At times, the world runs on our differences more than our similarities. Everyone has their favorite directors, and of course there are those who dispute their choices. For every lover of Spielberg, Lucas, Aronofsky or Coppola, there’s someone who can’t stand anything from their bodies of work. The arguments which ensue are part of what keeps life interesting.
Although I’ve liked some of the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, I’ve never been a particular fan of theirs. That said, I loved the entirety of their 2007 Academy Award winner No Country for Old Men…at least, until the last 20 minutes.
No Country for Old Men is about to be re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray this coming Tuesday, both complete with a massive slew of extras and a limited edition digital copy of the film. Although I’ll argue until the end of my days that Gone Baby Gone should have taken the Oscar for ‘07 (based on my own personal belief in the quality of its emotional and dramatic satisfaction), I can’t deny that No Country is one hell of a powerful and disturbing film.
Adapted by the Coens from the novel by Cormac McCarthy, the story tells the tale of Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a man who one day happens upon the aftermath of a bloody disagreement between a group of drug dealers and their clients near the U.S.-Mexico border, and finds a satchel of money with no survivors to claim it. However, higher-ups involved in the drug trade send their personal Hand of Vengeance, the remorseless killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) to recover their cash. Chigurh will kill anyone–anyone–who gets in his way, and as Moss goes on the run, the local law enforcer Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) becomes involved in trying to find a way to track down and save Moss, while attempting to figure out how he’ll ever deal with Chigurh…a new type of evil which Bell doesn’t understand, and isn’t sure he’s prepared to face.
No Country for Old Men is a rare breed of film: it’s entirely unpredictable from beginning to end, has a powerful cast underpinning an unusually strong script, takes the bold risk of having virtually no incidental music whatsoever (whereas most drama-thrillers of this ilk tend to use their scores to manipulate the audience’s feelings every step of the way) and is a tense treatise on the inevitability of fate, the unfairness of how people meet their end, and living–or dying–with the consequences of the choices we make. (more…)
