No Country for Old Men is a bang 'em-up, shoot ‘em-up roller coaster ride. Directed by the Coen Brothers, (The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Fargo) and based on a book by Cormac McCarthy, the one thing you should know aside from the fact that this film is deeply entertaining, is that it’s also a blood bath.
I can preface this by stating that I grew up enamored with violent films. My philosophy was always: the more Ragu Thick and Chunky, the better. As an adolescent, I couldn't wait to see the latest Freddie or Jason movies, but as I got older, I found more intense films that cared more about telling a story than with new and interesting ways to disembowel or decapitate helpless teenagers running through the woods of Camp Crystal Lake.
My tastes matured and I soon became an avid Scorsese fan and realized that cinematic blood and violence can take on a whole new meaning when you are sucked into a story by a true artist. I am sure we all know the scenes in Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, Goodfellas and Casino that we all wish we could forget. The violence takes on a realism and touches a nerve deep within us. That’s why “Marty”, as he is known in the industry, is such a master storyteller. The debauchery is a tool he uses as effectively as a camera, an actor or a prop.
Mel Gibson has entered these ranks as well. I thought Braveheart was an epic film that didn’t shy away from the gruesomeness and brutality of medieval warfare. But I will say that Passion of the Christ made me sick to my stomach, from start to finish. I thought I was going to loose my lunch during the flogging/scourging scene. I have never seen an acclaimed director purposely try and turn a religious icon into a piece of raw hamburger meat. Though I am a practicing Catholic, I think the film should be renamed, “Let’s Beat the Piss out of Jesus for Two and Half Hours.” I have heart that one should eat before seeing Apocalypto.
The Coen brothers have long been known for giving the audience a grotesque visual to haunt them when they leave the theater. In Fargo we saw a man shoved into a wood chipper, head first. In Miller’s Crossing we saw someone get their face destroyed with a fireplace shovel and then get shot through the back of the head. In Blood Simple we saw M. Emmet Walsh practice his own style of medicine when his hand get slammed in a window and then stabbed with a knife. The point is that the Coen brothers know only too well what gets under our skin, and in No Country for Old Men they pull out all the stops.
This film is very dark and there is a great deal of red paint being splattered all over the screen. The film is one long chase scene with the two main characters taking shots at each other throughout the film. The film’s main protagonist is a hit man/bounty hunter named Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, (Before Night Falls, Collateral, Love in the Time of Cholera). He is hired to track down the whereabouts of a suit case full of money when a drug deal turns horribly bad in the lone star state of Texas.
The film opens with our hero, Llewelyn Moss, an every man who lives in a West Texas trailer park, hunting deer along the desolate open plains. He is played brilliantly by Josh Brolin (American Gangster, The Goonies, Hollow Man). While stalking his prey, he comes across numerous dead bodies, drugs and a big suitcase full of money. It is here that we get our first glimpse of carnage as the blood and guts of dead drug runners are aplenty. Moss grabs the cash and high-tails it out of there but it’s the wrong move because now Chigurh is on his tail and no one in their right mind wants Chigurh after them.
Bardem portrays the ultimate bad guy with his dorky, early 80’s haircut, physical prowess and unrelenting sense of morbidity. He kills anyone and everyone that gets in his path without the slightest quiver. He does not hesitate for a moment even when meeting individuals that don’t cause him any threat, harm or concern. The fear he instills comes from his personal belief that he was put on this planet to unmercifully take lives. He is as ruthless, emotionless, and steadfast as they get. He's a new type of villain, unlike anything I have ever seen before. And his weapon of choice is a silenced 12 gauge shotgun and an oxygen tank that is equally powerful at popping the locking mechanism of a door or blowing someone away. He carries these with him always along with a quarter so that an element of fate and destiny can guide him in deciding who should live or die.
Woody Harrelson, (White Men Can’t Jump, Natural Born Killers, Palmetto) has a bit role as a private detective put on the case to track down the money and Chigurh with it. He describes his nemesis the best as, "a man with no sense of humor" that is also deadlier than the Bubonic plague. That’s true, but the Coen Brothers set him up in several everyday routines that are equally scary and comedic. The directing/producing brothers give us ample douses of their dark humor, but the seriousness and emotion involved in this tale far outweigh the lighter moments.
When purchasing gasoline, Chigurh starts up a conversation with the attendant and then decides that should he guess incorrectly on a coin toss that he will kill him. Chigurh’s voice is deep and menacing and the fact that he is chastising a gas station worker on living his life to the fullest is the kind of bizarre situation that is only too common in Coen movies. It is reminiscent of Brad Pitt's scene in Fight Club when he threatens to kill a convenient store worker if he does not pursue his dream of becoming a veterinarian.
These types of intense cinematic moments make films worth the price of admission.
Tommy Lee Jones, (Under Siege, Blue Sky, The Fugitive) also has a bit role as an aging Sheriff who is only too aware that this world is changing faster than he would like. He cannot handle the death and misery he sees everyday on the job and knows that his days in law enforcement are numbered. With guys like Chigurh on the loose and killing at random, the aging law man realizes that this new generation is more violent that he can stomach and the U.S. is turning into, “No Country For Old Men” who can’t keep up with the times and the deadly attitudes being ushered in. Though it is never officially stated, the film takes place in the early 80’s.
The film does not have a traditional ending but that is also the reason that it stays in the subconscious long after the credits roll. I always judge a film by how much I talk about it afterward and No Country For Old Men remains in my thoughts weeks later.
The film’s tag line is, “There are no clean getaways.” This could not be truer. The people depicted in this film are not true Hollywood types. They wear their hard lives on their weathered faces, and the Texas backdrop makes it possible for the audience to taste the sand and dirt being swept up by the wind.
We want Brolin’s Llewelyn Moss to survive this ordeal rather than go back to his trailer park for what will no doubt be a meaningless existence. We turn him into a hero because the suitcase full of money is his only shot at a worthwhile life for him and his wife. We know guys like Llewelyn don't get 15 minutes of fame very often so he needs to make the most out of it.
The Coen brothers are experts at showing us everything human about ourselves on the big screen, whether it’s the armpit sweat stains of Jones' sheriff, the bad skin of Brolin’s naïve wife, or the gory details of a gun shot wound. This is a true Texas crime saga and I strongly recommend it to those who can stomach the atrocities and animal instincts of desperate men in extraordinary situations.
Four out of five stars.
