"Who looks stupid now." Visser's victory here is shabby, meager, and, if you've seen the movie, short-lived. His contempt is absurd and ridiculous. But still, what a great line and what a great delivery of it by the incomparable M. Emmett Walsh!
People find it very difficult to kill another, even firing squads missing the heart (or body altogether sometimes) pretty commonly, even at very close range. It’s very tragic for the victim here, as his fate is much worse than being shot to death quickly. But the terribly off shot, closer to the shoulder than the heart, probably comes from the psychology opposing a more precise shot.
Where do you place the shoulder on the body ? You touched the heart of the twisted plot here. As spectators, we have mixed feelings because we always know more than the characters do. We know Marty ordered a murder and is despicable for that, but Ray doesn't know, and we can feel his internal struggle. I'm yet not sure if we have pity for Marty or for Ray having to do what he has to do. Probably both ;p
@@retropaganda8442 you’re right! Just re-watched it; it’s actually pretty close to the heart, slightly on the right side of his chest though (as opposed to slightly on the left where you’d aim for instant death), and definitely a bit higher than one would shoot for guaranteed death. The Coen brothers are incredibly meticulous filmmakers and I’m sure they had the exact spot of the wound in mind. Indeed, I’m sort of convinced that Marty was consciously playing dead; he doubtless heard the gun being cocked, clicking very loudly, and probably braced himself to act dead if he was lucky enough to survive the initial shot. But I stand by my point that murder is extremely hard for most people to do psychologically, and missing the center area of the torso at such close range suggests a psychological resistance to the act, just like “forgetting” the lighter behind might be the conscience forcing an involuntary confession, a theme common in Hitchcock from Strangers on a Train (the Coens obviously directly referencing the lighter’s role in that story) to Rope and probably other films treating the murderer’s conscience. Btw, the question of how much sympathy we might feel for Marty or Ray is an Interesting one. Frankly, I find Ray’s death completely satisfying and deserved; he kills purely for money, although you could say by killing Marty he’s only doing what the law itself would do to one guilty of successfully arranging a hit. But Ray’s guilt is not mitigated, in my view, by how much Marty may, even according to the law, warrant death, being himself a murderer. Marty is cuckolded by his wife fairly publicly, and is humiliated by her so brutally that maybe his guilt is (at least just a bit) mitigated by what he’s suffered through her infidelity. Nothing excuses his trying to have her murdered, but he might be considered mentally impaired by how his marriage hurts him; and one could argue that his wife and the boyfriend hurt and humiliate him in such a way that establishes a condition of war between them. I vaguely recall Robert Blake’s murder case was a bit like this, and he may have been found not guilty because the wife was considered so grotesque (“a lot of people would have liked her dead” Blake memorably argued in his defense) that the jurors were more amenable to “reasonable doubt.” The OJ Simpson not guilty verdict was probably similar. Most people were pretty sure he did it, but if she was having an affair with Ron Goldman on Simpson’s own property, “reasonable doubt” may have seemed more congenial to jurors than it would have been if she’d been a squeaky clean spouse. When a wife betrays her husband in particularly brutal or humiliating ways, and he murders her (or is charged with this crime), jurors may be more amenable to “reasonable doubt” than they otherwise would be, presumably because people might read a “state of war” into the situation at least partly excusing his violence. I’ve (thank goodness) never remotely been in such a situation (speaking of classic films portraying this kind of tragedy, “Blue Angel” - ALWAYS opt for the German version!!- and Louis Malle’s “Les Amantes” are pretty exquisitely brutal and unforgettably devastating), but society seems on some level to tacitly recognize that a woman can hurt her husband in ways that are themselves so “tantamount to murder” that should he kill her in response, juries might stretch themselves to find “reasonable doubt” regardless of whether the law so authorizes them. In light of all this, I find Marty extremely loathsome, but with “mitigating factors.” Ray on the other hand is a pretty unambiguously evil character who more than deserves what he gets. Marty’s punishment is far, far, far beyond what he deserves. He may deserve to die, but not his particularly gruesome fate.
"Who looks stupid now." Visser's victory here is shabby, meager, and, if you've seen the movie, short-lived. His contempt is absurd and ridiculous. But still, what a great line and what a great delivery of it by the incomparable M. Emmett Walsh!
“WHO looks stupid now” not “You”
@@henryl5174 Fixed, thanks.
I was amazed how long it took for Marty to die. Tough man.
The original Anton Chigurh
Missed opportunity to call this scene Visser’s Crossing
What happened to Visser's penis when died at the end?
Two great actors.
This shit BLEW MY MIND
One of the best
"This is an illicit romance..." I don't remember this line, having seen the film multiple times.
You probably watched the director’s cut which is ironically shorter than the original by 3 minutes
Now that you mention it, I don't recall that, either.
The theatrical cut is increasingly rare these days.
He always has flies buzzing his head.
I noticed that too. He is a sleazeball.
another one of the coen's technique's to show this character has "shit for brains"
He's dirty
People find it very difficult to kill another, even firing squads missing the heart (or body altogether sometimes) pretty commonly, even at very close range. It’s very tragic for the victim here, as his fate is much worse than being shot to death quickly. But the terribly off shot, closer to the shoulder than the heart, probably comes from the psychology opposing a more precise shot.
Where do you place the shoulder on the body ?
You touched the heart of the twisted plot here. As spectators, we have mixed feelings because we always know more than the characters do. We know Marty ordered a murder and is despicable for that, but Ray doesn't know, and we can feel his internal struggle. I'm yet not sure if we have pity for Marty or for Ray having to do what he has to do. Probably both ;p
@@retropaganda8442 you’re right! Just re-watched it; it’s actually pretty close to the heart, slightly on the right side of his chest though (as opposed to slightly on the left where you’d aim for instant death), and definitely a bit higher than one would shoot for guaranteed death.
The Coen brothers are incredibly meticulous filmmakers and I’m sure they had the exact spot of the wound in mind.
Indeed, I’m sort of convinced that Marty was consciously playing dead; he doubtless heard the gun being cocked, clicking very loudly, and probably braced himself to act dead if he was lucky enough to survive the initial shot.
But I stand by my point that murder is extremely hard for most people to do psychologically, and missing the center area of the torso at such close range suggests a psychological resistance to the act, just like “forgetting” the lighter behind might be the conscience forcing an involuntary confession, a theme common in Hitchcock from Strangers on a Train (the Coens obviously directly referencing the lighter’s role in that story) to Rope and probably other films treating the murderer’s conscience.
Btw, the question of how much sympathy we might feel for Marty or Ray is an Interesting one. Frankly, I find Ray’s death completely satisfying and deserved; he kills purely for money, although you could say by killing Marty he’s only doing what the law itself would do to one guilty of successfully arranging a hit. But Ray’s guilt is not mitigated, in my view, by how much Marty may, even according to the law, warrant death, being himself a murderer.
Marty is cuckolded by his wife fairly publicly, and is humiliated by her so brutally that maybe his guilt is (at least just a bit) mitigated by what he’s suffered through her infidelity. Nothing excuses his trying to have her murdered, but he might be considered mentally impaired by how his marriage hurts him; and one could argue that his wife and the boyfriend hurt and humiliate him in such a way that establishes a condition of war between them. I vaguely recall Robert Blake’s murder case was a bit like this, and he may have been found not guilty because the wife was considered so grotesque (“a lot of people would have liked her dead” Blake memorably argued in his defense) that the jurors were more amenable to “reasonable doubt.” The OJ Simpson not guilty verdict was probably similar. Most people were pretty sure he did it, but if she was having an affair with Ron Goldman on Simpson’s own property, “reasonable doubt” may have seemed more congenial to jurors than it would have been if she’d been a squeaky clean spouse.
When a wife betrays her husband in particularly brutal or humiliating ways, and he murders her (or is charged with this crime), jurors may be more amenable to “reasonable doubt” than they otherwise would be, presumably because people might read a “state of war” into the situation at least partly excusing his violence.
I’ve (thank goodness) never remotely been in such a situation (speaking of classic films portraying this kind of tragedy, “Blue Angel” - ALWAYS opt for the German version!!- and Louis Malle’s “Les Amantes” are pretty exquisitely brutal and unforgettably devastating), but society seems on some level to tacitly recognize that a woman can hurt her husband in ways that are themselves so “tantamount to murder” that should he kill her in response, juries might stretch themselves to find “reasonable doubt” regardless of whether the law so authorizes them.
In light of all this, I find Marty extremely loathsome, but with “mitigating factors.” Ray on the other hand is a pretty unambiguously evil character who more than deserves what he gets. Marty’s punishment is far, far, far beyond what he deserves. He may deserve to die, but not his particularly gruesome fate.
Nice, what's the source? UK dvd? Laserdisc?