Ten-Dollar Ticket: No Country for Old Men

by James T. Tynon '10

Tuesday January 22, 2008

The Coen Brothers have long been my all-time favorite filmmakers, their films imbued with a subtle surrealism that comments profoundly on our lives and our culture. Despite this, I was worried that they had seen the peak of their careers, opting for the bizarre humor that had once been nothing more than a sideline aspect of their films, allowing it to take charge in the more recent ‘Intolerable Cruelty’ and ‘The Ladykillers.’ Both of these films had all of the brothers’ trademarked weirdness, but none of the soul or beauty of their earlier endeavors. After two years away from the box office, the brothers have delivered a film that hearkens back to ‘Miller’s Crossing’ and ‘Fargo,’ giving us what might be their greatest yet.

‘No Country For Old Men’ is by far the best picture I’ve seen this year. The acting is superb, the world created is beautiful to watch, but totally grounded in reality (more so than any other film by the Coen Brothers), and the story is engaging to the very end. Like all the Coen Brothers’ movies, the highlight of the film is its characters. Tommy Lee Jones gives us one of the best performances of his career as the Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, and Josh Brolin is pitch perfect as Llewellyn Moss, the Vietnam veteran living on the edge of the law. But it’s Javier Bardem as the villain Anton Chigurh who steals the show. Chigurh is beyond terrifying, a veritable demon who lacks any sense of morality. It reminds me a bit of Darth Vader’s presence in the original 1977 Star Wars; every scene with the character is an instant classic, and I would already count him as one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time.

I will not spoil the plot other than saying that this is a bit of a period piece, taking place in southern Texas during the early eighties and drawing parallels to the Old West throughout. It’s the story of a man who finds a great deal of money, and the repercussions that finding the money has on his life. The film is adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, which I have not read, so I cannot say whether it works as an adaptation. What I am sure of is that the film works on its own merits, and I am hard-pressed to find any substantial criticism. You will regret not seeing this movie, I guarantee it; come Awards season I expect we will all be hearing a great deal more about it. Take a trip out to the theaters before this disappears. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys good movies.