NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Intro

No Country For Old Men is arguably the finest movie that the illustrious Coen brothers have ever made, and this is no mean feat, their works include major successes such as The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and Brother Where Art Thou, and a whole host of other great films. But the brothers showed their diversity here, changing from their usual comedies to produce a brilliant fast-paced thriller.

The film won four Oscars, and achieving this in a year in which similarly excellent films such as There Will Be Blood and Into The Wild is a fantastic achievement. It's a literary adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, and definitely does the book justice.

Plot

When local welder and hunter Llywelyn Moss stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong, he sees an opportunity. Whilst out hunting in the desert-like rural areas of southern USA, he spots several pickup trucks and cars seemingly abandoned. When he goes over to have a look he finds many dead bodies, all bearing bullet-holes. When he finds a huge stash of heroin in the back of one of the pickups, he puts two and two together, and realizes that the drug deal had gone badly wrong, and no one had survived the shootout.

Ambitiously, Llywelyn decides that he should take the money he finds at the scene, a staggering sum of $2 million dollars. Unsurprisingly however, you can't just steal $2 million bucks and expect to get away with it, which is where we meet are next character.

We already get a quick glimpse of Anton Chigurh before he is re-introduced as the man hired to retrieve the money. He's been arrested, and although the film doesn't tell us why, the book says that he had killed a man and allowed himself to be captured, 'just to see if he could escape.' Well escape he could. The careless deputy wasn't careful enough with him, and before you know it, Anton strangles him and cuts his throat with the chain of his handcuffs. Picking up the cattle prod and can of pressurized air he was captured with, Chigurh is free.

The whole set of proceedings that follow are observed by our third character, Sheriff Bell, who despite being very good at his job, always seems to be one or two steps behind the fast moving pair in this ultimate game of cat-and-mouse. He's growing old and is approaching retirement, but policing is the only thing he's ever known, and he's determined to stop Chigurh before it gets out of hand.

No Country For Old Men is 122 minutes of non-stop action, as Chigurh leaves a trail of dead bodies behind him in his pursuit of Moss, who uses all of his ex-army experience to cover his trail, but can you really hide from a man like Anton Chigurh? Time will tell...

Acting

Josh Brolin as Llywelyn Moss

No Country For Old Men was Josh Brolin's first major film, having appeared in a handful of smaller films and TV shows, and it was his big chance to make an impact upon Hollywood. As Llywelyn Moss he needed to be tough, resilient and smart, and he doesn't disappoint.

With his cowboy hat and thick accent, Llywelyn Moss is a true child of southern America. Brolin is completely convincing in his role, the tough veteran on the run, leaving everything behind for his shot at the high life. My only issue with his character is that he was a bit one-dimensional, and wasn't really pushed with the writing.

Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh

If we look at some of the greatest performances over the last few years, we think of Heath Ledger as The Joker, we think of Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, and we think of Javider Bardem as Anton Chigurh. With his unnervingly bad haircut and destructive cattle gun, Anton Chigurh is no doubt one of the greatest villains ever. Incredibly iconic and brilliantly evil, Chigurh completely steals the show here.

The greatest thing about the character is how he remains so fantastically calm and measured whilst he committed some terrible crimes in his search for Moss. Another brilliant thing about his character, this time due to the writing, is the way that he leaves so much up to chance, flipping a coin to decide his victim's fate. This was also used in 'The Dark Knight', but the effect is so much greater in No Country For Old Men. All in all, it's an absolutely outstanding performance from Bardem, and has paved the way for an illustrious acting career.

Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell

With the uncontrollable turbulence that grabs hold of most of the film, the film needed a cool, measured, overview to keep things properly balanced. It got this with Sheriff Bell, who follows the others a couple of paces behind throughout the film. He delivers most of the background monologue, and the film, whilst not necessarily featuring him too much, revolves around him somewhat.

Tommy Lee Jones is good in the role, giving the character the much-needed 'deeper' side, in which he often contemplates God, the goodness (or lack of it) in people, and pretty much life in general, as he comes to the end of a long career as sheriff. All in all, it's a good performance from Jones, if a little unspectacular.

Directing, writing, and soundtrack

Directing

This is a truly classic piece of directing from the Coen brothers, completely changing their normal style of film to deliver one of the greatest films over the last couple of years. Tense, vicious, and spectacular, No Country For Old Men is a directing masterpiece.

Each scene is perfectly cut and edited, and the scenery and general landscape is perfect, adding so much to the film in a way that is rarely appreciated. However, the best thing about the directing is the way they build up almost unbearable tension. The whole film is about tense, a cat-and-mouse chase of epic dimensions, and the Coen brothers perfectly create this sense of insufferable restlessness, keeping you on the edge of your seat through most of the film.

Writing

American author Cormac McCarthy originally the wrote the novel No Country For Old Men, which was then adapted for screenplay by the Coen brothers. It follows the storyline pretty closely, and although it does occasionally miss out quite large portions of the book, when watching the film you can see that these are rather inconsequential and the film gets along just fine without them.

The standard of writing is slightly overshadowed by the incredible directing, but it is still noticeable in that it's fast-moving, believable, and each of the characters is brilliantly developed. A very good piece of writing overall.

Soundtrack

The best thing about the soundtrack is the lack of it at times. Usually, the most important parts of the film are accompanied by a brilliant, dynamic score, which works well in most films. However, in this film, the chief scenes are accompanied by an eerie silence, which just adds to the tension even more, and this works to outstanding effect.

Conclusion

The good points

--> The best thing about this film is the overwhelming sense of uneasiness throughout most of the film. With the sort of tension you'd expect in a horror, No Country For Old Men combines elements from many different genres with the end effect being a very good film
--> The film is brilliantly directed. Even if we completely ignore the plot, the film can be appreciated just for the outstanding directing.
--> The characters are very well acted, in particular Javier Bardem's portrayal of Anton Chigurh.

The bad points

--> The film often receives criticism for its ending. In my opinion, the ending is good, but not up to the standard of the rest of the film. However, others think that the ending's terrible, so you'll just have to make up your own mind.
--> It does drag on a little in places.

Product details

Price - £4.98 (BARGAIN - off www.amazon.co.uk)
Run time - 117 minutes
Classification - UK15 / USR
DVD features - None