No Country for Old Men

1) Reminded me of Blood Simple. People don't seem to know that movie. It's the first one I think of when the Coen Bros come up, mostly because when I first saw it, long ago, I remember taking the trouble to figure out who made that movie.

2) The bad guy—I was thinking, OK—would somebody please bust a cap in that dude? Similar to the feeling I encounter reading various WWII histories.

3) Texas Tough Guy(s)—I like these stock characters, as presented here in their subtle varieties like so many orchids. Woody Harrelson as the fallen Texas Ranger, similar somewhat to the tall guys I remember in the elevators of the Hotel Driskill in Austin, ca 1998; Tommy Lee Jones as the Coke Stevenson variety, big hat, high morals—defeated in 1948 in a "furious and controversial Democratic Party primary runoff by Austin Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson" (quoth the Wikipedia). Like that 35th governor of Texas (Stevenson), Tommy Lee Jones is set aside (or at least, kept removed) from the action by the forces of a higher evil or lesser good, depending upon one's viewpoint. In any case, the Texas Tough Guy is inevitably shunted off the stage, Daniel Boone to a Santa Anna, although a Santa Anna we're not prone to remember. Finally, the simple Tough Texan, plenty tough himself, out hunting antelope, turning up a drug mess and $2 million instead. The movie invites a person to identify with that character. He's got inner strength ("he always takes care of himself,") says his wife—but when he succumbs to the evil dude I realized, OK—here we're taking a departure from the usual forms—this bad guy is truly the Devil Himself.

Can't win against that.

Here we shall reign secure [...] though in hell. (Milton)

Possible congruence

Benny Goodman's Sing, Sing, Sing = AC/DC's Given the Dog a Bone

[ It's hard to find a recording of Sing, Sing, Sing that has the drums at the right level of insistence. I've got a crummy CD version of a mono Sing, Sing, Sing recording made 6 July 1937 by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra. You can turn it up all you like, and it's still found wanting. AC/DC, by contrast, always responds well when played louder. The "Producer's Note" on the Goodman CD apologizes "We feel that these digital versions of mono recordings, many of them made 50 or more years ago, have been transferred as painstakingly and carefully as contemporary technology will allow." Well, maybe so, but I "feel" that sentences that start "We feel..." always wrap up with a disappointment of some kind, and that pathetic apology on the Goodman CD is no exception. I guess I should look for a modern recording of Sing, Sing, Sing. Any recommendations? ]