No Country For Old Men (2007)

-- Possible spoilers towards the end ---

The Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men adapted from a novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy Tells the story of Llewelyn Moss. Moss stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad. He takes the money that was left at the scene and becomes the target of a ruthless and relentless killer who wants the money and will kill anyone who gets in his way.

No Country For Old Men is a visually stunning film. The landscape shots that start the film with gripping narration / voiceover from Tommy Lee Jones character, Ed Tom Bell, have to be one of my favourite intros to a film, ever. Beautiful landscape, and brilliant voiceover by Tommy that instantly projects the sense of disbelief and worn down attitude that Ed Tom Bell has towards the world without even being introduced to the character, a truely brilliant intro. This is followed by a scene where we see Moss (Josh Brolin) hunting, and the landscapes are amazing.

Along with visuals this is a movie of scenes and performances. Another movie that comes to mind that relates to performances and scenes is True Romance. True Romance is really a pretty hyberbolic crime movie, a lot of glamour and over the top moments. What True Romance, which i think is a great film, had was great performances and scenes. Be it Christopher Walken and Denis Hopper creating a tense masterpiece in one scene, Gary Oldman doing what may be his best performance as pimp Drexl, or James Gandolfini & patricia arquette having an epic violent brawl, those scenes stuck out and elevated the film. As is the case here, First of mention would be Josh Brolin searching the aftermath of the drug deal. Later a scene in which Anton (Javier Bardem) is offering a gas station clerk a life or death coin toss, with comedic elements thrown in it brilliantly glides the line between intensity and darkly comic humour. The scenes in which anton tracks down Moss in his motel are brilliant and very tense, getting the sense that you just cant out run this guy because he is one step ahead all the time. Tommy Lee Jones is an actor i was never that keen on, i always felt his characters were slightly over the top, but he plays this so subtle, it's a truely brilliant performance. In fact thats an interesting point his character is so well crafted, that even though he is related and involved with the centre story, you really get the idea he has his own war with himself going on, one that may never have stopped, even after the credits, its brilliantly portrayed.

Some elements i wasn't too keen on include Woody Harrelson's character. His performance was fine but i didn't see the point of his character's inclusion in the film. If it had not been such a well known and charasmatic actor perhaps the role would of stuck out less but it just seemed odd. For me it didn't even play as "whose this CHARACTER he's a bit out of place" for me it was like "whats Woody Harrelson doing here?". I also think some more subtle elements may of taken some of the experience away for me, such as a lack of non-diegetic (ie score or music in general) i think subconsciously played on my mind. This is also a movie i plan to see again, because it takes a lot of attention, not one to drift away from, mainly due to only having one core story driving it.

I will talk for a moment or two about the most discussed element of the film, the ending. I don't want to spend too much time on it or dwel. Possible Spoiler ... :

I personally felt that Anton's exit, mixed with the open ended situation concerning the fate of Carla Moss helped the film, it reflected that life goes on. In terms of Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) 's final speech, well just as i said above, it was about life going on. Bell in many ways was the heart of the film, the entire mood of the film was there in that one character, he was out of touch and unhappy with the state of the world, a man high on principles, that is not going to just go away. I thought the abrupt ending was fine and again portrayed that the issues were still there, unresolved, which is true of life.

All in all, No Country for old men is a fantastic film. I had issues with some elements and there was something nagging on my mind in the film (probably the music issue) however this is a film of standout performances, classic scenes and beautiful cinetograhpy, a lesson in film making before your eyes.