No Country For Old Men

I had heard a lot of talk about No Country For Old Men, but I wanted to avoid all things pertaining to the plot and anything else about the movie because I wanted to go into it blind. I knew it had won a 2007 Oscar for Best Picture, and I knew Javier Bardem won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. That was it.

When all said and done Javier Bardem (Anton Chigurh) was the creepiest, cold-blooded, and calculating person I’ve ever witnessed in a movie. Actually, I was nervous the almost the whole time when watching it. There were several scenes where I felt as uncomfortable as the people he was interacting with. So why was this character so intimidating? Well, he is a psychological killer, with no emotion or care towards anything.

This movie has three main characters, Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), and Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). While out hunting in the outskirts of town, Moss finds an illegal drug/money exchange gone wrong along with the $2 million in cash. Unfortunately for him, he probably would have gotten away with the money, but his conscience to go back and help one of the injured proved to be a bad mistake. Back at the scene of the crime, a couple of people chase him down and he abandons his truck and this is how his identity is found out. He knows he’ll be killed he if hangs around, so he sends his wife to her mother’s place and he goes a different route out of town.

Chigurh is hired by some people to track down the money, and so he is on his quest to get the money and track down Moss, but not before he turns on the people who hired him. He uses the most obscure weapon I’ve ever seen being used to kill people and to enter locked doors, a compressed air cattle stun gun.

Ed Tom Bell is the sheriff investigating the crime scene and sees Mosses truck at the scene and goes to his place to get some answers to his questions. It is at this point he knows the guy he wants to ask questions to is already being pursued.

There is a great pursuit that follows Moss, the money, and Chigurh. There isn’t a lot of action, but the intensity of anticipation is unbelievable. I very much was pulling for Llewelyn Moss mainly because I knew what kind of a person was following him. There is a lot of symbolism in the movie so you have to pay attention to some of the details or you might miss something. Actually, some of the questions you might have, will be answered if you pick up on the symbolism.

While seeming to be way behind the killer, Ed Tom Bell can’t understand how someone can do what Chigurh was doing. Bell is an older sheriff and remembers the old times when the sheriff in his town didn’t carry a gun and he wonders how they would operate in today’s world. Have the times of being sheriff past him by? Is that why it’s no country for old men? What do you do when you meet something you don’t understand? Walk away from it or keep going until you find the answers?

This is a great movie done by the Coen brothers Ethan and Joel. It was based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. It was very violent and has many disgusting scenes, but the intensity and pursuit are awesome. The single most intense scene was when Chigurh enters a gas station and interacts with the attendant. There’s no doubt to me the interaction leads to the attendant’s life being decided by a coin flip. It was so well written. Watch that scene over again and see if you get the creeps. I was freaked out. I give it five baseballs, a must see.

Trailer for No Country For Old Men