Post by BIGFANBOY on Nov 9, 2007 8:19:34 GMT -5
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Review by Gary Dean Murray
The Coen Brothers have been responsible for some of the most important films of the last few decades. From their stylistic debut in Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan have shattered genres and developed hybrid classes of film. They created Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, The Ladykillers and O Brother Where Art Thou? Their newest is the stunning stark thriller/chase flick No Country For Old Men based on the book by Cormac McCarthy.
The story starts with a plot devise as old as storytelling--murder. Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) is a barely making it welder in West Texas. He’s a good man who doesn’t get many breaks in life. On day while out with his hunting rifle, he comes upon a finished Mexican standoff with half a dozen dead bodies in half a dozen trucks. One man is left, pleading for water. There are drugs in the truck beds. Following the trail of blood, Llewelyn comes across the last man standing and a suitcase full of money. He decides to take the cash. That night, his conscious gets the best of him and he decides to go back to the scene of the crime. He left the hurt Mexican in a truck with the man begging for water and he cannot let him suffer.
Once back at the scene of the crime, he figures out that someone else has been there. And so the first of many chases begin. The people who own the money hire Chigurh (Javier Bardem) to track down their cash. Chigurh is a crazed killer who uses a compression cylinder as his weapon of choice. It is a devise that shoots a retractable 4-inch bolt into his victims heads. Chigurh is past being cold blooded. There is this certain kind of inner moral justice that he uses, part luck and part faith. It is blood curdling in its menace.
The third part of our triangle of story is Tommy Lee Jones. As Sheriff Bell he is our local lawman. He is the authority who discovers the Mexican standoff. Bell is a seen it all, done it all enforcer bitter about his losing battle against the forces of evil. So there are two chases in the film. Chigurh is chasing Llewelyn and Sheriff Bell chasing down the bad guys.
To further complicate matters, Llewelyn gets his girlfriend (Kelly Macdonald) involved in the world of the killer. She is the true innocent in our play, a woman pulled into circumstances she cannot understand nor control. Woody Harrelson plays a representative of the people who hired Chigurh. They are just as afraid of Chigurh as Llewelyn, and have better reasons to be that way.
Javier Bardem shows again that he is one of the best actors to ever grace the Silver Screen. His character Chigurh is equally creepy and fascinating. The scene between Chigurh and a gas station attendant is a study in tension. With the film of a coin, Chigurh gives the innocent an equal chance between life and death. The more his character pushes for the choice, the more intense the emotion. Javier’s Chigurh is an evil character that will go down in cinematic history, like Darth Vader and the Wicked Witch of the West.
Tommy Lee Jones wears his beaten expression as a badge of honor. His is broken but not broken in two. His world may be falling apart, but he tries to stand tall.
But by far, the biggest praises have to go to Josh Brolin. He has stepped from the shadows this year to become he most sought after actor of 2007. In No Country for Old Men he is our stoic warrior in the Old West mode but he is also a flawed character. By not doing the right thing, he puts his world in double jeopardy. Josh makes a complex role simple by not going over the top.
There are so many brilliant fine points in this film from such minor details as no music to the crazed hairstyle of Chigurh. All blend together to give a look and feel like no other film of 2007. The film is about isolated characters; there are few scenes with the three leads together. By keeping each path separate, the Coen Brothers show how different paths lead to the same destination. It is a man’s world, full of stoic testosterone trying to make a complicated existence simple.
The Coens prove that they are still the greatest filmmaking duo of our generation. This is a rough film to watch, not for those with delicate sensibilities. But it is also beautiful in its horror. There are no easy answers in No Country for Old Men, but as an entertainment is has few equals.
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