Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the film - Spoilers.
So, was it all a dream?
shareNo.
You’re thinking of “There Will Be Blood”.
No I watched it last night.
shareI was just kidding around there.
In all seriousness, this movie is definitely a ‘reality’ movie.
It’s an extended representation of the notion that “if something appears too good to be true, then it probably is”.
Expecting that satchel of money to be consequence-free was the “too good to be true” mistake of the main character, and disaster follows.
Yeah, I was giving the driest response I could think of.
I felt that some of the scenes had an almost dreamlike quality (I can’t quite put my finger on it), especially when you consider the number of coincidences that took place; for example how different characters conveniently keep finding each other. I could be completely wrong.
I can dig that.
This makes me think about something that Bret Easton Ellis once said about novels. Paraphrasing, but basically it’s that “novels are dreams resurrected with words”. And this movie is a pretty great adaptation of a novel, so perhaps the filmmakers were channeling that dream-energy subconsciously and you tapped into that in your viewing.
I personally get a very nihilistic realist vibe from this movie.
As far as characters conveniently finding each other, I have to disagree. There was a tracker in the satchel, so that’s how Chigurh was able to find Lewelyn.
Tommy Lee Jones was a veteran sheriff, so he was relying on his experience and wit to connect the dots.
And then that business man was playing both sides in order to secure his investment, which Chigurh found out about through the Woody Harrelson character (I think, if I’m remembering correctly).
Chance and happenstance was not a fundamental factor in how the events unfold, other than Lewelyn chancing upon the satchel of money and deciding to take it. And then maybe when he decided to drink some beer with that lady by the pool.