a life. You might as well be putting down another human, right? Of course, from a policy standpoint, you have to balance that out. And also consider he's a rural guy and has animals, horses and dogs etc. He's probably had to euthanize or shoot a much loved dog that got into a porcupine or was hit by a car etc. He's appalled at death. He has a simpler view of something like abortion, he just knows it's killing a life and it's a bad thing. That's why Chigurh scares him. He can't make sense of an indiscriminate killer. It's too much for him. Just the same as the thought of abortion is too much for him. He understands neither, and he has a certain amount of fear and abhorrence of both. He is an older guy facing mortality and he sees forms of death all around him. He can't accept any of it, not gracefully anyway.
I think they both were the protagonists. But, in the end, more Bell. We see the emotions through his prism. We never really know what Moss feels too much. We don't really know how he thinks or what he questions about this all. We don't even totally know why he did something so foolish as to go back to the scene after he got the money. We kind of know, but we don't have his voice in our ear, talking about it, reflecting on it. It eventually becomes about Bell and his place in life. How he saw this young man get himself and his wife killed over money. How there was a brutal sequence of events set about when a young man found some money that a bunch of drug dealers killed each other over. It's Moss that we pull for, because we see him set in contrast with the bad guy, Chigurh, from the beginning. But, in the end, it's not about Moss, it's about Bell and how he views all of this and the way it makes him feel.
Well hell, that was fun, I liked it. Thanks for the questions!
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