[Marxism] A comment on "No Country for Old Men"

[Louis Proyect]

A really interesting comment just showed up here from "Malooga":

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/no-country-for-old-men-a-follow-up/

This is an excerpt:


Coming late to the party.

Well, I've read the two reviews by our host and the 100+ comments, 
and I found a number of them interesting and even enlightening, and 
yet I come away from this thread of film criticism on a Marxist blog 
even more disappointed than from the movie itself.

Yes, the cinematography and the production values were top-notch, but 
one expects that from any Hollywood film, and has for a long time. It 
is hard to imagine that one would see a film for the sound production 
unless one worked in that industry; just as it is equally hard to 
imagine that one would bypass a film that had something important to 
say, but where the production values were not top-notch.

More to the point ­ and especially on a Marxist blog ­ is the 
question of what this film, and film in general, has to say about the 
human condition, and particularly the human condition at this 
critical juncture in time on this planet; what does the film have to 
say about the individual facing the contradictions and violence of 
modern society, coping with the ever-increasing material and social 
inequality and constraints on a stable and meaningful life posed by 
neo-liberal, late-stage capitalism, and the concomitant ecological 
collapse; what does the film have to say about the individual's 
struggle against the very real violent and dehumanizing authoritarian 
and mass social forces in a time of rapid change; what does the film 
have to say about the search for community in a time of 
homogenization; what does the film have to say about the individual 
confronting the age-old forces of time, fate, change and death, and 
making a meaningful personal peace with them? Apparently very little.