No Country For Old Men is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, and stars Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones as three men whose lives become intertwined by a drug deal gone bad. The film opens with the arrest of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), which results in him ruthlessly murdering his arresting officer and stealing the police car. This opening scene reveals that Chigurh is a cold-blooded killer with no remorse, and his method of killing: a cattle gun. The focus then turns to Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), who, while hunting in the desert, stumbles upon several dead men, a stash of heroin, a dying man desperate for water, and two million dollars. Moss takes the money back to his trailer, then, feeling guilty about the dying man, returns to the desert with water. However, once there, he's ambushed by the drug dealers and chased through the desert. He puts his wife on a bus and promises to join her once everything has been resolved. The rest of the movie follows the cat-and-mouse hunt between Chigurh and Moss, and Sherriff Bell's (Tommy Lee Jones) attempt to catch up.
I haven't been a huge fan of the other Coen brothers' films I've seen, other than
O Brother Where Art Thou?. I thought
Raising Arizona was slightly ridiculous, but I feel as if I should give both
Fargo and
The Big Lebowski another chance, seeing as I saw both when I was either tired or just disinterested in seeing a movie at all. I haven't seen many movies that have caused me to sit tensely throughout the duration, biting my fingernails in anticipation, but
No Country For Old Men now has that distinction. From the chase scene through the desert to the numerous scenes in motels with Chigurh relentlessly tracking Moss to the "conclusion" of the film (if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean), this film plays havoc with your nerves, in the best possible way.
The performances by all three main leads are fantastic. Considering the last movie I saw Josh Brolin in was Planet Terror, he does a great job with the desperate yet resilient Moss, and Tommy Lee Jones seems effortless in his portrayal of the weary sherriff. But it's Javier Bardem's performance that is the most memorable. Chigurh will most likely be remembered as one of the most frightening villains in cinematic history, with his lack of remorse, his relentless pursuit of his victims and his violent forms of murder. Considering that these men never actually interact face-to-face within the span of the film, the audience gets the sense that their lives will forever be intertwined.
The most interesting facet of this film is the lack of music. As most critics and fans of the Coen brothers' movies have noticed, the Coens put an emphasis on the soundtracks of their projects, almost to the point where the music plays a central role in the film. No Country For Old Men features little music except for a brief scene in Mexico. The lack of music allows for a more tense atmosphere, as the audience hears every rustle of the wind, every bark or phone ring in the distance, and every creak of the floorboards. The combination of this lack of music and the cinematography, which drinks in every vast landscape and grisly streets of Texas and Mexico, results in a visually stimulating and terrifying film that I would recommend to fans of suspense and Coen brothers' films.
