Post a Comment        E-mail To A Friend        Join The List

Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

by Chris Flippo
11/09/2007

No Country For Old Men, the new film by Joel and Ethan Coen, is an examination of violence and greed on both sides of the law. Though it may sound like familiar territory, the film gives the directing duo enough new angles on these themes to make sure that there is hardly a stale moment. Walking out of the theater, I had the feeling that this just might be one of the year’s best films. If its not, then 2007 will be one hell of a year at the cinema.

There has always seemed to be two sides to the Coen Brothers. One side specializes in comedies that sometimes excel at a type of madcap genius. This is the side that brought you Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski. These can be great films, but they hardly ever achieve the commanding heights of their darker material.

However, every once in awhile, the Coens’ creative schizophrenia will cause them to make a film that delves into the rougher aspects of our society and ourselves. These movies are steeped in atmospherics, cynical characters, and great dialogue. For me, these are the films in which the Coen siblings seem to excel the most. Their latest is another testament to what they can do within the neo-noir genre.

No Country For Old Men wastes no time in setting up its characters and its epic sense of tragedy. One day while hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds several abandoned cars, a few dead criminals, and a briefcase with nearly two million dollars worth of drug money. In a moment of desperation, Moss takes the cash. Of course, Chigurh (Javier Bardem) soon realizes who has it and begins to pursue Moss, doing whatever is necessary to get back his already-stolen cash. Their cat-and-mouse game is intercut with an investigation by the disillusioned Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones).

How these three storylines interweave I will let you discover for yourself. To reveal any more about the plot would be, well, criminal. Some films are best enjoyed when we know little coming into the theater, and No Country For Old Men is one of them. It achieves a twisted sense of unpredictability, especially in the middle section. This portion of the film has the cynicism of film noir and the suspense of a Hitchcock thriller. Many filmmakers try to be in this company, but so few are able to achieve the almost unbearable tension of those films.

For an example of this, look no further than a scene in a hotel involving Chigurh, Moss, an air vent, and a briefcase. The Coens are wise in concentrating on the small details (like a creaking floor or a change of lighting) to suggest an offscreen menace. Then, just when the tension is at its peak, it is punctuated with violence that is quick, brutal, and bloody.

Special recognition should be payed to Javier Bardem, who creates a villain that always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else. If Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Bell provides the film with a moral center, then Bardem’s Chigurh provides it with its unpredictability. Every time he was onscreen, I could sense a growing uneasiness within the audience. Not a lot of his backstory is explained, but so much the better. A character like Chigurh is best left a mystery, to grow in the minds of the audience. If there is justice in the world, Chugurh should join Barton Fink, Marge Gunderson, and The Dude as the Coens’ most memorable creations.

No Country For Old Men is a comeback for the brothers. After a string of quirky comedies that focused so much on being quirky that they forgot to be comedies, this was a relief. No Country For Old Men could be seen as an apology film, one where the brothers realize past sins (i.e. The Ladykillers) and try to atone for them.

In one way, it is a film that falls back on a genre that has proved successful for them before. In another way, this is a major leap forward for them as writers and directors. Some of the later passages involving Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Bell are filled with such despair and pathos that I was thinking about the film hours later. His final speech, much like Francis McDormand’s in Fargo, has a way of putting all of the film’s events into perspective. This is a man who has seen a lot, but who still can not make any sense out of the greed or the ensuing violence.

These are themes that have been touched upon by the Coens in the past and many will accuse the Coens of repeating themselves. However, here it is done with such a sense of duty among the criminals and despair among the innocent that I never felt that they were pulling out old tricks. This is not Fargo 2. It tackles a moral complexity within our protagonists that was absent from the Coens’ previous efforts. This just goes to show that my favorite filmmaking siblings are back in a major way.

Name
Email
URL
Body
Are you human?