No Country for Old Men (2007)

Title: No Country for Old Men

Year: 2007

Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller |

Runtime: 122 min

Director: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

8.2/10

Hunting in 1980 in he West Texas desert plains as usual, local welder Lewelyn Moss, a Vietnam War veteran who lives in a trailer park in Sanderson with his wife Carla Jean, accidentally discovers the site of a drug trade shootout. Rather than seeking help for the survivor or reporting the crime, he dodges the roaming killers and after a nocturnal return, he brings home to hide $2 million in dirty cash and moves out, hoping for the good life. But his trail is found by the psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh, who was hired to retrieve the money at all cost and enjoys going over corpses.

AN UNFLINCHING PIECE OF ART

Few adaptions correspond rightfully with its original model as Joel and Ethan Coen feature film of No Country For Old Men. The novel portrays a dark, gritty world. An ambience that follows right into the screen.  We get deep under the skin of these people, as veteran actors flawless portrays three men who is somehow either hunted or hunts. The ratification of the landscaping as a tool to create the vast Texas mirror beautiful in the film.

It all starts when married Moss find briefcase filled with unmarked bills, hunted by an unrelented assassin Chigurh and retired-sheriff-in-reach Ed Tom Bells, which concludes in a distinctive finale that echoes even after the viewing. The landscape of Texas is vast, and there’s some connection with Mexico. A broad sense of desert, abandonment and retribution are given to the orange, pale background. This is also the setting, both for the novel and film, where the gruesome killings take place. As it begins with a strangling a police officer with handcuffs, cutting deep to the man’s cop, to the flick of a coin at a gas station, the injuries, with the hunt in-between it foresees all take on cinema. Safe to say, it’s flawless but it’s sincerely close to that capacity of what human retribution might end, how relentless psychopathic killers are and at some accord; how this might as well be the reality lived out in that state.

The lead is Llewyn Moss, performed by Josh Brolin, gives a humble performance who tries to do his best of his life. He has good talk with his wife but his greed with the money sets on to his demise. He’s a regular human being trying to survive in a harsh world. Tommy Lee Jones, whose origins from the same city it takes place recollect it in his character Ed Tom Bells. That he lives here and dies with the character. That the character is almost like him and that’s what you can tell. He’s decent. Doesn’t stand out is more like a supporting role and goes damp whenever Anton comes on. Javier Bardem is this film’s force of nature. He’s the violent, psychotic, determined killing monster that decide through fate and single coin. His portrayal of Anton Chigurh is a chilling performance, similar to Heath Ledger’s captivating Joker in The Dark Knight, released a year after, he’s the films main entertainment. Despite the violence, murders and gruesome killings with no remorse, he’s the shining star on the sky. Woody Harrelson gives a tense, brief moment and doesn’t really change the story as Carson Wells. It’s nice to see Woody giving his best but he’s a sore thumb in this masterpiece.

Another thing worth mention to this movie is the no music decision from the directing brothers, giving it a far more haunting feeling. The dark comedy lays over this story like wet blanket, it reforms as one of the best movies during the 2000s. It’s worth watching but it will not be recommended for easily scarred viewers.