No Country For Old Men

[char1ie]

Coen Brothers film. Just watched it. A great boys film. Dead drug dealers, a hero who finds the loot, lots of very tense action and chases, loads of blood and killing and it's pretty gruesome. Very Coen Brothers - See Blood Simple and Fargo, add them together with a bit of Desperado and you have a winner!

http://vjmorton.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/no-country-for-old-men.jpg

Very cool. Not totally excellent. But great.

Charlie

[mightyroar]

can it be as good as the book? which is brilliant?

[ratty]

Got this recommendation from someone else too - trying to download it as we speak! (Speak? Type!)

[char1ie]

Ahhh, we love a bit of the torrent!

Charlie

[barrymarshall]

reading the book at the moment - cracking stuff! Cannae wait for the film.

[SeanMacGabhann]

char1ie

was that a deliberate attempt at a gag? Back of the class me laddie

[Asset]

why do you assume it is 'a boys [sic] film'? That is rather stereotypically mysoginistically chauvinist of you. I suppose girls just like soppy films about boyfriends?

I happened to read a review of this the other day and thought 'that sounds good must see it' not ' oh gosh gruesome violence must steer clear'.

[char1ie]

Boys film / girls film.

Action, adventure, war, violence / rom com, costume drama, tragedy, soppy love stories.

Boys sometimes like girly films and girls sometimes like boyish films.

I didn't assume it was a boys film. It is a boys film.

Charlie

[Keef]

I do think there are boys films and girls films i.e. Die Hard - Love Actually.

However, to put drama in the girls film bracket doesn't say a lot for us boys, and where would one put a film like This is England, or Blood Diamond?

[Keef]

For the record, I hate Die Hard, except the one with Samuel L Jackson in it.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Die Hard 3? People don't seem to like that one so much but I like it a lot - watched it again just recently in fact

But I wouldn't classify Die Hard as a blokes film and Love Actually as a girls film - I know plenty of both sexes who would choose the other

[mockney piers]

Confucius say man who like Love Actually is seriously lacking in taste and/or sanity.

[Cassius]

char1ie Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Boys film / girls film.

> Action, adventure, war, violence / rom com,

> costume drama, tragedy, soppy love stories.

>

> Boys sometimes like girly films and girls

> sometimes like boyish films.

>

> I didn't assume it was a boys film. It is a boys

> film.

Total and utter drivel - most films are either good or bad, well made, interesting, well acted or are not. People's tastes are less affected by sexuality than you'd think.

What 'sex' film would 'I am Legend' be or 'Downfall' or 'Sideways' or 'Tell No-One' ?

[SeanMacGabhann]

I Am Legend = a eunuch

[Asset]

Er, excuse me but I am female and I thought Love Actually and for that matter, Notting Hill were both big piles of utter crap.

Charlie, I don't agree with your assertion. I understand where you are coming from but it just reinforces baseless assupmtions.

EDIT: what Cassius said (to use a Keefism)

[mockney piers]

Char1ie's our token unreconstructed male. Government positive discrimination targets mean every forum must have at least one.

You may want to avoid the This is London forums where there's something of a plague of them at the moment.

[lozzyloz]

If you're in the business of making films then (generally speaking) you want to maximise distribution and hence profit. With that in mind the film is normally aimed at a specific group of people. Gay films, childrens films, chick flicks etc. Doesn't mean people or genders can't cross over. Same applies to music, books etc. I don't think Char1ie was trying to be sexist but I suspect he's from the meeja world and simply used some jargon.

[Asset]

I would think that maximising distribution would mean not minimising target audience by labelling them as above. However when I accused Charlie of being an whatever it was I said, I was being slightly tongue in cheek. BUT saying things like that is an example of the invidious/insidious (not sure which) reinforcing of stereotypes.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I think the media companies do the demographic slicing loz

I doubt any author or film director worth their salt is THAT market driven - they want to convert people as often as not, not pander to them

[Brendan]

What? The reinforcement of stereotypes! You mean stereotypes like overly sensitive militant feminists?

(I?m being very tongue in cheek here Asset ;-) )

[lozzyloz]

Totall agree Sean, I was talking post inception. Most writers/creators just want to tell a good story or simply entertain. It's once it gets sucked up by the likes of Sony, BMG, TimeWarner etc that it becomes a different animal. That's why independent stuff is generally so much more appealing because it's become less corrupted on its journey from creation to delivery.

[char1ie]

I'm not reinforcing stereotypes. And there's nothing wrong with stereotypes anyway, it's how we catagorise the world.

You have heard the following phrases, and I think their meanings are all pretty clear:

Chick lit = Books aimed primarily at females

Family drama = Drama aimed at families

Adult entertainment = entertainment for adult.

These identify the primary audience that the work is aimed at. Each term is not exclusive. ie Family drama does not mean that you may not watch it if you are not a member of a family.

Lighten up.

Bridget Jones is a girls film. This film is a boys film. It doesn't exlude girls, or lesbians, or midgets, or the aged, or Spanish people. It jusy happens to be primarily aimed at men.

Stop being so bloody East Dulwich.

**All said with a smile btw**

Charlie

[Brendan]

Personally I find categorising the world an exercise in futility as it only takes a minute and it has all gone and changed again.

[Cassius]

But NO-ONE likes being stereotyped - it might be one way (a lazy one) to catagorise the world but that doesn't mean it's right.

Some stereotypes have been responsible for discrimination until the recent past and probably still is (thinking of the straight woman sacked from a 'gay' nightclub and being called a 'breeder' - well she may well wish to have children and therefore that may well be a stereotyped view of her, but she was awarded several thousand pounds for it)

It's not a matter of lightening up or being 'bloody East Dulwich' (what's that meant to mean?) but a desire to move away this kind of stereotyping.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I agree with your sentiment Cassius, but unfortunately I'm not sure NO-ONE likes being stereotyped. And even more people actually like stereotyping other people

It's lazy thinking if you ask me but it's fairly widespread. I hate it myself and on a good day with the wind behind me, could actually lay most of the evils of the world at it's door...