The violence is gratuitus and palpable. This Coen-Brother classic is already a Best Picture winner and one of the best movies in modern cinema--but what does it exactly mean?
There is a good (Tommy Lee Jone) bad (Javier Bardem) and a nobody (Josh Brolin); they serve as metaphors for how there is an evil in this world. The evil preys on nobodies; the good try to make sense of it all.
Is that right?
Is that how the world works? Is my interpretation of the movie accurate?
The movie is more about what happens to good people when put in bad situations. I think people can definitely relate to taking that kind of money when you know you haven't done anything wrong.
I believe there is some truth to Tommie Lee Jones' character not making sense of the violence in the wolrd.
Good point.
How difficult is it to make sense of violence in the world? Humans compete for limited resources, and the adoption of ideas. Between trying to gain scarce items such as food, shelter, land, mates, money, and goods, sometimes violence erupts. Almost every animal displays this type of behavior. Now throw in that humans are super-intelligent animals, (somewhat) capable of reasoning and fighting for not only tangible things as above, but _ideas_, and it's no wonder that individual and group violence erupts.
See how easy this is when you take gods, devils, spirits, ghosts, and other fictional entities out of the explanation? No questions about how a good god could let bad things happen, etc.
The data agree!
It's a matter of what reality you depict. As we know it, violence has existed forever and because it's so common, we try to interpret it.
It's not for self-defense. Often, as portrayed in the movie, people take joy in it.
As Tommy Lee Jones' states: "How do you deal with people like that?"
I wouldn't suggest that God doesn't exist because you have drawn dualities between man and nature. It's sort of simplistic when you draw those kinds of assertions.
It's true that man will mimic an animals survival insticnts, thus using violence. But that doesn't seem to explain our connection to our humans and even how we can forgive our greatest enemies. The brain's Neo Cortex is sophisticated enough to make relationships detailed than simply labeling someone bad or good.
But that's what animals do.
By the way, if there isn't a God, what's the deal with water? How come it's so darn perfect. Did everything just fall into place on its own?
The chemical structure of water is truly amazing. Simple, yet brilliant. The oxygen moleule has extra negatively charged electrons. These electrons oppose the single electron in each hydrogen atom. The resulting structure gives a 104.5 degree angle between the two hydrogens and the one oxygen. This 104.5 degree angle is essential to all of water's unique properties. Were it not for this angle, you would not be alive!! This angle gives water its four very unique properties that sustain all life. Water also forms "hydrogen bonds", a type of VanderWaals force that is not an actual chemical bond. The positively charged hydrogen attracts the negatively charged oxygen on another water molecule creating the ability of water to provide surface tension, to dissolve many ions, to expand when frozen, and to partially evaporate at low temperatures.
1) Water is the Universal Solvent
Since water is able to dissolve nearly any substance, given enough time, even metals and minerals can be dissolved and carried to living organisms such as plants, trees, and animals. Without these necessary elements, life could not thrive on earth, as these metals would not be found in a consumable state.
2) Water has high surface tension---capillary action
Water's high surface tension not only allows ships to float, but it also is responsible for "capillary action". Think of what water does when you place a paper towel in it. It "climbs" up the paper towel. Trees use narrow channels to take advantage of capillary action. Large trees are able to carry several tons of water per day as high as 100 meters to the very top of the tree. Human-made suction pumps are currently unable to do this!!! Were it not for water's capillary action, plants and trees could not exist...and neither would we!
3) Water expands when it freezes, causing ice to float
This is a most unique and powerful property of water. Instead of getting more dense when it freezes, water actually expands when it freezes into ice. This causes ice to float. If ice sunk, then during winter, a lake or even ocean would progressively freeze over as water froze on the surface, then sank to the bottom, and so on. Instead of fish and plants surviving under the blanket of protection of a surface layer of ice, they would be frozen along with the rest of the water, and ocean life would cease to exist. This would also affect land life, since a proportionately small amount of the oceans and lakes would be expected to melt during summer causing draught on the land.
4) Water partially vaporizes at low temperatures--evaporation
Water comes to land through the hydrologic cycle. Evaporation from the oceans delivers water to land. The land water then erodes into the oceans and the cycle is repeated. Without evaporation, this cycle would cease to exist and the land would become dry as a desert, and little life could survive or thrive.