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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Not that there aren't moments of intense violence, but No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with $2 million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he's going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he's being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh's weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way--or loses a coin toss (as far as he's concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II vet, is on Moss's trail, Chigurh's former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful--except Moss has a conscience, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, "a prophet of destruction"). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Old Men doesn't move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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5 out of 5 stars

'To this we've come' March 16, 2008
286 out of 320 found this review helpful

Cormac McCarthy's novel NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN has been successfully transformed into a film in the skilled hands of Ethan and Joel Coen. The story is intact, the characters are given the dialog so uniquely McCarthy's invention, and the horror of the message of the book - that we have come to a point in time when crime, especially random murder, surrounds our lives - is, if anything, even more pungent than on the pages of the book. It is an amazing, and a highly disturbing movie, and while this viewer is one of the few who does not believe it deserved the Oscar for Best Picture, there is little doubt that it is a brilliant piece of cinema.

The story is fairly simple: on the raw plains of Texas a slaughter of men and dogs engaged in a drug deal is discovered by a simple guy Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin). Moss observes the mayhem, sees the drugs, finds the 2 million dollar payoff money, takes the money, and embarks on an escape, leaving his wife Carla (Kelly Macdonald) to escape the pursuit of a mad killer Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who in turn is being pursued by the local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and a hired hitman (Woody Harrelson). The satchel of money contains a tracking device and Chigurh has the instrument necessary to follow the trail the device leads. The remainder of the film is the pursuit both in Texas and in Mexico, accompanied by countless brutal murders of all sorts by the crazed Chigurh, until a surprise ending.

But the toughest part of this violent film is more in the discussion of shared philosophies between the sheriff and his old cronies: they reflect on the sad state of universal crime that is so different and more malevolent than in the 'old days'. The conversations, in the superb dialog of these old men, bring our attention to some realities we would rather not confront, and those realities are even more disturbing than the repeated images of bloated bodies and senseless murders that fill the screen. Jones, Brolin, and Bardem are indeed superb in their roles, but the small cameos of the townsfolk of Texas are little gems of acting and direction. This is a difficult film to watch because of all of the violence, but the message is one we must heed. We may be allowing the creation of 'no country for any men'. Grady Harp, March 08

5 out of 5 stars

a near-masterpiece December 8, 2007
248 out of 326 found this review helpful

In the stylish new Coen Brothers' movie, "No Country for Old Men," the violence is both graphic and coy, both in-your-face and strangely demur in the way it is portrayed. Bit players are frequently blown away in full view of the audience, while key characters often meet their ends off screen, away from the spotlight of the prying camera. For this is the theme of the movie, that violence is arbitrary, capricious and unpredictable, and that things are only going to get worse in a culture that has grown increasingly coarse and indifferent to human suffering over the years.

The "old man" of the title is Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a small town Texas sheriff who, right on the verge of retirement, has seen a depressing spike in violent crime thanks to the recent proliferation of drug-running from Mexico (the movie takes place in 1980). For this is a "new time" in America, one in which an all-out criminal "war" is being fought, as much on the open plains as in the crowded cities. It is the "old men" like Bell, the last in a long line of old style Texas lawmen, who can no longer recognize their country and who are left to recede into the background bewildered and frustrated by their inability to do anything about it.

As the story opens, a group of men lie dead in a windswept field, victims of a drug deal gone terribly awry. The perpetrator is a psychopath by the name of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who is now wandering the countryside on a random killing spree, dispatching human victims as casually as the rest of us would a mosquito or fly. Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a "retired" welder who stumbles upon not only the carnage-strewn scene but a suitcase filled with millions of dollars in unmarked bills. When Moss makes the fatal mistake of taking the loot, he becomes the prime target of Chigurh, who will stop at nothing to get what is rightfully his.

Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, "No Country For Old Men" is less notable for its story and characters than for its cinematic naturalism and impressionistic style. Despite having made some truly exceptional films in the past, Joel and Ethan Coen have never been as thoroughly in control of their medium or as supremely confident in their filmmaking as they are here. The first hour, in particular, is such a flawless masterpiece of composition and tone that it will probably be studied as a model in film school courses for years to come. Not since the films of Terrance Malick has landscape been used to more brilliant effect than in the opening section of this work. The setting - so brilliantly captured in Roger Deakins' incisive cinematography and Craig Berkey`s stunning sound design - becomes a palpable presence in its own right and a key player in the drama. The Coens have done their own editing on the film, which explains why the pacing feels like an exquisitely honed piece of music, built on finely calibrated beats and rests, meter and rhythm. The hypnotic, dreamlike quality of the filmmaking carries the story into the realm of archetype and myth which matches perfectly the surrealistic nature of the piece.

Bardem provides a bone-chilling portrait of a human killing-machine whose sole purpose in life is to destroy that which gets in his way (not that he doesn't enjoy killing just for the sheer pleasure of it as well). In Bardem's hands, Chigurh becomes the true incarnation of evil in its darkest form. Jones brings a world-weary gravity to the role of the sheriff, while Brolin, who gets the majority of the screen time in the film, does some of the best work of his career as the man desperate to keep one step ahead of his pursuer.

Perhaps predictably, the movie is not able to sustain the same level of greatness all the way through its running time and there are moments when the filmmakers seem to lose their way somewhat (particularly when Woody Harrelson shows up as a comic-relief bounty hunter). The unresolved ending may frustrate those who don't like any loose ends hanging around at the end of a story, but the inconclusiveness of the conclusion actually adds to the verisimilitude of the movie quite a bit.

Still, even if the movie falters a bit towards the end, there's no denying that "No Country For Old Men" is one of the outstanding films of recent times. In fact, that first hour or so is about as close to perfection as filmmaking is ever likely to get.

4 out of 5 stars

It's your call January 6, 2008
132 out of 274 found this review helpful

(to the tune of El Paso by Marty Robbins)

Close by the West Texas town of El Paso
There was a drug deal that went very wrong
Llewellyn, he fled with a bag full of money
Came back to the scene, but he took far too long

Blacker than night was the heart of the Chigurh
Wicked and evil and killing for fun
He soon went after Llewellyn's new treasure
Armed with a captive bolt cow stunning gun

That's where the grizzled old sheriff came in
Tired of West Texas crime
Fretting and moaning
Of times that were changing
He looked for Llewellyn
To save his thick hide

So with insight he

Sought out the woman who married Llewellyn
He tried to warn her of what was in store
Meanwhile the killer was tracking Llewellyn
Tracking him all the way to his front door

But there were others looking for the money
All of them hoping to bring back the dough
Many hands didn't make light of the workload
Soon one by one, well they all had to go

Out of the motels and buildings he ran
Running or hitching a ride
He stopped an old truck
Which proved to be bad luck
It won't be long
`Fore the two worlds collide

Cast:

Javier Bardem - Chigurh: Very bad guy. If you run into him you'd better make sure you're good at calling heads or tails.

Josh Brolin - Llewellyn Moss: Guy who takes money from the wrong place, and then finds himself in the wrong time

Tommy Lee Jones - Sheriff Bell: Old man of title.

Kelly Macdonald - Carla Jean Moss: Spunky wife of Llewellyn

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

Dude finds drug money and takes it
Psychopathic bad guy hired to recover stolen money
Retiring Sheriff tries to find dude before bad guy does
Bad guy leaves bloody trail of unlucky folk
Bad guy's employer outsources back-up
Body count rises
Some ride off into the sunset, some don't

Based on a Cormac Mccarthy book, you can expect desolate landscapes, graphic imagery and minimalism. If you're in the mood for powerful performances and hard hitting story telling, make sure you see this one. If you're looking for happily ever afters you might want to see Enchanted instead. Call it!

Amanda Richards, January 7, 2008

5 out of 5 stars

A classic. Plain and simple. December 20, 2007
107 out of 167 found this review helpful

You hear the phrase "daring film-making" tossed around like a beach ball these days; someone kills off a main character, it's "daring" and "original" and should be nominated for 20 Oscars. If you want to know what "daring film-making" really is, stick around 'til the end of "No Country For Old Men." Not that you'll have much trouble--you'll be glued to your seat the entire time. Probably shaking in terror and anticipation.

Here's the premise, and I'll sum it up quickly: a man finds a satchel containing 2 million dollars and then hits the road, persued by a psycopathic hitman and a haven't-seen-it-all-yet-apparently sheriff. If that summary of the plot doesn't suit your purposes, then just go see the movie. It's not about plot anyways. The plot is good, the plot is interesting and great...but it's not about plot.

It's about acting. It's about cinemetography. It's about script. It's about Josh Brolin putting you on edge and yet getting your sympathy vote; it's about Tommy Lee Jones giving the performance of his career; it's about Javier Bardem creeping you the [bleep] out. Hell, even Woody Harrelson, in his too-brief role, proves he's more than a funny man. The main star is, of course, Texas--beautiful, rugged, majestic, and eerily terrifying. The dialogue is brisk when it needs to be, thoughtful when it's called for, and always engaging. There are two scenes that rank as the most suspensful I've ever seen: the scene where Brolin's character is sitting in the dark of his hotel room, waiting for Bardem's character to make his move; and the scene where Jones's character enters the hotel room near the end. Both scenes left me shaking in my seat, sweating, scared and rivetted. I don't think that's ever happened before--at least not twice in one movie.

A word on the ending. I went to see this with a buddy of mine. On our way home from the theater, we talked about nothing but the ending of the movie (eventually we got around to "Cheers" and began bashing Ted Danson and praising Danny de Vito, but that's neither here nor there). The plain and simple fact is, it works. I mentioned "daring film-making" at the beginning of this review. To me, "daring" is when a film-maker stays true to the movie, to what needs to be done for the sake of art. The Coen Brothers, more than anybody else out there, do that; and they have never done it better than with "No Country For Old Men." So casual viewers beware: you may leave the movie feeling unfulfilled, like something is missing. And you will probably have nightmares afterwards. But that just goes to show how effective "No Country For Old Men" is. It's a classic. See it, and you'll understand my reasoning. Or don't see it and miss out on a truly original cinema experience.

1 out of 5 stars

PSEUDO INTELLECTUAL NIHILISTIC HOGWASH January 14, 2008
55 out of 161 found this review helpful

Finally, a violent Art Film that the critics can enjoy too, without feeling guilty about it. And they can spew some pseudo-intellectual nonsense about how transcendent it is symbolically. It's not. It's really intellectual hypocrisy. (My reasons are at the bottom of this review.)

A friend and I were discussing the blank negativity that seems to be permeating The Hollywood Landscape of filmmaking these days. Children having children, children killing children, killing and murder, murder musicals, and torture porn. (Richard Roeper's term for the latest trend in horror films.) This film came up in the conversation. My friend called it "dysfunction of the human spirit." I wish I had said that.

My friend is fairly brilliant because that's what this film is really all about... And, the fact that you can use a cattle punch to kill people and open locked doors. This is a film that proselytizes against it's very own dysfunction. It's cynical and depressing filmmaking with a self-abnegating moral. I know a lot of the blame for this lies with the author. I know someone who read it. Apparently, it was just as dysfunctional as the film.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a violent exploitation film that is posing as a deep moral artistic statement about society. It's not. It's really a violent lowbrow crime drama about a killer chasing a guy that stole some drug money. On the peripheral, a lawman and some other interested parties, including a bounty hunter played by Woody Harrelson (what a waste of a great cameo), are also giving chase and making pretentious speeches.

The film has some good noir elements. Like blood leaking out of cowboy footwear, a wounded dog limping across the plains, and lots of dead and bloody bodies lying around. Booyay!

The cinematography and direction are topnotch. It has a great look. My guess is that it was not shot on film, but digitally. (You may correct me if I'm wrong.) Which allows the cinematographer to shoot at night using only the ambient light of the location. Lighting a shot is the most time consuming aspect of filmmmaking.

The beginning of the film is quite stunning, and I thought I was in for a real treat as far as the storytelling goes. But, the unbelievable plot degenerates into a dull chase with lots of homicidal killings. (See my review on Michael Mann's COLLATERAL.) The story is fairly pedestrian and mostly dumb. It's full of holes. Not just bullet holes, but plot holes. (SPOILER ALERT) Bardem strangles a sheriff and murders an innocent motorist with a cattle punch and no one alerts the FBI? There is no massive manhunt or statewide dragnet? R-i-g-h-t. I just knew the satchel of money contained a transponder. I even yelled, "transponder," outloud in the theater before it was said or revealed later in the film. No one was in the theater to tell me to "shut up." Ho-hum.

It has a cast of mostly underdeveloped characters. Javier Bardem plays a cartoonish sociopath and is not particularly menacing in his Prince Valiant haircut. He makes a face when he kills like he's just eaten the best ice cream ever. Pretty hammy. And Tommy Lee Jones plays the same old lawman that he always plays in movies. The killer gives two of his potential victims the choice of life or death, with the toss of a coin. A sociopath with a conscience. Then, he nonchalantly walks around town in the open with a cattle punch and a silenced shotgun, pleasantly shooting and almost killing everyone in sight. Mostly at night. But, also in broad daylight. I guess there are no people in Texas. Or no people in Texas with phones. Realism is not at fault in this film. I guess it takes place in Bizarro World. Or Bizarro Texas. Apparently, the killer got that cool coin at The Bizarro Franklin Mint in Bizarro Pennsylvania. "Truth is stranger than fiction?" Yeah, whatever.

Towards the end of the film, how is the protagonist, played by Josh Brolin, found? Does it matter? What happens to Brolin's wife? Oh right, it's ambiguous. Resolution is antithetical to a Serial Killer Art Film.

A couple of good oneliners make this feel like you might be watching a Coen Brothers film, but it's protagonists are not as comically inept as the ones in BLOOD SIMPLE or FARGO. There are some offbeat cameo characters that appear to be refugees from a David Lynch film. But, they feel like an afterthought. I chuckled a few times, but mostly, I yawned through this boring exercise of Art House Noir. I couldn't wait for this film to be over and I kept looking at my watch.

My Uncle was a Commander in The L.A.P.D. for more than thirty years. Cops don't suddenly have an epiphany about evil and crime after a lifetime of law enforcement. They develop a hard outer shell very early because they deal with the scum of the earth on a daily basis. I didn't recognize the lawman in this film at all.

The message of this film seems to be saying "that the times they are a changin'." There was a time when a lawman could get the job done without a gun and some fancy detective work. Now the law is outmatched, which spells doom for all of us. The abhorrent underworld is now a part of the American landscape. And it's populated with sociopaths that kill and maim without remorse. But this film revels in the killer's flair for creative mayhem. It's frolicking and wallowing in it's own blood. Intellectual hypocrisy in my book. You can't have it both ways. I have a problem with violent films that are proselytizing against the very violence that they are depicting. The villain in this film is depicted as an anti-hero. Bardem is made-up to look like some romantic medieval villain or hero. Maybe he respresents Prince Valiant or Robin Hood with that obnoxious hairdo and his strange game of chance. The depictions of brutal violence negate the message of the film. "Do as I say, not as I do?" SILENCE OF THE LAMBS depicted the very same intellectual hypocrisy, and won an Oscar for it. (Contrary to what The Academy or your teenage Emo son believes, Hannibal Lector is not a hero.) This will probably win one too. What a shame. But, I'm not buying into it.

I actually enjoy films with violent content as long as it serves the story in some fashion. All this film has to offer is a double barreled shotgun sandwich, some depressing dimestore symbolism at the end, and no real resolution.

(SPOILER) THE METAPHORICAL ENDING FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T GET IT: Evil survives when Bardem walks away. Good, metaphorically represented by Jones and his dream, is vanishing. The dream is a premonition of his death, both literally and metaphorically. I don't need the Coen brothers to tell me that good does not always triumph over evil, after splattering the screen with blood. There is nothing new here. "Genius" is defined by something that has never been postulated or presented before. The metaphor is old, and it's hardly genius. I get it. I just don't get what it's doing in this bloody lowbrow crime drama.

This is not a great transcendent crime drama. It's a bad story mixed with violent sanctimonious self-righteous crud. This film strives for artistic merit, but it's really just another violent cartoon like THE HITCHER. That film was fun. This one was dull. I hated this flick.

"We believe in nothing, Lebowski."

Yah, we believe in nothing."

If you want to see The Best Serial Killer film of 2007, see David Fincher's ZODIAC. That's a brilliant film. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a bloody overrated mess.

IM, not so HO, this is the worst film The Coen Brothers have ever made. Joel and Ethan Coen deserve a spanking for this. I hope they get back on track with something funny.

Apparently, the Critics are not as bright as they appear to be. America really is a dark and depressing place. Not because of this film's reflection of society. But, because films like this are being lionized by the masses as some sort of standard of excellence. Which is a sad reflection of America, in and of itself.

Pseudo-Intellectual Nihilistic Hogwash.

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