No Country for Old Men (2007)
Movie Title: No Country for Ancient Men (2007)
Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Wooded Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Language: English / Spanish
Runtime:122 min
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Movie Description
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 Ancient Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this present-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One daylight 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 go. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he’s being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily cool Javier Bardem). Chigurh’s weapon of scale 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, terrible 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 (Wooded Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful–apart from Moss has a conscious, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, “a prophet of destruction”). At times, the film plays like an ancient horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Ancient Men doesn’t go 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
Movie Review
Tommy Lee Jones gives an outstanding performance as the sheriff who realizes that the drug problem is one that is not currently solvable. It takes him time to come to this conclusion, with trying valiantly to protect the innocent people who were killed in connection with the drug crime in the film but eventualy decides that he can no longer struggle the struggle — although he has always been wise, capable and willing. The chase takes an enormous toll as he sees how innocent victims are killed over and over, despite his attempts. It is a wake up call to those who are paying attention. –By Dorothy B. Johnson “Books,Movies,Travel-my life” (Connecticut, USA)
Plot Synopsis
The film opens with a shot of desolate, wide-open country in West Texas in June 1980. In a voice over, the local sheriff, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), tells of the changing times: in the ancient days, some sheriffs never wore guns, as did his late father, who was the sheriff before him; in the present day and age, but, Bell once sent an unrepentant teenage boy to the electric chair who had killed a girl simply because he wanted to kill someone, had been “fixin’” to do it for some time, and would do it again if he had the chance.
A man named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is being arrested by a deputy (Zach Hopkins). Back at the otherwise empty police station, the deputy describes on the phone Chigurh’s weird possession, a compressed air cattle-gun. The deputy is on the phone with Sheriff Bell, but has his back to Chigurh, who sneaks up in the rear him and garrotes him with his handcuffs. Chigurh cascade back on the floor with the deputy, a weird smile washing across his face, as his wriggling victim finally expires. With cleaning himself up in the station bathroom, Chigurh pulls over a man in a Ford with the deputy’s police car. Politely asking the man to step out the car, Chigurh puts his hand on the man’s head like a faith-healer and shoots the cattle gun through the man’s skull. Chigurh then drives off in the man’s car. Read More…
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