No Country For Old Men an Outstanding Film

Is there really such a thing as fate? If you are to take No Country For Old Men as an example then, yes, there is. Set in the wide open spaces of southern Texas, No Country For Old Men is the story of one man’s chance discovery and the harrowing string of events that play out as a result.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is hunting out in the rugged back county of Texas when he comes across a gruesome discovery – a massacre in the middle of nowhere. As he quietly inspects the bodies and the abandoned pickups at the site, he runs across a truckload of heroine, a satchel full of money and one Mexican survivor, barely clinging to life. Uncertain what to do, Moss takes the money and a pistol and leaves the site and returns home. It would seem he just had a very lucky find with a clean getaway to boot. But in the middle of the night compassion gets the best of him and he decides to return to the site to help the survivor. He returns under cover of darkness only to find that the man has been finished off and Moss quickly discovers he is not alone. Chased by gunman, a dog and suffering a glancing gunshot during the chase, Moss barely makes an escape, but he knows it is already too late – his getaway is no longer clean.

Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a ruthless killer to whom we are introduced to in one of the first scenes, is hot on the trail of the two million dollars Moss found. Armed with a compressed air gun that he uses to shoot unsuspecting victims in the head with, he calmly and coolly hunts down Moss, who to his credit, is already two steps ahead on his way out of town. But what Moss does not and can not know is how ruthless, cunning and remorseless Chigurh is and that it is not dependent on what he (Moss) does as much as it is a battle of wills. Fate, it would seem, stands against Moss.

Chigurh, an emotionless man who spouts bizarre pseudo-philosophical banter, will do absolutely anything to achieve his goal of recovering the money. It wouldn’t be unwarranted to expect every person he encounters to be fall by his hand – he wouldn’t think twice of it. His ruthless efficiency in tracking Moss seems impossible until it is discovered that he is tracking a homing beacon in the satchel. But even after it is removed, Moss has his hands more than full. The question is can he survive?

A remarkable film for its ability to set the tone and build suspense with nothing more than silence itself, No Country masterfully sets its events against the reminiscence of the retiring county sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who tells us (the audience) how it used to be in the old days of Texas law enforcement… a time, he says, when many of the law men he knew growing up didn’t even carry guns. The mysterious string of murders and the drug runner massacre in the desert only serve to dishearten Bell as he suddenly finds himself part of a world he can’t even fathom to explain; a world without moral or remorse. He knows Moss is in trouble, but he is shaken to think that he may not be able to save him from the fate that is chasing him down.

No Country is methodical in its storytelling, rushing nothing and certainly not afraid of the silence, an aspect I found particularly impressive and integral to the film. The Coen Brothers made the most of every piece of dialog, every shot and every bit of natural sound. It felt absolutely real. And at times it was totally unnerving.

Deserving of all the praise and accolades it received (except perhaps its Best Picture win), No Country received marvelous performances from Bardem (Best Supporting Actor Winner), Brolin and Jones, although Jones took on a role that was more supporting that central. Bardem sold his character as being truly unhitched. Everything about his performance, from his walk to his talk, sent the signal that he was truly mad. He even managed to capture an empty, soul-less look in his eyes. No small feat!

No Country For Old Men gets my full recommendation. It fully entertained telling an intense story often through the sounds of silence. Fate, it would seem, need not make a sound. 10/10