Well, what was looking like a 2 horse race between There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men, has turned into a 1 horse race. No Country and Blood have pretty much split most of the critic association awards… but when it comes to what counts at the Oscars, No Country has swept the various Guild awards. Last week they took the WGA top prize, the SAG top prize, the DGA top prize, and now they’ve also taken the Producers (PGA) top prize as they walked away with the full sweep of the guilds… and guild members are voting members for the Oscars.
Yahoo News gives us this:
Joel and Ethan Coen’s “No Country for Old Men,” a tale of moral decline wrapped in a gritty crime drama, won the top film prize from Hollywood’s producers on Saturday, making it the clear front-runner in the race to the Oscars. One week ago, the Coen Brothers were also named the year’s best directors by the Directors Guild of America for their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel about a drug deal gone wrong along the U.S.-Mexican border in Texas. Last Sunday, the cast of “No Country,” including Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, was cited for best ensemble performance by the Screen Actors Guild.
So now it seems pretty clear. No Country For Old Men will win the 2008 Oscar for best picture. I have no complaints. Personally, I still feel There Will Be Blood and Juno deserve it more… but not by much… and No Country is certainly deserving of an honor like this.
The one great thing about the Oscars this year, is that every single one of the nominated films are really worthy of the honor. Yes, some are better than others, but none on that list make me say “what the hell?”.
just saw no country for old men; it’s unassumingly unconventional and yet (thankfully) never over the top. the Coen brothers deserve their oscars, well done indeed.
No Country For Old Men is a very very good film, which I think passed over a lot of peoples heads, superb performances are for me what made the film though im not sure as much as I like the Coen Brothers that it is a certainty for the Oscars.
I also agree with you John, No country for old man could win 100%, but Juno after I saw it’s trailer is totally out. I also discuss about these movies on my blog:
@scoville
AGREED.
I haven’t yet seen TWBB but I have seen Juno and I don’t understand why it’s getting the level of praise that has been poured it’s way. It was a good movie, but I never thought it was Oscar material.
Don’t be too quick to hand over the crown to No Country. Didn’t Brokeback win all of its precursor awards only to take it up the ass by Crash in the end? I’m still not completely convinced that it’s in the bag. I get the feeling that No Country is a more divisive film than people realize. People do NOT like that ending. I still think there’s a good chance that No Country and Blood could split the vote, leaving room for some lesser film to win. The again, I also have a feeling that more people are talking about DDL’s performance in Blood than Blood itself. The Academy will probably choose to honor Blood via DDL’s win for Best Actor, and give the big prize to another film.
At this point, as long as it’s not Atonement, I’ll be fine. I cannot put into words the level of venom that I have for that fucking movie.
I agree with your statement about There Will Be Blood and Juno deserving it more, but not by much. However, there was one film that kinda gave me a bit of a “what the hell?” That was Michael Clayton. I thought it was a great film, especially for a legal/law/court drama type film, but I’m still a bit confused as to how it got the nod. I really didn’t even think George Clooney’s performance was all that awesome, in fact Tom Wilkinson stole the film for me.