I have never seen such graphic violence in a movie. Maybe in a horror or a war movie, but certainly not in a movie that plays so much like a drama. And it's not just that a man gets shot in the head, we see little parts flying in so many directions and then don't forget the close up of the accumulating pool of blood. What makes it more disturbing is the juxtaposition of it with a small peaceful little town. It's all very real. And I suppose it's well done (Good acting, good directing yada yada) but I started wondering where does this all lead too. Viggo Mortensen kills a few people and then kills a few more and then the body count starts getting really high. Pretty soon everyone in the movie is dead. I got a picture in my head of the writers in a room asking each other "What now, we've killed everyone." What now? What now? What now nothing. The movies over. When I saw the final blackout I thought the projector in the back was broken. I was expecting at least a half hour more of the movie. But it was over. I haven't seen so many people die since Shakespeare's Hamlet, and I was wondering what's next. But nothing.
I suppose it should be a good thing when the people leave the theater wanting more, but I don't know. I was wondering if the entire point of the movie was a certain quest for survival. The quest ending when all the characters were dead. I read Roger Ebert's review and he said in so many words that it was about Darwinian survival of the fittest. I suppose that fits. If you want to see a fit man survive, there you go.
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