No Country For Old Men (Joel and Ethan Cohen, 2007)

Note: If you’re one of those morons who thought the ending of this film was stupid, or just plain sucked, be prepared to feel really stupid.

No Country For Old Men, based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, is the story of Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a hunter who stumbles upon a drug deal gone terribly wrong. Everyone’s dead, even a dog. So Llewellyn decides that rather than report the crime to the police, he may as well take the unclaimed drug money (a cool $2 million – not bad in the 1970s) and run. Unfortunately, he not only pisses off some Mexican drug dealers. He also pisses off Anton Chigurh (Havier Bardem), a supremely terrifying individual with terrible hair. The sheriff pursuing both Llewellyn and Chigurh, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), finds it increasingly difficult to keep up with this new generation of crime.

When I first saw that this film had won four Oscars, I was surprised. I wondered if it were really that good, that deserving (I thought Atonement had been robbed, quite frankly) of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ praise. The answer, in the technical language of a film critic? Fuck yeah. Now I’m wondering why it didn’t win more.

Every scene, every sound, every piece of dialogue -- it all feels entirely necessary. Every one of those 121 minutes is absolutely crucial to the story. The film as a whole unites to evoke the terror and the seeming helplessness of one of Chigurh’s potential victims. I have never jumped so much in a film, not even a horror film. The sound of the pressuriser gun that Chigurh uses, the gunfire, the sound of two cars colliding – the sound design on this film is immaculate. And so is the editing, the cinematography, the writing, and the performances.

And let’s just talk about the performances. Josh Brolin is fast becoming one of the most underrated actors ever. He is a consistently strong performer and his turn as Llewellyn Moss is fantastic. You’re a little disgusted by his behaviour, but you never stop hoping he’ll get away with it. I feel like Tommy Lee Jones has been playing the same character for a while now, and I know why; so that Joel and Ethan Coen could make this film. Casting Jones in the role of the Sheriff was a master stroke and it only adds to that feeling of being cheated by the film’s ending. And Javier Bardem. Oh, my Lord. You see him in his suit at various engagements, or looking fashionably dishevelled in a magazine. And you want to make babies with him. You just do. I know I do. Then, you see him play Anton Chigurh, one of the most terrifying characters ever invented and from now on, you’re going to see his face in your nightmares. Anton Chigurh is unstoppable: he’s almost cartoonish, so much like a supervillain he is. But he’s also a man trapped by his own distorted view of the world. A character tells him, ‘you don’t have to do this’. He responds by laughing and saying, ‘so many people tell me that’. He’s annoyed, and sick of hearing this, because in his mind he really does have to do this. The only amnesty he can offer his victim is a toss of the coin. That’s it. Bardem’s portrayal of this character is flawless. It’s fitting that both Bardem and Day-Lewis received their Oscars this year for portraying villains, because villains are really hard to portray convincingly. Bardem nails it. Absolutely nails it.

And now, for that much talked-about ending. In most films, the good guy wins and the bad guy gets his hash settled. The guy in the white hat gets the girl and the guy in the black hat usually gets a bullet to the guts. Now, that may be an overly simplistic description, but essentially it’s true in most films, even contemporary films. And if you see a film about two guys chasing one another, who are in turn being chased by Tommy Lee Jones, you expect that in the end the bad guy is getting that bullet he’s been earning throughout the film. I think at this point it may be time to explain some things about plot and narrative.

The protagonist (or, the main character for those playing at home) has a desire or a goal. S/he encounters many obstacles in the pursuit of that goal. The function of the film is to set up certain expectations for the viewer of that film. Often, a film will fulfil those expectations, i.e., the boy gets the girl, the bad guy gets killed, etc. But guess what? The film is also allowed to cheat the viewer out of having those expectations fulfilled. This isn’t a new thing. No Country For Old Men really isn’t the first film to have a ‘twist’ at the end. Nor is it the first film to set up certain narrative expectations and then cheat them. Casablanca, anyone?

And if you’re at all confused about why the film ends the way it does, perhaps you might like to consider the title: No. Country. For. Old. Men. Think about it. the film starts with an old man discussing what it was like to be in law enforcement in the ‘good old days’. This story is about a man who is finding the world increasingly difficult to understand. As a sheriff, he no longer feels as though he knows what the common criminal is thinking. And because he no longer understands the criminal mind, he feels unable to bring them to justice. Nobody gets what they want because they underestimate their rival. And that’s essentially why there’s no traditional showdown between the characters involved. And there’s an implication that this is not a new thing; essentially, from the beginning of time, weird shit has happened. There’s no escaping it. But Tommy Lee Jones’s character feels as though the modern world is moving forward without him. Hence, it is No Country For an Old man such as himself. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Now that my rant about film narrative is over, I shall sum up by saying that Joel and Ethan Cohen have entirely repaid their debt to the film community (you know, after the whole Intolerable Cruelty/The Ladykillers thing?). And I think I still want to have Havier Bardem’s babies. I think.

If you like this you should:

* Read No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy.
* Watch Fargo
* Replace that image of Anton Chigurh strangling the deputy with something more friendly.