No Country For Old Men

[Antfarmer77]

I saw an ad for this movie and thought it might worth a watch once it's out on DVD. I saw the book in a store the other day and was thumbing through it and thought "How odd...no dialogue." Then I noticed there's no quotation marks...anywhere! The book is full of dialogue it's just not deliniatedby quotes. Perhaps literary standards are becoming more lack in the publishing world? (crosses fingers)

 

[Vermilion]

I'd probably get so frustrated by the confusion that would cause that I would be unable to read past the first chapter.

Let's hope literary standards remain reasonably high for the sake of the readers.

 

[only_more_so]

I saw the movie last weekend... I realized about halfway through, there was no music.

It was a good movie, but the ending disappointed me. It was also a very deadpan kind of movie, the sort that critics love and the public generally doesn't "understand"

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm re-reading 1984 by George Orwell. It's not too different from what you report.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I saw the movie last weekend... I realized about halfway through, there was no music.

I wish more movies would try that. There have been quite a few that have been ruined by their music, or the music is just so heavily emotional that it tries to outdo the emotion coming from the actors, and things would just be so much better if you let the action speak for itself.

nd yes, I will be waiting for this one to hit cable. I hardly ever rent DVDs anymore for some reason.

 

[Boota]

I'm seeing "rule breaking" more and more in publishing lately. I picked up a book the other day that didn't have any quotation marks or indentations. No line breaks between the paragraphs. Just a huge block of justified text. It was unreadable, so I put it back on the shelf. I hope books like this don't sell and that causes the practice of the bullshit format to slip away unnoticed.

Different isn't ALWAYS good.

 

[oggbashan]

Sterne's Tristram Shandy broke all the rules and is still a classic.

Modern experimental novels rarely approach Sterne's standard.

Og

 

[Belegon]

I wish more movies would try that. There have been quite a few that have been ruined by their music, or the music is just so heavily emotional that it tries to outdo the emotion coming from the actors, and things would just be so much better if you let the action speak for itself.

Music is one part of the multitude of things that go into a movie. No more and no less have probably been ruined by the music than have by choosing the wrong director, or bad casting, or a screwed up script... all of it has to work together.

Can a movie work without music? Sure. But the music, done right, is a part of the entire presentation. Think about Jaws.

 

[slyc_willie]

Music is one part of the multitude of things that go into a movie. No more and no less have probably been ruined by the music than have by choosing the wrong director, or bad casting, or a screwed up script... all of it has to work together.

Can a movie work without music? Sure. But the music, done right, is a part of the entire presentation. Think about Jaws.

I dunno. Music can add a lot, but sometimes, the rawness of a scene needs no assitance. How about The Birds?

ETA: Or, Reservoir Dogs? The scene where the cops dies . . . no musis, just the raw feeling of the scene.

 

[Boota]

The wrong music can be detrimental. The movie Ladyhawke, sword and sorcery type fantasy with an 80's techno soundtrack, immediately comes to mind. The music is so mismatched it serves only to bring me out of the story.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Sterne's Tristram Shandy broke all the rules and is still a classic.

Modern experimental novels rarely approach Sterne's standard.

Og

Don't forget James Joyce's Ulysses. The last chapter, Molly's Soliloquy, has only eight v-e-r-y long sentences and three punctuation marks.

Best I recall, Cormac McCarthy has given up using quotation marks.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[colddiesel]

Sterne's Tristram Shandy broke all the rules and is still a classic.

Modern experimental novels rarely approach Sterne's standard.

Og

True, but Tristram Shandy is a difficult read the first time but then I suppose why should reading have to be easy? Maybe the vigour of us as readers has slipped as much as the standard of writing .

 

[cantdog]

As long as it's done consistently, you can decode any quote conventions.

Em dashes, double carets, italics. Nothing at all, as some Bibles do. The key is to keep it up consistently.