No Country for Old Men
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Movie Reviews of No Country for Old Men
Movie Review: The best Coen film since Lebowski
Summary: 5 Stars
While it's very easy to trace comparisons between this film and prior Coen projects, such an exercise seems almost trivial when one considers that this story was adapted from one of Cormac McCarthy's most accessible novels. It's comforting to note that the Coens have found a story compatible with their usual trademarks: dialogue characterized by a regional vernacular, eccentrics who both voice and embody the story's themes and a measured pace interjected by bizarre scenes of intense violence.
Although the narrative follows the aftermath of a south Texas drug deal gone brutally awry, the central theme of the movie - a world changing for the worse - is always ominously present either in the forefront or periphery. When adapting this novel to the screen, the Coens were wise not to alter McCarthy's despairing, unamenable conclusions.
While all of the performances are excellent (most of the principle cast affect drawls nearly as convincing as that of native Texan Jones), the unquestionable centerpoint of the movie is Javier Bardem, whose enormous screen presence and cultivated air of impassive menace command the viewer's attention. Bardem's English is surprisingly keen and his grasp of this simple, vicious persona is startling and entirely convincing. Bardem is already known to many Americans via his extraordinary performance in "Before Night Falls" and even his breakthrough role in "Jamón, jamón." Hopefully, this incredible performance will establish one of Spain's most popular actors as a widely recognizable talent in North America.
From a technical standpoint, this is surely the most beautiful film that the Coens have ever shot. The movie's photographic clarity and fastidious direction produce scenes of extraordinary vividness. Desolate west Texan desert landscapes, endless stretches of interstate highway and even commonplace motel rooms are all rendered with a distinct immediacy. The movie's impeccable sound design isn't encumbered by any involved music; only a few faint ambient tones are heard at certain pivotal moments. While Coen mainstay composer Carter Burwell contributed one track that scores the movie's end titles and a few ambient tones that briefly underscore certain key scenes, no music is featured elsewhere in the film. The result is a soundtrack that never obstructs the tension, grim humor or somber milieu of this film's extraordinary proceedings.
Movie Review: A great, great and I mean great film....
Summary: 5 Stars
Possible spoilers (Read if you don't mind 'em)
The Coen brothers have always made films that are at the very least interesting but often funny and well done. Movies such as "Raising Arizona" and "O' Brother Where Art Thou?" come to mind first, though I know there are others.
"No Country For Old Men" is a major, major departure, from the funny yet smart films of before and is a pretty violent thriller, that seems frightfully realistic in some parts.
The movie takes place in about 1980 and is about a hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin "American Gangster") who finds a case of sorts full of money about $2 million and violence quickly follows as it is drug money from a deal gone bad.
There's some drug dealers after the cash, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones "The Fugitive") trying to string together clues to a series of brutal murders that are caused by a vicious and I mean vicous killer named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). Moss goes on the run with the cash after sending his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald, "Nanny McPhee".
This sounds like a typical thriller, but the drug dealing really takes a back seat to the Coen's brilliant storytelling of how Moss tries to keep the cash and stay alive as all these people are coming after it. Also Jones has some great scenes trying to figure out the crime and dealing with the prospect of retirement after this last big case (don't all retiring cops have this happen to them in the movies). It's also interesting to see how Bardem's character has layers to him but is really just a cold blooded killer at heart.
There's more to the story but I'll leave it at that. There are plenty of good scenes throughout, the opening few are great as they show Bardem's sick nature, Brolin's are good as well as you feel some sympathy for him, but also feel he is getting what he deserved.
The best actor in the film by far is Javier Bardem, he truly shines as a legit scary killer (at least in my mind it's legit). The pacing is great, the violence is a bit shocking in some places and the story and dialogue are very well written. He really deserved the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, very superb performance.
This film certainly deserved to win Best Picture at this year's Oscar's, though I would been just as happy if "There Will Be Blood" had won it but that's for another review.
Watch this film with an open mind as it's not for everybody, but many should like it, if they give it a chance.
**** out of 4 stars.
Movie Review: Edge of your seat thrill ride
Summary: 5 Stars
"No Country for Old Men" Screenplay and directed by Ethan & Joel Cohen
1980, rural Texas; Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) a former Vietnam vet and current welder is hunting and has just made what may be a kill but the animal has run. Llewelyn starts tracking the animal's blood trail and stumbles on what appears to be a large drug deal gone wrong. Only one man is still alive but is badly injured. After some additional tracking he finds the last man involved with the deal who has died under a tree with 2 million dollars from the drug deal in his possession. Llewelyn decides to keep the money and returns home. What Llewelyn doesn't realize is that both of the parties involved are very actively seeking the booty from this deal gone bad and through a turn of events find out that Llewelyn is in possession of the money.......
This movie is excellent! One of the best, most original movies I have watched in a long time. The Cohen brothers have worked magic on this movie. The film has a very faded and dark, almost noir type look at times which was perfect for the era and location. One interesting thing I noticed is there is not very much sound track to this movie and what you do hear is very, very subtle, which seems to intensify the suspense. Another interesting element to this movie is that it seems to cross multiple genres. At times it feels like a drama/suspense movie, at others a horror movie. Sometimes it feels like a chase movie and some it even feels like a comedy.
The Good: The story was great. The Cohen brothers managed to take a relatively simple type of story, (AKA guy finds loot and tries to keep if from the bad guy) and turn it into something very complex feeling. The acting was great from all of the actors. I still have trouble picturing Josh Brolin as Bran from "The Goonies". Javier Bardem's performance as Anton Chigurh was masterful and could not have been performed better by anyone else. The mood, tone, setting, soundtrack, acting and story telling all combined perfectly for a great, edge of your seat movie experience.
The Bad: This wasn't a problem for me but this movie is very, very violent and some may find some of the violence borderline disturbing.
Overall: If you can handle the violence, do not hesitate, get your eyes and ears on a copy of this movie ASAP.
Movie Review: No Country for Old Men
Summary: 5 Stars
I put off watching this for quite a while because of the mediocre reviews. I'd read Cormac McCarthy's book and didn't want to be disappointed by the film version. Having now watched the film I'm baffled by the reviews. The novel is bleak, but probably the most accessible of his books. The title really sums it up. Set in 1980s Texas, in the early stages of the cross-border drug trade, the ruthless, often sadistic and pointless violence of the new criminal class has rendered the old fashioned, comparatively decent law enforcers redundant, baffled and powerless. Hence, No Country for Old Men.
I was pleasantly surprised by the film. It portrays the events of the book perfectly, almost scene for scene, in all its bleak pointlessness. That is the point! The characterisation and acting are superb; the locations and sets are wonderful. The first hour or so is one of the most convincing and entertaining pieces of cinema I've ever seen. If it then tails off slightly it is the fault of the book rather than the film. McCarthy's outlook is so bleak that nobody ever gets out alive or undamaged - there are no happy endings in this story. The main character has no redeeming qualities, which, for me, was the one weakness of the book.
Javier Bardem's character, Chigurh, was a kind of human Terminator who didn't quite `belong' here. Most of the characters in the story were bad or corrupt in some way, their purpose to illustrate the new, ruthless criminality, but they would not go out of their way to hunt and kill people who were not obstructing them, not really anything to do with them. Chigurh did not need to be quite so psychotically determined, killing even those who could not possibly harm him. McCarthy could have made his point without leaving quite so large a trail of dead bodies. That, to me, is his weakness - he sees no chinks of light anywhere - they exist, but he doesn't see them. I also thought Bardem, although brilliant, was miscast. The haircut from hell didn't help.
Again, this is the fault of the book. Although the story could have had happier outcomes for some of the characters without detracting from its purpose, the Coens, once they had decided to film it, could hardly have messed with the work of such a prominent writer. They did a brilliant job, retaining a very black humour throughout, although those appalled by the violence may have missed it. With slight reservations, a great film.
Movie Review: In the top 3 movies of 2007
Summary: 5 Stars
It's certainly true that there's little sense of the traditional Hollywood format here. After all, it's based on a Cormac McCarthy book, so what kind of ending can it have? Despite knowing this, I found myself expecting a typical Hollywood twist; it never came, but I wasn't disappointed and quickly came to terms with it. Joel and Ethan Coen seem to me the perfect duo to bring this to the screen. When you look at Fargo and No Country, the Coen brothers suddenly become the intelligent man's Tarantino. Not that Pulp Fiction wasn't brilliant. But there's more of a purpose to the violence inherent in a Coen film; it seems less gratuitous than in, say, Reservoir Dogs, if at times just as pornographic. Strangely, too, the violence is such a part of the fabric of No Country, so pervasive, and the attitude toward it so indifferent, that the audience is quickly desensitized. The landscape of a McCarthy tale is flat, unemotional, disconnected; so it becomes easy to view what would in the real world be a tragedy as merely an occurrence. Violence toward women is not shown on screen here. Obviously it's indicated in the book, and thus in the film, but not showing it seems a directorial choice that fits perfectly with the novelist's style.
A theme that was especially interesting was how Josh Brolin's character, Llewellyn Moss, was brought into the path of the ruthless Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) merely by chance--at first. Stumbling onto a drug deal gone terribly wrong, Moss follows a trail that leads him to a case full of cash. Even after he takes the money, he might have gotten away free and clear, were it not for an attack of conscience. And here's where the idea gets more fascinating and tragic: With Chigurh in pursuit, Moss' choice to take the money and run affects the lives of many who cross his path purely by chance--something some may be profoundly aware of in life.
On a general note, I loved the film. The performances are fantastic across the board; not a false note is struck by anyone, with a solid throughline provided by Tommy Lee Jones. Supporting characters are varied and fantastically portrayed, by Woody Harrelson, Stephen Root, Kelly MacDonald, Beth Grant, among others. The writing is unexpected and doesn't miss a beat; this is something at which the Coens excel, of course. The direction hits the right tone and keeps the viewer spellbound throughout the film, despite its nontraditional ending.