Movie Notes: No Country For Old Men

August 19th, 2008

Movie Notes: No Country For Old Men

starstarstarstarstar = 5 stars

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Synopsis

Set in rural Texas, hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) discovers several dead bodies and a suitcase of cash. After taking the cash for himself, a mysterious wanderer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) sets out to look for him. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) follows both men in hopes of stopping the increasing carnage.

The Good

  • No soundtrack. It sets a forbidding tone of silent suspense over everything, and we concentrate on the visuals and dialogue to guide our emotions. As a result, every visual detail takes on a heightened meaning, from a reflection in a television set to the way Chigurh checks the soles of his shoes, and gun shots are especially piercing.
  • All the actors are perfectly cast and turn in performances aligned with their characters - Jones as a dusty Sherrif (the wrinkles on his face look as weather-worn as his soul), Brolin as a do-it-yourself local, Bardem as the psychotic killer Chigurh, and MacDonald as innocent Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald).
  • Several scenes with an amusing personal resourcefulness vibe. Chigurh has a million ways to kill and steal, and performs surgery on himself. Llewelyn has some tricks of his own, from hiding the suitcase in a hotel room air duct, and worming his way across the border while wounded.

The Bad

  • The film’s ending is rather ambiguous and an emotional let-down. It’s also not exactly clear what happened to Carla Jean.

Conclusion

On first viewing, the ending definitely left me unfulfilled, but after some contemplation and a second go round, it makes more sense.

Carla Jean: The devil is in the details. Note how Chigurh checks his shoes as he leaves her house. I think he’s looking for blood.

The ending: The opening monologue is a voice-over by Sherrif Bell where he clearly says “I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand.” Essentially, in order to fight Chigurh, Bell knows he’d have to stoop to his level, and is reluctant to do so as he’d lose his soul. It’s easy to miss these opening words, as we haven’t yet met Bell, and the spoken information is soon superseded by Chigurh’s first dramatic appearance.

Essentially - Sherrif Bell gives up. There is no cathartic, blood drenched finale where evil is punished as common to so many modern movies. Yep, disappointing.

But the situation of fighting an unstoppable enemy should ring some bells - our war against “terror,” the waves of cultural amorality. Sometimes the best course of action is surrender. Not a very American sentiment but the inability to recognize insurmountable odds is arguably part of the problem.

Or Chigurh could simply be a metaphor for death itself - inherently unstoppable, whom none will encounter and emerge victorious.

Ambiguous ending aside, the rest of the film is masterfully executed. The Coen brothers really know what they’re doing - every moment is intentional. If the ending is vague, it’s not a failure on their part. I have no doubt they intended it that way.

IMDB: No Country For Old Men
Wikipedia: No Country For Old Men
Rotten Tomatoes: No Country For Old Men 95%

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  • Great review, Jason -- I had almost the exact same response to the movie.
  • Chigurh is as bad a bad guy as I think I've ever seen. Icy, creepy, mysterious, not even remotely sympathetic. The scene in the little gas station with the old man and coin toss was one of the most gripping I've seen - I was wincing in anticipation at every line of dialogue, just knowing that at any moment the old man would finally exasperate Chigurh so much that he'd have to kill him.

    I don't need a Hollywood wrapup, but the ending was terribly anticlimactic and unfulfilling for me. It just ended so abruptly. And I was so disappointed that Llewelyn dies so ingloriously after putting up such an extended and crafty fight.

    By the way, I live in Odessa on the eastern edge of the sparse & sprawling West Texas desert where the movie is set. While the remote and rural scenery is spot on, the cities were not right at all. El Paso felt more like vintage Las Vegas and Odessa featured far too many trees. Juarez even seemed too clean...
  • Interesting to get your take, from a real Texan. Anyhow, I definitely felt unfulfilled when I first watched this flick (gave it 4 stars) but for some reason, the imagery stuck with me and I gave it another go a few weeks later. The second time, I liked the film much more, and knowing what was going to happen didn't make for a less interesting viewing. Seems like the first viewing, I was more focused on Chigurh since as you mention, he's very scary and dramatic in his actions, but the second time it was the dialogue spoken by Bell and a lot of the little details.
  • no country for old men is unassumingly clever, even funny at times… what happens next is always unexpected and yet it never goes “over the top.” well done indeed.
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