Bishop Barron on "No Country for Old Men" (SPOILERS)

I was looking forward very much to seeing no country for old men because I'm a big fan of the Coen Brothers movies and you know from a few months ago I reviewed Fargo which i think is still their their best movie and this movie is similar to Fargo in one very basic way at the center of it you've got a law enforcement officer after a remarkably evil character now a major differences in Fargo Marge who is the law enforcement officer does get her man I mean she she brings in this remarkably evil figure and there's kind of a sense of a certain triumph of good over evil in Fargo at the heart of this movie though know kind of your old man you have a law enforcement officer Tommy Lee Jones is kind of weather-beaten you know hard-bitten Texas sheriff who's going after one of the most remarkably evil characters in recent cinema the character played by Javier Bardem but at the end of the day he doesn't bring him in in fact at the end of the day the sheriff kind of quietly retires now say a few things more about that but it's a different focus than fargo evil does seem to triumph in this movie the plot gets underway when this character Llewellyn Moss was kind of a rancher hunter comes across a drug deal that's gone spectacularly bad so the desert floor is littered with corpses all these figures have been killed in this in this drug deal next to one of the bodies he finds a satchel filled with two million dollars in cash now this point he faces a very important moral choice does he ignore the money does he turn the money in to the police or does he take it for himself he decides I'll tell you for myself well then he's pursued by this terrible evil character who is overwhelming in his cruelty and violence he's got this person on his tail he's also being pursued by the sheriff timely Jones well without giving away all the details of the plot bodies just pile up as this terribly violent person comes after Llewellyn Moss comes after this Rancher after him despite all the times lock him out to evade him to outsmart him he comes after him relentlessly and people fall right and left in the presence of this terrible figure what's one thing we can see I think very clearly you could see the theme of the cooperation with evil Moss makes the great moral mistake of thinking I can get away with this I'm not a bad guy and he isn't he's a decent fellow but there's this satchel full of money so why not take advantage of it well in that satchel it's a great detail in the movie in that satchel is a is a tracking device which allows this terribly evil character to track him down I think it's a symbol of the way evil just is after us it will not let us go we can't play the self-deceiving game that we can get away with it evil will have its way once we get involved with it I think that's a major motif in the film here's another take on it this Javier Bardem character he kills good he kills bad people he kills people in between often at the flip of a coin it's as arbitrary as that one way to read the film two is to say he stands for death the inevitability of death we tried to play with death we try to lock it out we try to avoid it we pretend it's not there but it comes relentlessly after us and breaks through every obstacle we set for it whom does death take good people sure bad people yep everybody in between yep it's just relentless and inevitable you say well what a cheerful movie well it's a realistic movie if you see him as a figure of death it's a realistic movie everyone at the end of the day in this world dies period good people bad people those who are morally and different everyone does don't think you can avoid it don't think you can live as though it's not the case is there any hope yes I would argue there's hope in this movie and hope is to be distinguished from optimism hope is a theological virtue in the Catholic tradition that means it's something that is awakened by grace at the very end of the movie the Tommy Lee Jones character the sheriff the good-hearted Sheriff is retiring he says I have been defeated by this this has been too much for me he's simply retiring but he recounts a dream he had the dream of his father who was also a lawman also was up against this sort of monstrous evil in the dream he says my father is building a fire and he's clearing a little space in the darkness I would say that's the glimmer of hope will we get out of this world alive no no one will is pessimism therefore the right attitude within this worldly framework yes but but is there hope best to say a supernatural grace filled hope of a life beyond this one of a goodness beyond this one of God's heaven that lies beyond this world yes to live in hope is to have our desire ordered finally to that world is this movie therefore in a very harsh way kind of rubbing our faces in the terrible fact of evil and the terrible fact of death yes good and from a Christian standpoint you could say that's wise we don't look for salvation in this world we don't hope to find it this side of death but can we with the time of Lee Jones character dream of a light a Cleary in the darkness that lies beyond this world that's the glimmer of hope I got from this movie and certain way as a Christian I'm grateful for this very realistic depiction of sin and death the Bible never blinks at Sun and death it shows us in a death very boldly as this movie does and I think give a little glimmer

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 102,880

Rating: 4.8029432 out of 5

Keywords: father, barron, word, on, fire, coen, brothers, javier, bardem, no, country, for, old, men

Id: VcyLpTzsktA

Length: 6min 50sec (410 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 18 2008