Title: No Country for Old Men
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, …
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Release: (2007)
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Once we get over this, though, the floodgates open on this movie and all but necessitate a second viewing. Through the eyes of Bell, the characters all become transformed from literal people into symbolic entities and the inevitability of how all of their stories must end becomes a realization that both Bell and the audience arrive at together. The most apparent commentary embodied by the characters is on the increasing desensitization to (or acceptance of) images of violence with each new generation. This is one observation where the Coen brothers flex their directorial nuance brilliantly, and one of the reasons I can understand the choice to give them the Best Director prize this year (though I still think it could have been a coin-flip between them and Paul Thomas Anderson). For example (and to avoid continuing to sound too ethereal about all this great “symbolism” stuff), consider the way the violence of Chigurh progressed in the eyes of the audience. The first time we see him kill, it is raw, jarring, and on camera from beginning to end – as though we can’t look away – including a moment taken to linger and look over the aftermath. The second time we watch and it is just as raw, but this time it’s quicker, a little less painful, and we’re already moving on to the next thing as soon as it’s done. Kind of feels like just ripping a band-aid off quick this time. As the film continues to unfold, Chigurgh’s violence becomes less and less explicit to us, until eventually we don’t even see him kill his victims anymore and just assume, unfazed by the idea, that he did.
Though the commentary on violence seems most explicit, the story of Chigurh and Moss can be seen to embody any number of symbolic themes. From personal addiction to the environmental abuse, from financial irresponsibility to sin in the eyes of God – their story can be seen as an allegory that applies to just about any situation that the false invincibility of youth can trick men into pursuing with the belief that somehow they’ll find a way to avoid paying the piper in the end. Bell’s own perspective can remain unchanged in any of these versions, the wisened older generation who once thought the same thing and is torn now between the desire to help the next generation before it’s too late for them, and the nagging awareness that nothing he says will really make them understand. That the piper always gets paid in the end, is a lesson you can only learn the hard way. (There’s a great quote by Bell reflecting this idea that was completely lost on me the first time I watched, and completely jumped out the second time. I won’t give it away, but watch for it when Bell and another cop named Wendell are looking for Moss at his trailer just after he’s skipped town.)
The bottomline is that this is just a rich, complex, well-crafted, excellent movie. Personally, and for the record, my opinion that There Will Be Blood should have won for Best Picture and Best Director remains unchanged in spite of all that I’ve written here. I only regret not having done a better job explaining the case why in my haste to enshrine it in rhyme. Maybe someday I’ll revisit the topic to do so, but for now it’s a moot point. No Country For Old Men was named the Best Picture of 2007, and I totally understand why.
Grading
Story: A+
Acting: A+
Visuals: A
Originality/Innovation: A+
Enjoyability: A
Overall: A+
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