A fabulous stab of genre filmmaking and the type of rough-hewn film that commonly made the rounds in the 70s, the Coen Brothers prove a perfect match to adapt Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant, stark neo-western novel - a superb adaptation that reaped the brother directors a host of Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Easily their most commercial and critically successful pic, it’s to the brothers’ credit that this pic may not even be their best. Amongst ‘Blood Simple’ (their debut and the film that their latest most resembles in tone), ‘Raising Arizona’, ‘Miller’s Crossing’, ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’, this pic stands in proud company. After the less than stellar recent outings ‘Intolerable Cruelty’ and ‘The Ladykillers’, they return with a bloody vengeance.
Cormac McCarthy, a novelist I’ve long been a fan of, and whose stories I always dreaded would get the attention of Hollywood – The Coen Brothers only follow Billy Bob Thornton in adapting one of his novels and are the first to get it right. Thornton had strong intentions with ‘All the Pretty Horses’ but with Weinsteins meddling and a decided lack of McCarthy’s distinct voice, that film felt lacking in a lot of ways.
However, ‘No Country for Old Men’ was handled with just exactly the amount of reverence it needed. Once suspicious, I now look forward to see how Hollywood handles his equally brilliant post-apocalyptic novel ‘The Road’.
At its most basic, the story follows the well-trodden path of an everyman who gets himself in over his head with the siren of cold-hard cash singing in his ear. But of course, McCarthy gives even the most familiar of stories a distinctive vernacular – a rough drawl of dialogue that makes one think Nick Nolte gargled with gravel and spit it out on the pages.
Joel and Ethan Coen, both credited for writing and directing, was able to visually imagine this new violent American West of 1980 with an aptitude that’s surprising even for them.
Set in sun-drenched, rugged West Texas, we meet one of the most effective villains of recent memory. An ominous suspect (Javier Bardem) with a pageboy haircut, he manages to overtake his arresting officer and escape with a cattle stun gun which he uses in a frightenly arbitrary manner.
Meanwhile, a Vietnam vet and retired welder Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is out hunting when he runs across a host of trucks, bullet-ridden corpses, drugs and a briefcase of $2 million in cash which he of course grabs.
With a pang of implausible guilt, Moss heads back to the scene later that night to find himself shot at and chased by a ferocious dog. Hightailing it out of there, the crime and cash soon attract the attention of professional killer Anton Chigurh (Bardem) and local county sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) – an aging, philosophizing good ‘ol boy who has a hard time understanding the brutal violence that is erupting around him.
Chigurh is a killer of few words – borderline crazy – who will sometimes decide the fate of a victim with a simple coin toss. In the case of the notably tense gas station sequence, the victim will never even grasp the grave situation they found themselves in. Obviously a hit man of sorts, a man paid to do dirty deeds; Chigurh’s insanity allows him the benefit of having no fear.
The owner of the cash luckily had a transponder in the brief case and Chigurh is able to track Moss across the cruel Texas landscape where a handful of breathlessly tense actions scenes play out only to have Moss and Chigurh return to their respective corners to heal.
In Mexico, Moss is able to hide the money but Chigurh places a call that will assure that Moss will come to him. An unfortunate mediator (Woody Harrelson) thinks he can outsmart both of them and return the money but he soon finds out there is only room for one cat and one mouse.
From here, things get trickier and the narrative momentum is best left discovered fresh. Even those familiar with the novel will be thrilled at how the narrative is handled despite a few key differences. Taking the seriousness of ‘Blood Simple’ and adding a dollop of dark humor a la ‘Fargo’, the Coens also fashion it to fit their own sensibilities.
No where is this more apparent than the casting of Javier Bardem as Chigurh – a character who generates both powerfully violent tension and nervous laughter when characters in the film don’t respond to Chigurh as we know him to be – namely a psychotic killer.
Tommy Lee Jones was essentially born to play these type of roles and he’s always been a self-acknowledged McCarthy fan (his film ‘The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada’ is strikingly similar in tone to ‘No Country…’). Josh Brolin’s subtle work here was overlooked and overshadowed by Bardem’s flashier role and I think a Best Actor nom would have been well deserved.
The film is presented with an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen transfer. Special Features are a bit slim for a Best Picture winner but right in line with past Coen projects – they’ve never been big on DVD bonus features. Basically three featurettes, ‘Working with the Coens’, ‘The Making Of’ and ‘Diary of a Country Sheriff’ round out the special features.
Deserving of all its praise and acclaim, The Coens have certainly given themselves a tough act to follow. Despite reservations by some on the ending and more broadly the third act, I was captivated all the way through even with the knowledge of the novel.
Fantastic performances by all involved, gorgeous, desolate cinematography from Roger Deakins with an equally haunting score from Carter Burwell, ‘No Country for Old Men’ is a must see for viewers who think the golden age of cinema, the 70s, is long dead.
No Country for Old Men is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
Shite.May 20th, 2008 - 02:41:20
Shite and shite.
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