No Country for Old Men Review [2]

Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 01.05.2008

A masterpiece you just have to see.

"No Country for Old Men" Review

Josh Brolin- Llewelyn Moss
Javier Bardem- Anton Chigurh
Tommy Lee Jones- Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
Woody Harrelson- Carson Wells
Kelly Macdonald- Carla Jean Moss
Barry Corbin- Ellis
Stephen Root- Man Who Hires Wells
Garret Dillahunt- Deputy Wendell
Beth Grant- Agnes, Carla Jean's Mom
Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Screenplay by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac Macarthy
Distributed by Miramax Films and Paramount Vantage
Rated R for strong graphic violence and language
Runtime- 122 minutes
Website: http://www.nocountryforoldmen.com/

"No Country for Old Men," the latest flick from brother movie makers Joel and Ethan Cohen and based on the novel of the same name by Cormac Maccarthy, is a movie about three seperate men brought together by the world's only one true constant: violence.

There's Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a Vietnam war vet and avid hunter who happens upon a drug deal gone bad and a satchel filled with two million dollars. Moss takes the cash and a machine gun from the scene, most likely figuring that his life just got a whole lot easier. But, in a fit of conscience, Moss decides to go back to the scene with a bottle of water for one of the drug dealers who, at least at the time, wasn't quite dead. That turns out to be a big mistake, as Moss is attacked by a different set of drug runners, bad guys dispatched to find out what happened and retrieve the merchandise. Moss barely escapes, getting wounded in the process and hightailing it back to his trailer to movie his girlfriend and the money. Sadly, Llewelyn's life didn't get easier.

Then there's Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a professional hitman and "merchandise retriever," brought in by whoever (whoever, or who the credits says is "Man who hires Wells," as played by Milton Wadams hisself, Stephen Root) to find the missing money no matter what. "No matter what" is Chigurh's specialty. We first meet Chigurh being arrested by the local Texas police and placed into custody. Back at the police station, in the middle of suspect processing, Chigurh uses his handcuffs to strangle the cop that arrested him. Chigurh leaves the station in a police car, only to then pull over an unsuspecting motorist and kill him with a cattle gun so he can use the dead man's car. As he finds out more and more information in regards to the missing money, Chigurh kills at will. He doesn't kill everyone he meets, just those he decides to kill right at that moment. Some say that he may be the only one with any kind of honor or real code, a constant not so much to be admired and or feared but to be respected and understood. If you know who Chigurh is, pray he doesn't know you.

And then there's Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), the aging lawman who has to pick up the pieces and find out what the heck is going on in West Texas circa 1980. Sheriff Bell hates the fact that he has to carry a gun now because the violence that's engulfed his county, his state, heck, his country, is so nasty and bad an awful. He's forced to investigate the killings and the mayhem because it's his job, but he's not so sure that he really wants to. This world of unrelenting violence isn't what he had in mind when he took up the job. He believes that the world is changing in front of him, changing so rapidly and for the worse that he can't possibly stop all of it or even keep it in check.

Now, again, here we have three men brought together by violence, and yet they never actually meet face to face. Yes, there are chases and shootouts, people run and hunt, but there's never a moment where any of them stand across from one another, face to face, staring one another down like they do in the old western movies. There is a build up to an inevitable showdown that never happens. Because, in the real world, there are no showdowns. There is no specific moment, towards "the end," where the good guys and the bad guys meet one last time to fight it out to see who wins. No one gets to win. You either get to live or you get to die. Oh, sure, you're going to try to change things, you're going to try to make a difference and make things right, etc, but the truth is, no matter what your personal charge, and no matter how hard you work, odds are you're going to fail. That's just the way the world works.

The Cohens have created a brilliant, scathing commentary on the world and how bad things really are. It's not a specific commentary (for instance, this is not a movie commenting on the Iraq invasion or anything like that), nor is it a "tsk tsk look at how bad so and so is and this is what we can do to fix it" kind of commentary. It's a no bullshit explanation of how you're wrong when you say "The world is changing so much" and "Back in my day things worked and were oh so much better." This is a western that's anti-nostalgia for the way things used to be, because all in all things weren't all that great back then, either. The world has always been an uncaring swamp of crap and it's never going to change. There is no good, and "evil" just is.

Brolin is superb as Llewelyn. When you first meet him and he finds the satchel and takes it, you want to know what he's going to do with that machine gun. You kind of figure that when he picks it up he's going to use it and blast anyone he finds at the drug massacre. But he doesn't. He just calmly takes the money and the gun and goes home. When he decides to take the bottle of water back to the scene and he's then attacked by the drug gang, he suddenly becomes the flick's hero by default. He's not a good person, sure, but he's a person we as the audience can identify with. He was stupid to take the money and put so many people in mortal danger (ask the hotel clerk, the guy in the truck, and those other trackers how they feel about Llewelyn's decision) yet you kind of want to see him get out of it somewhat unscathed.

Bardem is freaking awesome as Chigurh. He's is both a pure embodiment of evil and a kind of reassuring constant in a bad world. He's a tornado that swirls up when the weather is bad and takes down everything in its path that it wants to destroy. It seems as though dang near everyone is talking about Chigurh's cattle gun weapon (which I'll admit is pretty dang cool), but I'm more amazed and jazzed by the shotgun with the silencer. I don't think I've ever seen that in a movie before, but it sure is a great weapon to kill everything up close. Besides the "other tracker death" in the Mexican hotel room, the best shotgun death is the one we don't see, the one in the hotel motel bathroom when Chigurh pulls the curtain and shoots. It's so nasty, brutal, and bad. And kind of funny, too (funny in a sick movie kind of way). Chigurh is bad, but he can be funny, too. Think of the guy with the chickens in the back of his truck. Think of the fat woman at the trailer park. The rube at the gas station. Freaking hilarious.

Tommy Lee Jones doesn't get as much screen time as Brolin or Bardem, and he's not a man of action like Brolin or Bardem, he's just a man who can't stand existing in the world anymore. He wants to find a way to escape everything that's bad. Jones is smooth in his soft spoken, frustrated old sheriff. His best bit is his conversation with the great Barry Corbin (good God it's a "In the Valley of Elah" reunion here) towards the end, where the flick's philosophy is laid out (if you didn't get all of it by then). It's great acting all around.

Woody Harrelson gets a good glorified cameo as Carson Wells, another tracker. Kelly Macdonald is both hilarious and sad as Carla Jean Moss, Llewelyn's girlfriend. Stephen Root is his usual hilarious self as the man with no name (just should have called him the scumbag businessman). And Beth Grant is great as talky Carla Jean's Mom Agnes. It's just a great cast from top to bottom.

The ending is brilliant. It's not the ending you expect, but it's not brilliant because of that. It's brilliant because it could go either the conventional way or the way it does go and it wouldn't feel wrong or forced either way. Either way would have worked. And, if you're looking for character parallels, think of the following: wound cleaning, socks, and offering money for a shirt.

So what do we have here? Gratuitous reminiscing about the old days, rube cop strangling with pseudo orgasm, hand washing, cattle gun to the forehead, gratuitous shooting at CGI elk, picking up spent shell casings, blood in the dirt, an injured dog, gratuitous dead bodies, gratuitous buzzing flies, opening a truck door, drugs, gratuitous dead guy under a tree, a satchel of money, a nickel plated .45, gratuitous trailer park, gratuitous water jug, tire popping, gratuitous dog chase, dog shooting, pulling buckshot out of a wound, peanut eating, a coin toss, killing henchmen, a car burning in the middle of a field, horse riding, door knob busting, milk drinking, gratuitous fat woman, using a pay phone, new boot buying, shooting at a bird, buying a shotgun, buying a tent, shotgun barrel sawing, "Free HBO," gratuitous walking in socks, shotgun with a silencer, pulling the shower curtain and shooting, bloody socks, a dime screwdriver, gratuitous Woody Harrelson, gratuitous Stephen Root, a cat drinking water, gratuitous "Assault on Precinct 13" silencer breaking glass homage, gratuitous Mexican border, vomitting, a sleeping border guard, gratuitous Mexican street band, a car bomb, stealing from a pharmacy, sitting in a tub, sitting naked in the bathroom cleaning a wound, a truck filled with bodies, newspaper reading, gratuitous Mexican drug runners, truck stealing, gratuitous hot pool chick, gratuitous Barry Corbin, a funeral, massive car accident, broken arm with bone sticking out of skin, and an ambiguous ending that isn't all that ambiguous if you sit and think about it.

Best lines: "I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five. Hard to believe," "I need you to step out of the car, sir," "I ain't got no water," "Yeah," "What's in the satchel? Full of money. That'd be the day," "Keep running that mouth of yours. I'll take you in the back and screw you," "All right," "What business is it of yours when I'm from?," "I said you don't know what you're talking about," "What is the most you ever lost in a coin toss?," "Why would we go to Odessa?," "Baby, at what point would you quit looking for your two million dollars?," "Mind riding bitch?," "That's a dead dog. Yes it is," "Wouldn't think a car would burn like that," "That's very linear, sir," "Oh, hells bells they even shot the dog," "Supposedly a coyote won't eat a Mexican," "Did you hear me? We can't give out no information," "I'm used to a lot of things. I work at Wal-Mart," "Now that's aggravating. It's still sweating," "Shouldn't be doing that. Even a young man like you," "There just ain't no way," "Were you in a car accident?," "Buenos Dias," "What's this guy supposed to be? The ultimate bad ass?," "Were you in Nam?," "Hello, Carson. Let's go to your room," "Do you have any idea how crazy your are?," "How those Carry's holding up?," "Hmmm, who are you? Me? Nobody. Accounting," "Are you going to shoot me?," "It's not often you see a Mexican in a suit," "Hey, Mr. sporting goods," "How fresh is this coffee?," "What you got ain't nothing new. This country's hard on people," "Mister, you've got a bone sticking out of your arm," and "Look at the fucking bone!"

"No Country for Old Men" is an outstanding movie. Get to the theatre and see it immediately. Definitely one of the best of 2007.

See it, see it, see it.

The 411: "No Country for Old Men" is an amazing experience, a great movie from start to finish. A great cast, a great point of view, and... it's just great. Like I said up above, go see it.

Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]