Looking for the Coen Brothers

I was asked by a commenter to keep them posted on my current, primary Internet "presence" (ha, ha) via the Texas Escapes magazine/website. My Eagle Pass post of around a year ago is the current issue's cover story. They gave it a really great title (I wish I'd thought of!):

"Eagle Pass: No Country for Young Men Either
or Looking for the Coen Brothers"

Early impressions of Burn After Reading

Bass-esque
I'm a big fan of the Coen Brothers' movies. You could put The Big Lebowski (1998) on a continuous loop, and I'd be pretty happy. I spent the better part of the second half of last year healthily obsessing (reading the Cormac McCarthy novel twice, seeing the movie in a theater four times in two different cities) over No Country for Old Men. For Burn After Reading to come out less than a year after No Country for Old Men is a real treat. Here's a trailer:


Have you ever noticed how anytime Brad Pitt is in an exceptionally quirky or "different" movie, he tends to comb his hair a particular way?

Johnny Suede
Cool World
Burn After Reading
I'm reminded primarily of Johnny Suede (1991) or Cool World (1992). He's also doing those spastic arm and hand gestures he did in Twelve Monkeys (1995), so look out. It might be safe to assume this newest Coens' film will be a return to something more offbeat, like say Raising Arizona (1987) or Barton Fink (1991). With John Malkovich being in it, and George Clooney employing his facial expressions from O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), it should have some bizarre moments (intentional or not). But I've been wrong before.

What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?

Lacking both the time and the inspiration for a Monday morning post, let me repost this from December 22, in honor of No Country for Old Men essentially sweeping the Oscars (all but for its cinematography):

Here is the Charlie Rose show on which he discussed No Country for Old Men with Joel and Ethan Coen, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. I've seen it twice thrice in the theaters, and I think it's a damn fine film. There are moments of pure suspense - the type Alfred Hitchcock used to do (think of the scene in Rear Window when Jimmy Stewart watches as Grace Kelly is being attacked by Raymond Burr). The video:


Here's the film's trailer:

It's odd how the official movie site and the trailer both use music, yet there wasn't a bit of it in the actual film. I expected there would be a soundtrack similar to something like the one used in Fargo (1996). Music is generally such a big part of many Coen films, like Raising Arizona (1987) or The Big Lebowski (1998). But other than during a couple of the most intense moments of suspense, there is absolutely no musical soundtrack. In fact, I wouldn't describe what was used as "music" as much as I would categorize it as "ambient sound." It's one of the things which makes it such a unique film experience.

Still, I had questions about the plot, so I'm reading the novel by Cormac McCarthy. I find McCarthy's not using quotation marks during character dialog to be extremely annoying. And isn't that I'm not up to the challenge of deciphering when the character's are speaking or not - I made it through (and understood) Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!. I had planned to delve into McCarthy's novels, but I'm afraid he's lost me with that style. It just seems so unnecessary of a thing for him to do.

Here are the pictures from my visit to Eagle Pass

Eagle Pass

View Larger Map
Silly me. I went to Eagle Pass last week expecting to see locations used in the film No Country for Old Man. A perfunctory check of filming locations at IMDb did indeed list Eagle Pass (UPDATE: Eagle Pass has since been removed from the list of locations). And I assumed, since a hotel in the film was called "Hotel Eagle" (or was it Eagle Hotel? I've only seen this film three times now) and the events of the film and book are set in Texas, on the Texas/Mexico border, that I would indeed find the things I expected to see.

Moss pulled into Eagle Pass at a quarter till two in the morning.
He'd slept a good part of the way in the back of the cab and he
only woke up when they slowed coming off the highway down Main Street.
He watched the pale white globes of the street lamps pass along the
upper rim of the window.
Then he sat up.
 You goin across the river? the driver said.
 No. Just take me downtown.
 You are downtown.
 Moss leaned forward with his elbows on the back of the seat.
 What's that right there?
 That's the Maverick County Courthouse.
 No. Right there where the sign is.
 That's the Hotel Eagle.
 Drop me there. (No Country for Old Men, pp. 106, 107)

But no. It turns out that most of the filming was done in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Imagine that - things in a movie not reflecting reality....So, no Plaza Hotel. No Serf Theatre. But here is what I did find in Eagle Pass. First of all, there was the decidedly tropical Maverick County Courthouse and jail. It was constructed in 1885, and is Romanesque Revival style with Second Empire influences, with the 1926 paint scheme:





I saw the name "Hesles" several times while in Eagle Pass, including on this motel near the downtown area and border crossing, complete with eclectic birdhouse collection:


The Aztec Theatre, which was built around 1915 and closed in 1982. It is mentioned in the novel:

He loped wincing down the sidewalk past the Aztec Theatre. As he
passed the little round ticket kiosk all the glass fell out of it.
He never even heard that shot. (No Country for Old Men, p. 114)

Eagle Pass had a Kress at one time, in front of which there was wooden pavement as recently as 1963:


More recently, it appears one could shop at the "De Todo Todo Todo Todo" (promises, promises) y "Mi Casa," and what might have been a Kress warehouse(?):




When these pictures were taken in January 2008, the border town, drug cartel violence, which continues today, had begun to make national news, so it was slightly disturbing to see this:

Finally, the sun went down on Eagle Pass:



Corner of Main and Bibb (note Aztec Theatre):



These last two shots are my favorites of what I captured while there. It was extremely cold at this point, and I was feeling "brave" being out on Main Street at that particular hour:

No Country for Old Men

Here is the Charlie Rose show on which he discussed No Country for Old Men with Joel and Ethan Coen, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. I've seen it twice in the theaters, and I think it's a damn fine film. There are moments of pure suspense - the type Alfred Hitchcock used to do (think of the scene in Rear Window when Jimmy Stewart watches as Grace Kelly is being attacked by Raymond Burr). The video:


Here's the film's trailer:

It's odd how the official movie site and the trailer both use music, yet there wasn't a bit of it in the actual film. I expected there would be a soundtrack similar to something like the one used in Fargo (1996). Music is generally such a big part of many Coen films, like Raising Arizona (1987) or The Big Lebowski (1998). But other than during a couple of the most intense moments of suspense, there is absolutely no musical soundtrack. In fact, I wouldn't describe what was used as "music" as much as I would categorize it as "ambient sound." It's one of the things which makes it such a unique film experience.

Still, I had questions about the plot, so I'm reading the novel by Cormac McCarthy. I find McCarthy's not using quotation marks during character dialog to be extremely annoying. And isn't that I'm not up to the challenge of deciphering when the character's are speaking or not - I made it through (and understood) Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!. I had planned to delve into McCarthy's novels, but I'm afraid he's lost me with that style. It just seems so unnecessary of a thing for him to do.