Old-Timers Still Matter

I love No Country for Old Men more and more every time I see it.  I have also found that it is a very divisive movie among film fans and the general movie-going audience.  I always love a movie that gets people talking, regardless of how I feel about said movie.

No Country for Old Men is the story of a hunter who stumbles on a deal gone wrong, and takes more than two million dollars.  The screenplay for this movie is damn near perfect.  This is a movie that makes you pay attention to the detail of the writing as you watch the film play out on screen.  This is why the Coen Brothers are such brilliant writers as well as directors.

I have been a huge of Tommy Lee Jones for almost 20 years.  He is a very naturalistic actor, and he brings all of his natural gifts to his role as Ed Tom Bell.  Bell is a man who has been a Sheriff all his life.  He is a very experienced man who remains cool and calm, even in the tensest of situations.  You can also see that he wants to get to the bottom of the situation as soon as possible.  Tommy Lee Jones gives a very well-rounded performance that gets more enjoyable to watch every time I see this movie.

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh.  Chigurh is a sociopathic killer who is prepared for virtually any situation.  I have a soft spot for characters who only talk when necessary, and do their job and move on.  Chigurh is exactly that.  This makes him a very menacing character because everything he says is in his facial expressions.  I am stricken with fear every time I watch this movie because of Bardem’s work, which is why he deserved to win Best Supporting Actor.

Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss.  It took me a while to understand his motivations in the movie.  What is he going to do with the money now that he has stolen it?  The answer is nothing.  He takes the money because he wants it for himself.  This greedy, selfish act is what causes everything else in the movie to happen.  I always like ordinary characters who are thrust into extraordinary situations.  Moss knows Chigurh is after him because of the money, and yet he still will not give it up.  He is a very intelligent man who seemingly covers his tracks very well, even though Chigurh is always right behind him.  I have to say that Brolin plays a Texan very convincingly.  He does a very good job of playing the “every-man”.  There is also a persistence to Moss that Brolin plays very convincingly.

Joel and Ethan Coen are the directors of No Country for Old Men.  I love what they do as directors because every shot is framed so perfectly.  I also really like that there is a supreme lack of lighting in the movie.  The darkness really adds to the eeriness and creepiness of the movie.  Also, the lack of music makes you feel the tension of the situations along with the characters.

No Country for Old Men is a masterpiece.  I like the fact that the ending is open-ended because you get to use your imagination about what happens to these characters.  As I said before, this is a very divisive movie among film fans.  I think many people found it odd that it won Best Picture.  Based on the controversy alone, I highly recommend you see this movie.