I understood the significance of what I watched, D.
My reply was to Xessive.
It did go somewhere, the wrong place. I'm sorry I watched it.
Obviously, you thought it went "somewhere", but you just didn't particularly care for it.
Maybe b/c you wanted more story told to you than to be shown on-screen?
Maybe you wanted less stuff implied and more stuff cemented in stone here?
Looking and wanting more depth to the story here than what was there?
That doesn't mean I liked it, or appreciated it at any level, including some artsy-fartsy transcendental one. I thought it sucked through and through, performances aside. If I want my story to be "bad guy kills people and gets away with it; good guy shakes head and leaves" the end, nothing else to see here, move along, it won't take 2 hours and a Hollywood budget to do it.
A lot of the actual story is told here through the actual visuals themselves and nothing more. A lot can be implied from what is shown on-screen -- and also what is not shown on-screen, as well. It's not really spelled out to you in dialogue, unlike most flicks.
Yeah, most films don't work that way. They'll tell you things often in dialogue. Also, most would've told you as soon as the flick begins "Texas, 1980's," setting the time and place on-screen as soon as it starts. This film instead lets you figure it out by everything else in the film (such as all the vehicles have a distinct look and the add 20-somethings years line thrown early on) that basically indicates the time and place.
Cobra, question -- did you think in your opinion the flick was too long? Was the pacing off for you at all?
Yes, I did like the film a lot -- but I dunno' if it should've been the best movie of 2007. I don't think it'll be my favorite DVD of 2008. Though, regardless, it was a very good flick, if you ask me.
EDIT:
See thats it though, I dont want to watch a movie where the message is cut and dry and predictable and looks like it was setup. It just makes characters transparent and look stupid.
Actually, what I expected, I didn't receive...
What I expected was a big shootout to be shown b/t Anton and Luellyn. (spelling?) With the way it was going, I was even expecting him to kill Anton. Of course, we never saw that shootout. And we know Luellyn got killed.
I expected afterwards, that maybe Tommy Lee Hones would kill Anton in the Hotel. That didn't happen, either.
Once it cut to the wife, I expected Anton to kill the wife. We can assume that he probably did, by what he does w/ his boots -- even though we didn't actually see him do it or get any sound effects of him killing her.
When Anton was driving in the near-end, I expecting him right there to get into an accident and die. Though, the accident occurred -- he did walk away, pretty much. Didn't really expect that.
