No Country For Old Men

By Jenny Siddle
February 24, 2008

I hate being the last of my coworkers to see a new movie in the theatre. First off, I have to put my hands up to my ears every time I am standing in line at the copier as the two dudes in front of me decide to discuss “that really cool scene,” or argue about whether or not the ending was believable. Secondly, while I’m standing there with my hands on my ears, my curiosity gets the best of me and I can’t help but listen in to a few quips, which usually ruins the ending for me when I finally do see it. Lastly, I hate people telling me “you’re gonna love it. Have you seen it yet? Oh, you should.” That makes me want to hate it, just out of spite. Having said all this, I finally went and saw No Country For Old Men.

I have long been a huge fan of the Coen brothers, and despite experiencing every aforementioned episode repeatedly over the last 14 weeks, I still managed to be surprised, squeamish, amused, intrigued and completely creeped out by their latest opus. No Country tells the tale of the Wild West…or at least what became of the Wild West by the year 1980, where the showdown involves five dead men, a truck load of cocaine, and a million dollar pot. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across this aftermath while hunting antelope in the middle of the desert, he finds the loot and flees the scene. Though before the night is through, Llewelyn’s conscience gets the better of him and he returns to the scene of the crime, thinking he may be able to save a victim. Instead he comes face to face with the man (read psycho) hired to clean up the mess, Anton “Don’t call me Sugar” Chigurh (Javier Bardem). The chase is on, and Anton proves he will kill anything and everyone in his path until the money is back in the hands of the rightful owner – his own. Monitoring this game of cat and mouse from afar is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran Sheriff of the county who is beginning to doubt the impact the law actually has in society this day in age.

Now, admittedly I have never given much thought to the casting of a movie. I’ve always naively deduced that a good actor should simply be able to deliver any role. It’s their job. Having said that, I believe this is the first time I have walked out of a film thinking that the casting was flawless. Case in point is Bardem’s portrayal of Chigurh, a remorseless serial killer on the hunt for Llewelyn. I’ve seen a fair number of thrillers in my day, and I might say that this is the creepiest character I have ever seen in a film. His first scene in the movie slaps us in the face as we bear witness to a bug-eyed Chigurh mechanically strangling a police officer to death. I am almost certain I detected a slender smirk on his face, leading me to believe he is actually enjoying handing the officer his last breath on earth. He plays by rules no one really understands, in an accent unfamiliar to anyone, with a bowl haircut only a bonafide serial killer would wear. The casting director was also smart to fill the role with an actor fairly unknown in North American cinema as not to clutter our first impression with the “hey, isn’t that the guy from…” syndrome. Pretty much every other actor deserves a nod as well, but the other I will focus on is Tommy Lee Jones as the Sheriff. You pretty much know exactly what you sign up for when you see Tommy Lee Jones in a movie – the coy, tenacious, cool as a cucumber, authority figure who, at the end of the day, is just out fighting the good fight. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is really no different, and yet it seems like this is the role Lee has been waiting to play his entire career. While the plot is really driven by the chase between Llewelyn and Chigurh, it is neatly bookended by the Sheriff’s nostalgic recollections about his own father serving as one of the last great law men of the area. He stoically regales us with stories about how much smaller the world was back then, the days when some officers didn’t even carry a pistol. While still tenacious, Bell is a character older and wiser than anyone Jones has played in the past, and he steps into the role effortlessly.

Regardless of the Coen brothers Best Picture Oscar win at this year's Academy Awards, No Country For Old Men will undoubtedly be remembered as one of their masterpieces, right up their with the likes of Fargo. Having said that, it is interesting to note the similarities between these two most critically acclaimed Coen brothers films. Both Fargo and No Country revolve around an extraordinary crime occurring in small town America, with a fairly inactive protagonist police officer who doesn’t even enter the movie until the second act. Yet despite the structural similarities between the two films, the message we are left with is vastly different. In Fargo we see an ordinary (not to mention very pregnant) Marge Gunderson rise to the occasion to foil a kidnapping plan gone wrong and bring the final assailant to justice. However, in No Country, we cannot help but wonder if we have finally met our match; if the days of the everyday hero are over. That perhaps we are better off to stay safe at home and let the bullies fight out on the streets and play by their own rules.

But then again, maybe that’s just an old man mentality.

Wide Release Date: November 21, 2007
Running Time: 2 hours, 2 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Ethan Cohen & Joel Cohen
Producers: Ethan Cohen, Joel Cohen, and Scott Rudin
Executive Producers: Robert Graf and Mark Roybal
Screenplay: Ethan Cohen & Joel Cohen
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Editor: Roderick Jaynes (a.k.a Ethan Cohen & Joel Cohen)
Music: Carter Burwell