Movie review: No Country for Old Men
Rating: **1/2 (out of 5)
Review by: Alexa Williamson
The Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) do good films, which are delectable for their intricate detail and intensity, yet have a dark sense of humour that simmers beneath the surface. Fargo, The Big Lebowski and Oh Brother Where Art Thou? are just a few of the films that instantly come to mind when one thinks of the brothers.
Following the great reviews and word of mouth that No Country for Old Men has received – as well as Oscar Awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (ie Javier Bardem as the bad guy) and Best Director(s) – I was very excited to see the picture. However, was disappointed to find it didn’t live up to its reputation.
In the Wild West wasteland of Texas, a psychotic criminal Anton Chigurh (pronounced “Sugar”), armed with an air-pressurised machine gun, is after $2 million he feels is his – and kills everyone one in his wake to get it. The Tarantino-style violence of the movie, which is not for the weak-stomached, is evident from its very beginning.
In his first scene – and an example of how graphic the violence gets – Chigurh strangles a police officer with the handcuffs he is wearing and the camera stays on him strangling the man until this first victim is properly dead.
After escaping, a trail of violence follows him as he searches for his money. And, unfortunately for white trash country boy Llewellyn Moss, he gets caught up in Chigurh’s path of destruction as he stumbles upon one of his mass killings and the $2 million dollars that the madman is after, as he is out deer hunting.
The film then turns into a long, drawn out story of how Moss thinks he can match wits against one of the big screen’s cleverest criminals for the past ten years and Chigurh’s steady pursuit to get his money back. The genius of the movie comes from watching this deranged killer’s personality unfold.
Chigurh has fascinatingly high principles: sticking by his word and promising to kill Moss’ innocent wife (even when Moss dies before her) if he doesn’t give him back the cash and the games he plays with his victims, promising to let them live if they call the results of a coin flip correctly.
Unfortunately our anti-hero’s quirks are woven into an un-unique plotline (a bad guy after his drugs cash) that is too stereotypically Texan for my taste and littered with too much casual violence – blowns brain out and gushing wounds every which way you turn.
However, like most Coen Brothers films, it’s a solid and detailed piece, which also has excellent small bits of acting from Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell and Woody Harrelson as the smooth-talking bounty hunter Carson Wells.
Worth seeing if you’d like to see the film rendition of the book, otherwise you can find something more exciting currently at the cinema.
Further information:
Oscars 2008 – this year’s winners (The London Reviewer)
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.