Dvd
No Country For Old Men
This, the Coen's first work from a non-original story, is a darkly comic, violent western/thriller that follows a hunter (Brolin) who discovers dead bodies, a stash of heroin and $2 million in cash on the Rio Grande.
Starring Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald
Directed by Joel Coen ('The Big Lebowski', 'Fargo', 'The Man Who Wasn't There', 'Barton Fink', 'Raising Arizona', 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'), Ethan Coen
Written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy)
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Festivals & Awards Best Film at the Academy Awards 2008 | Best Director at the Academy Awards and BAFTAs | Best Supporting Actor (Bardem) at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes | Best Adapted Screnplay at Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes
Thriller, Drama, Crime, Adaptation | 2hr 2mins | Rated (R16) | Contains Graphic violence | Origin: USA | Official Site »
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Flicks review
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5
Thoughtful, abstract, beautiful, and absolutely thrilling, the masterful Coen Brothers have excelled themselves again with this intelligent modern western.
The ensemble acting is phenomenal. The standout performance is, of course, Javier Bardem as psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh. His creation is the creepiest, nastiest, most inhuman nightmare anyone could ever hope to meet (but if you did, he’d probably kill you too). Josh Brolin is also very tough as flawed hero Llewelyn Moss. But the glue that holds the film together is Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell. It’s a perfect role for Jones, and takes advantage of his wrinkled face and slow drawl to depict a man out of his depth in the modern world, longing for the simplicity of the days of old.
Set in 80s Texas, the opening tableau shows a selection of landscape shots, each one with the sun a little higher in the sky. By the time local hunter Llewlyn Moss has arrived on the scene, the harsh desert light almost blinds us. One can almost feel the crackling heat radiating from the screen. Widescreen framing is used to full effect: when a drug deal gone wrong is first revealed to us from the vantage point of a rocky bluff, the bullet-ridden dead bodies look like little ants in the far distance.
The suspense is killer. Hitchcock would be sick with jealousy. In particular, take the scene with Brolin holed up in a hotel room as Bardem’s deliberate footsteps clomp ever closer. It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff, and absolutely thrilling. The Coens take delight in peppering the soundtrack with tiny details; a key turning in a lock, the click of a light switch, the minimalist beep of a radio transmitter.
It comes as some surprise, then, to learn that the thematic concerns of the piece don’t simply rely on quickening the audience’s heartbeat. In fact, the third act of the film may come as a shock. In many ways it abandons the taut thriller structure that has thus far been established, and becomes instead a quiet inward-looking contemplative look at the changing face of evil. On immediate viewing, this may seem something of a downer; a fizzling out into something more obscure, leaving some of us scratching our heads and others vocally outraged. But, on reflection, it’s an intelligent and thoughtful way to conclude a cracker of a film. It will leave you with something to think about.
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The people's reviews
16 reviews
Press Reviews
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BBC
5
No Country can be enjoyed as a straightforward genre thriller (and there are suspense sequences here that rival the best of Hitchcock) but it is worth digging a little deeper to expose the bedrock of aching sadness beneath the brutality.
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Christchurch Press [Margaret Agnew]
4
1/2 The Coen brothers sure know how to spin a yarn. With a surprising amount of wry humour for such a bloody and grim tale, No Country for Old Men may well be their greatest yarn yet.
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Empire Magazine [UK]
5
Violent, poetic, gripping, thrilling and blackly funny: that’ll be the Coens doing what they do best then. Now with added humanity...
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NZ Herald [Peter Calder]
5
They have given us the ridiculous (The Ladykillers and The Hudsucker Proxy) and the sublime (Fargo and The Big Lebowski). The Coen brothers' newest is their best yet...
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Sunday Star-Times [Barney McDonald]
4
The Coens' latest film is drawing comparisons to one of their earliest, Miller's Crossing. It's certainly one of their least amusing pictures and suggests a suitable way forward for the brothers, who seemed to lose their edge in recent years. It has all the elements of a classic, although it does jump between scenes and settings a little haphazardly. Thankfully, it has Bardem to hold everything together...
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TV3 [Kate Rodger]
4
1/2 A great story is unravelled in the most enthralling and unexpected way, with some dark funny moments and some outstanding performances including not nearly enough of Woody Harrelson and Kelly McDonald.
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Variety [USA]
A scorching blast of tense genre filmmaking shot through with rich veins of melancholy, down-home philosophy and dark, dark humor, No Country for Old Men reps a superior match of source material and filmmaking talent.
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