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By Rich Simon It seems astonishing that even just two or three decades ago, parents not only pretty much knew what was expected of them to turn their offspring into civilized adults, but they could actually count on society to back them up. Even more astounding, kids seemed to understand this, too. Even if they rebelled against, yelled about, or sullenly resented how “unfair” adults were, they seemed to acknowledge adult authority and realize that they would just have to wait until they turned 18 to get for themselves the keys to the kingdom of grown-up independence. | Blood and Guts - Page 4 |
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The film doesn't just slap us awake with violence: it brings violence to life and personifies it. The violence captures our attention and creates such anxiety we don't dare drop our guard. We come to feel what Jones has felt all these years as he dealt with the relentlessness and inescapability of human evil. Taken from a Cormac McCarthy novel, the movie comes from the Coen Brothers, and is, therefore, brilliantly surprising and quirkily funny. It isn't even clear whether Chigurh is intended to be real or the embodiment of all the pointless evil the old sheriff has seen. The Coens, literally, shock us with violence, reminding us of the greed and evil of which we're capable. In sharp contrast to these violent films about people who spill the blood of others without compassion or remorse because they're vengeful or greedy, is one about people who unwittingly kill the things they love. In the award-winning novel Atonement, Ian McEwan tells a story of great love ruined by a confused child's lie, thus changing everyone's life forever. |