No Country for Old Men
“No Country for Old Men” is unlike any other movie the Coen Brothers have ever made. Of course, the same can be said for “Fargo,” “Raising Arizona,” “Miller’s Crossing”, “The Big Lebowski” or any of the films from Joel and Ethan Coen, who could never be accused of going soft or stale (although they can go over-the-top in their surrealness- see “Barton Fink” and Tom Hanks in “The Ladykillers”). True, echoes ring out of “No Country” from “Fargo” and their impressive debut “Blood Simple,” but their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel has more than enough flesh to nourish any self-respecting Coen fan, of which I am one.
The story is too juicy to give away all its’ secrets, so I’ll just say that it involves a case of $2 million dollars found at the scene of a failed drug deal by local Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), who not long after becomes a hunted man by Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), an assassin out to get the money back, even if he has to kill Llewelyn’s wife Carla Jean (the outstanding Kelly Macdonald) to do it. Investigating on the local front is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who looks at things with a fresh eye reminiscent of Marge Gunderson, the pregnant police chief from the Coen’s landmark “Fargo” played with beautiful nuance and determination by Frances McDormond.
I think that’ll about do it for the obligatory setup, and if you think you can figure where that story’s going, you clearly don’t know the Coens (who co-write and direct all of their features, even if the guild didn’t let them take such credit for a long time). Nothing necessarily happens according to the natural order of things in Hollywood genre filmmaking, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s seen any of the above films. The boys cut and splice together genres like the top surgeons in the land, resulting in moments of sweat-inducing suspense (like three separate scenes in hotels, especially when a beep outside the door spells impending doom), thrilling action (such as a chase involving Moss and a dog hot on his path), and wicked humor be it verbal (an early scene between Llewelyn and his wife is a cold-stone killer) or silent (the way Chigurh toys with his potential victims with his eyes are both frightening and funny), and all leading to an ending that’s teasingly ambiguous on the first viewing, but crystal clear on the second one.
The film is primarily about the cat-and-mouse between Moss, who unwisely goes back to the scene of the crime to play good samaritan and give a dying man some water, and Chigurh, who’s like Hannibal Lectar without the charm. Both men are hunters by nature (our first glimpse of Moss is when he’s hunting), and that killer instinct drives both men towards their eventual goals. But while Chigurh is a sociopath unconcerned with fundamental morality (and played by Bardem in a knockout turn that screams Oscar for the once-nominated actor, and earns any comparisons with Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs” for his methodical, mercenary-like brutality), Moss- despite his early indifference- is still a man of principal who wants what’s best for he and his wife, even if he goes about the wrong way getting there (the film’s funniest exchange is when Carla Jean asks, ” And what are you going to do?” and her husband replies, “I’m fixin’ to do something dumber than hell, but I’m going anyways”). Brolin, in the middle of a breakout year thanks to his work in this, “Grindhouse: Planet Terror”, and “American Gangster”, is capable of allowing room for empathy for Llewelyn on top of his ruthlessness when the chase is on. That we sympathize at his plight while condemning him for his actions is precisely part of the Coen’s point- ’cause in a way, the story is a jab at anti-hero worship if you think about it- and Brolin is with them every step of the way; you can’t take your eyes off of him.
Part of the film’s ultimate fascination, however, is the part Tommy Lee Jones’ Ed Tom Bell plays in the film. As much as he reminded me of McDormond’s Marge from “Fargo,” Bell is miles away from that character. They both have the same methodical intelligence for the job to figure out the most rational way of doing things, but whereas we were swept along by Marge’s dogged pursuit of the criminals at hand, we find ourselves wondering about Bell’s seeming detachment from the job. But as we go on, we come to realize that it’s not that Bell doesn’t care, but that the changes that have come with time have worn him down. This realization- solidified when he tells a fellow officer in El Paso, “It starts when you begin to overlook bad manners. Anytime you quit hearin’ ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am,’ the end is pretty much in sight.”- puts both his character’s opening narration, as well as his way of working the case, in context. This world-weariness crystalizes in the final scene, in which Bell tells his wife about two dreams he had the night before in which the message is clear- time stops for no man, and for old men in particular (and Bell is not bashful in admitting his advanced age), the world has moved right past them into something unrecognizable. And Jones hits a career peak in the role, hitting all of the right notes of wisdom, dry wit, and world-weariness with a subtle wit tinged with melancholy and a nobility we aren’t used to seeing anymore. In a sense, then, the Coen Brothers- aided immeasurably by “Fargo” cinematographer Roger Deakins, and bold in their use of minimal music by Carter Burwell (only two moments of ambient underscore seem to come through, but both enrich the visuals beautifully)- have created a film that may not surpass “Fargo” but evolves from that earlier Oscar-winner to go deeper into themes the earlier film only hinted at. Further recognition for the achievement would not be out of the question for both filmmakers and actors- “No Country for Old Men” leaves quite an impression.
