Perfect Films

I wanted to wait until today to make this blog entry, this is because I had the chance to see an advanced screening of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN last night and I wanted to be able to comment on this. I am a huge fan of the Coen Brothers, though they are certainly not pulp filmmakers, I knew from reading the story before seeing this film that for justice to be done there would have to be pulp elements to the film. The blood certainly does pour freely in this film, after the final frame of the credits, Josh Brolin came into the theatre and answered questions. After recieving a question on doing Planet Terror, he commented on the different feelings violence in cinema can give a viewer. He said after watching No Country, he felt he wanted to walk out of the theatre and hug his children. He commented on Planet Terror as a film which makes people feel all powerful and intersted in hurting others. With both films violence plays a character, and there are pulp/shock value moments in both films. The difference comes in response from character. In Planet Terror we are essentially watching a video game, adrenaline junkies were the target of this film. It builds a world around us where the characters can go through any number of things and they can still come out the other end seemingly unscathed. What we see in NO COUNTRY is the horror of violence. The effects it has on people and the effect it has on those whom they love. Each bullet wound, is just that, and when you get wounded too many times, or in the right place, you die. In this film, the characters all have their own way of dealing with a reckloose killer who shows no signs of sanity, but follows an all too realistic code. Each bullet wound has to be cleaned, and the bullet has to be removed, shown in the ultimate amount of pain to the character.
These two films represent entirely different things in filmmaking. They both make me cringe at the time when I see a wound, and see strong acts of violence.