When CBTS first reported on the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's brilliant novel No Country for Old Men, the film had already created a major buzz at the Cannes Film Festival in France - and when it was featured last month at the New York Film Festival, the reaction was indeed the same. With its nationwide release on November 21st, No Country for Old Men without question is the best film of 2007.
The film opens with the hovering voice over of Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Never before has Jones delivered such a dazzling performance, as he portrays the weary and wired Texas lawman against the ropes - vexed by a series of ghastly crimes taking place along the volatile border of the United States and Mexico. Jones' Sheriff Bell has seen better days, as he remarks early on that the sheriffs before him "never even carried a gun." Clearly, the might and will of man's baneful existence has outmatched Bell, as he desperately searches for Texas rancher, Llewelyn Moss, before it's much too late.
Played by the leathery Josh Brolin, Moss - an ex-G.I. - stumbles across the scene of a deadly ambush while hunting antelope in the Rio Grande. Along with a cornucopia of dead bodies, he finds two million dollars in cash and a truck loaded to the brim with heroin. The complexity of Moss' character is portrayed with great delicacy by Brolin, as the unscrupulous decision to make off with the cash begins to weigh on the likable Moss like a ton of bricks.
As the film progresses, Sherriff Bell's sanctity continues to be torn at the seams by the ungodly acts of man, leaving him incapacitated and vulnerable. Moss, on the other hand - being hunted by the demonic Anton Chigurh (played with such vile mastery by the haunting Javier Bardem) - has no such time to reflect. As the intelligent, murderous Chigurh eliminates everything in his path - narrowing the gap between himself and the money that Moss claimed as his own - it becomes clear to Moss that the only way out of this mess is through the devil's doorway, much to Bell's chagrin.
No Country for Old Men is not chase movie, nor is it a shoot 'em up with a neat and tidy ending. The Coen's sense of humor - matched with McCarthy's revolutionary prose - sets a fine backdrop for the film, and Bardem's Chigurh is evil personified. But at heart, No Country for Old Men is about the conviction of man, and all the evil he can muster.
The film opens with the hovering voice over of Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Never before has Jones delivered such a dazzling performance, as he portrays the weary and wired Texas lawman against the ropes - vexed by a series of ghastly crimes taking place along the volatile border of the United States and Mexico. Jones' Sheriff Bell has seen better days, as he remarks early on that the sheriffs before him "never even carried a gun." Clearly, the might and will of man's baneful existence has outmatched Bell, as he desperately searches for Texas rancher, Llewelyn Moss, before it's much too late.
Played by the leathery Josh Brolin, Moss - an ex-G.I. - stumbles across the scene of a deadly ambush while hunting antelope in the Rio Grande. Along with a cornucopia of dead bodies, he finds two million dollars in cash and a truck loaded to the brim with heroin. The complexity of Moss' character is portrayed with great delicacy by Brolin, as the unscrupulous decision to make off with the cash begins to weigh on the likable Moss like a ton of bricks.
As the film progresses, Sherriff Bell's sanctity continues to be torn at the seams by the ungodly acts of man, leaving him incapacitated and vulnerable. Moss, on the other hand - being hunted by the demonic Anton Chigurh (played with such vile mastery by the haunting Javier Bardem) - has no such time to reflect. As the intelligent, murderous Chigurh eliminates everything in his path - narrowing the gap between himself and the money that Moss claimed as his own - it becomes clear to Moss that the only way out of this mess is through the devil's doorway, much to Bell's chagrin.
No Country for Old Men is not chase movie, nor is it a shoot 'em up with a neat and tidy ending. The Coen's sense of humor - matched with McCarthy's revolutionary prose - sets a fine backdrop for the film, and Bardem's Chigurh is evil personified. But at heart, No Country for Old Men is about the conviction of man, and all the evil he can muster.
