Sass

No Country for old men

Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Based on the Novel “No Country For Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy

Staring: Tommy Lee Jones
Josh Brolin
Javier Bardem
Kelly MacDonald

From the opening shots of this movie I knew I was in for a treat. After a brief but beautifully written voice over, that anchors the film, perhaps a little deceptively in the tradition of the western, we leap exhilaratingly into the action of the story.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) a welder by trade and vietnam vet, stumbles onto the scene of a drug deal gone wrong whilst out poaching. Of eight or ten men at the scene only one man is alive, wounded and crying for water. Moss finds one dead man with a case full of money and leaving the wounded man to his fate takes the money home to a trailer he shares with his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald).

It is perhaps the soldier’s opportunism in him that compels Llewelyn to take the money, but it is the soldier’s compassion for a fallen man that illustrates a man’s guilt or innocence is not so black and white as most American movies would have us believe. It is these very human traits that are the catalyst for a chain of events that makes No Country For Old Men one of the most tense, gripping and masterfully handled thrillers I have seen in a very, very, very long time.

And make no mistake the Coen Brothers are indeed masters of their craft. Leaving aside for the moment their incredible gift for story telling, they have been responsible for bringing to life some of the most unforgettable characters in film, Marge Gunderson (Frances MacDormand) from Fargo being one of the most memorable. This film is no exception, and there are two characters in particular I must mention here.

Even though I have liked Tommy Lee Jones in pretty much everything I have seen him, I must confess I have got very used to him playing Tommy Lee Jones. In No Country For Old Men he is superb and I make the call that this is the best role he has ever played. Jaded, disillusioned and tired, as Sheriff Bell he plays a good man whom God has forgotten and in his heart cannot blame God for doing so. Savvy, street-wise and wry as a sheriff, he is bewildered, shocked and lost as a man, at times heartbreakingly so. The brilliant scripting allows Jones to realise this character in a way I have never seen him do before. If you are a Tommy Lee Jones fan this is a must see movie.

I must also make mention of Javier Bardem who plays Anton Chigurh. A more terrifying, mesmerizing and magnetic psychopath we have not seen since Hannibal Lector. With a touch of the Terminator he is relentless, remorseless and seemingly indestructible in his pursuit of Moss and the two million dollars he has been hired to retrieve. This character is the mechanism that makes this film tick. We live in a world in which we so constantly hear of unspeakable evil that it has become common-place, yet when we look into its eyes, we are unable to comprehend it. I viewed this character as Death. Precise yet random, unemotional and detached, yet he is strangely and madly wise and principled. In the words of Woody Harrelson’s character Carson Wells “you cannot strike a bargain with him” and “he doesn’t have a sense of humour”.

No Country For Old Men goes well beyond the level of “a good movie” into the realms of artistry. Themes of muddy morality, fate and destiny, Gods and loss are familiar territory for the Coen brothers and here they utilise all their accumulated experience to make a near perfect film. Set in 1980, this movie does not fall into the trap of using obvious eighties hair-styles, costumes, music and cars to ground it as many lesser film makers may have been tempted to do. Sets and costumes are deliberately ambiguous so as not to distract, giving the film a very contemporary presence.

Scripting, cinematography, editing and casting (although I haven’t time to talk about all of them the cast is uniformly flawless, Josh Brolin and Kelly MacDonald give stunning performances) have rocketed this film into my all time top five movies (a list of five which contains another Coen Brothers movie, Fargo). One scene in particular in which Anton arrives at a run down gas station is the most brilliantly played scene I have ever witnessed in any movie - and I have seen a lot of movies.

I urge you to see this one at the cinema - I saw it twice in two days. However before you rush to the cinema on my recommendation you need to be aware that this is a violent film. Very violent. Very, very violent. The violence is completely in context but there will be those who have no stomach for it.

I have never given a film a perfect score, yet I cannot find any grounds on which to take points away. I give it a 5 out of 5.