by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated R 122 min
Tommy Lee Jones plays Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, whose jurisdiction includes several Texas towns around El Paso near the Mexican border in this darkly satirical Coen Brothers adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Sheriff Bell’s career spans his adult lifetime patrolling this territory around the Mexican border near El Paso, Texas. He suffers from career burnout–a malaise caused by seeing crime escalate from when his predecessor didn’t even carry a gun to today’s ruthless drug and human smuggling rackets. These bandits kill each other at alarming rates. Sheriff Bell has seen so much senseless slaughter he can’t cope with it anymore.
Although Sheriff Bell is tired and ready to retire, there is another big shoot-out in the dessert involving rival drug gangs. The massacre leaves a pile of bloody dead bodies and pickup trucks strewn around a remote desert site. Then, to exacerbate the situation, a lowlife drifter out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), stumbles on the massacre site and discovers the dope money–over a million dollars in a satchel. He takes it back to his trailer, knowing that the pickup truck that he had to leave in the desert will lead the owner of the cash to him. So he devises a plan to split with the loot to Mexico.
Meanwhile, psychotic killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) will not stop until he kills Llewelyn and retrieves the money. Carrying a silenced sawed off shotgun and a pneumatic nail gun used to kill cattle, Anton is cunning, and operates off the grid under his own twisted principles. Unbeknownst to Llewelyn, Anton has placed a homing device inside the stacks of bills. His receiver will lead him to the drug money thief who stands no chance with this determined hitman on his trail.
The picture has the Coen Brothers trademark stamp of plodding pacing and colorful characterizations. One could say that No Country is Fargo with bullets. The Coens’ subtle dark humor injects each carefully setup scene with parable-like dialogue and unusual outcomes. Anton is a relentless killer that operates under certain rules that govern which innocent people he kills. In a store, he flips a coin and asks the owner to call it. He says “for what?” Anton retorts, “for everything.” Lucky for him, the store owner wins the toss and is not killed. Clearly, Anton can kill anyone without feeling remorse or pangs of conscience, defining him as a socioopath. However, he’s a brilliant tracker of humans and he knows how to survive in the wild or in the city. Llewelyn goes to great lengths to escape Anton’s net. Ah, but Anton will not stop until he has that money. Even if Llewelyn gives Anton the money, the killer will likely kill Llewelyn’s wife, dog and any other family members, just for the inconvenience.
Chameleon actor Javier Bardem created a memorable villain in this Coen Brothers script. His ability to adapt to changing situations as he hunts-down his prey makes him a very dangerous man. As with other Coen Brothers’ films, the sibling filmmakers artistically use silence to build suspense. In this scenario, like in Fargo, these silent sequences underscore the bleak cruel wilderness in which only men like Anton and Llewellyn can survive, until one loses this duel to the death.
Likewise, the Coens use gaps in the action to drive home the violent scenes. It’s what you don’t see and your imagination paints for you that is more effective than actually seeing the character die. The Coens use this technique and their other off-kilter tricks effectively, creating their unique brand of storytelling, which savvy lovers of quality cinema have come to appreciate from these consummate filmmakers.
No Country for Old Men gives us back the Coen brothers’ films that we love, like Fargo, Barton Fink, and Oh Brother Where Art Thou, rather than the less engaging films they piddled with in the interim, such as The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty. Welcome back, gentlemen, welcome back.
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