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Title: No Country For Old Men
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The problem with seeing a movie, any movie, late into it’s release is that you risk the chance of the movie gaining what some people would call a “reputation.” You certainly can not watch movies like “Citizen Kane” and “Heaven’s Gate” without hearing some vert extreme opinions on the films, and in many cases these opinions have the power to affect your personal opinion of the film. I blame reputation when it affects movies like “No Country For Old Men,” a movie that features one of the best movie villains in years, and is oozing with style and a sense of dread from beginning to end. It’s not everyday I can watch a movie where a man with a deep voice hunts down a man who stole two millions dollars, with little more then scuba divers equipment.
It’s even rarer that I see a movie that makes emotionless people so full of life. Even the movie itself, without a single note of music, has a strong underlying feeling of danger and fear throughout the film. In “Fargo” the Coen brothers made the dessert snow a larger then life force. In “No Country For Old Men” they have the same effect with the dessert sand. The story: a lone cowboy, Llewelyn, stumbles upon a group of murdered Mexicans. Though the sight is unusual to say the least, what catches his eye is a bag full of two million dollars. A great find to be sure, but you don’t take two million dollars and expect to retire for eternity. Someone eventually comes looking for it. In this case that someone is Anton Chigurh, a man so evil you’d swear he was the devil himself.
Soullessly empty and with no compassion of any kind, he kills people for the simple crime of them inconveniencing him. The only mercy he shows is when he tosses a coin in the air, giving people a 50/50 chance to live. The bulk of the movie is about how these two men are both hunter and hunted at the same time. Anton is the one who chases Llewelyn, yet as anyone who’s been chased can testify, that table can easily be turned with the right motivation. All through the situation, Tommy Lee Jones is typecast as a sheriff on the verge of retirement, frustrated that he isn’t able to really make a difference in the situation that plays out before him. Without giving away too many details, there is a reason “No Country For Old Men”has become the critical darling by so many critics and movie goers across the nation.
This is an unpredictable film. Both in style, form, and narrative. People who claim they know who the protagonists are and who the antagonists are...well, they are most likely lying. Even as I type this review I think back to the eerie setting, the tense gunfights, the chase that seems possessed by pride instead of rational thinking, and I still can’t figure it all out. It makes for fascinating film making. I guess my problem with the film is that it is not a masterpiece. It comes oh so close, but there are some minor problems I have with the film. I don’t want to tell you why exactly, cause it might give away the ending, but I fear that a few characters are useless to the whole story, and the ending really does leave you head scratching more then anything. And I admit it: the reviews killed this for me.
I read so many reviews about this movie being perfect, that I was very well disappointed when the film wasn’t. Though this is easily one of the Coen brothers best films, it’s not perfect, and I keep meditating on that fact like I was promised something I didn’t quite get. This review may betray the star rating, but I can’t help but wonder if early word-of-mouth didn’t just cost this film a spot on my top ten list. Oh well, maybe a second viewing will clear my thoughts on the matter. Or a third, or a forth, or a fifth...
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -
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