No Country for Old Men Review
by Jerry Saravia (Faust668 AT msn DOT com)November 28th, 2008
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Four Stars
As if the Coens didn't surprise me enough with their every directorial endeavor, "No Country for Old Men" is a massively engrossing western
noir tale that is so steeped in mystery, violence and sublime
storytelling that I cannot lavish enough praise. Yes, it is violent
and may contain some offputing elements that have turned off some audiences (the killing of a dog, the far-out though not so ambiguous finish) but it is quite simply the best damn Coens flick ever made,
far surpassing "Fargo" and "The Man Who Wasn't There," already my
absolute favorites from this dynamic duo.
The movie begins with Tommy Lee Jones's narration over desolate shots
of the Texas desert, explaining how today's criminals (including the mention of a teenage killer) have no sense of consequences in
committing murders - they do it just to do it, not even for the thrill
of it. He can't grasp these criminals and their thought processes. All this is made to seem melancholic, especially since they are the words
of a local sheriff who has seen it all and may just be sick of it all
too.
A silent killer is on the loose, known as Anton Chigurh (Javier
Bardem), who kills his victims with an air gun! He has the longer bowl haircut of Moe from the Three Stooges, wears black denim clothing, and
has a plastered, Joker-like grin after he strangles a police officer
that is chilling in its resplendence, almost a sense of orgasmic
pleasure. Other times, he operates like the Terminator, killing with pin-point accuracy and nary an emotion. Interestingly, he sometimes
offers his victims the choice of fate by flipping a quarter. Never is
this made more dramatic and thrilling than in the memorable scene
where Chigurh plays with fate with a gas station owner. It is so
chilling and so scarily constructed, especially in terms of crisp dialogue, that it will leave you breathless. Every scene in "No
Country for Old Men" operates on this level.
We also have Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss, a cowboy who loves to hunt antelope. He comes across a massacre that involved shady drug deals
and lots of corpses. Moss observes and comes back to the scene of the crime at night, steals the briefcase of cash and finds himself on the
run from Chigurh (whom we learn is a hitman). Tommy Lee Jones is Ed
Tom Bell, the sheriff, who is more surprised by the method by which Chigurh kills his victims than anything else.
Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, I wish not to say much more about
"No Country for Old Men" except that it is an extraordinarily
powerful, suspenseful and deeply moralistic film, and is played almost
as a silent film with little to no music at all. This enhances each
and every scene in the film, with moments of silence broken by gunfire
or ambient sounds. Nothing is executed more beautifully by the Coens
than Moss's struggle to get his bag of cash from out of a vent, or
Chigurh nursing his wounds and stitching himself back together, or watching Sheriff Bell observing the evil that men do against the
desert backdrop while trying to find clues to crimes that leave him nonplussed, or even Moss aiming his rifle at a herd in what looks like moments from a John Ford mixed with Sam Peckinpah western.
The morality of the film is determined by the risks that Moss and
Chigurh make in their hourly decisions as they are always on the move. Neither men actually meet, except for a brief shootout, and they are always just barely crossing each other on the road. It is a film of
pure dread and silence met with violence entering the lives of those
who least expect it, and those who expect nothing less. That
dichotomy, not to mention some richly memorable supporting characters, gives the film weight and texture. The Coens have made some great
films and some not so wonderful - "No Country for Old Men" is their ultimate masterpiece.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
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