NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. (2008)
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is the best film of the decade by the most impressive filmmakers of our generation. It’s scary to think that they’ve been making films for nearly 25 years, in a career that now spans 12 features, two Oscar™ winning films, and several critical darlings.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN won the brothers their first Oscar™ for directing, and added Best Picture to the bounty too, and while it was the worthiest winner of either award this decade, it’s success still rankled, if only because it beat a nearly perfect picture in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Despite the competition between the two, there’s no denying that this is a brilliant film in its own right.
Based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize™ winning author Cormac McCarthy (THE ROAD), NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a brutal, western-thriller. It has standout performances from Tommy Lee Jones, who has never been better, Kelly MacDonald and Josh Brolin, while Javier Bardem gives a memorable performance as the sociopathic killer, Chigurh, whose relentless pursuit of drug money, and the man who stole it from the scene of a deadly gun fight, a local hunter (Brolin).
The game of cat and mouse is replicated by the efforts of the local Sheriff (Jones) to make sense of what’s going on, realising that his reaction to the trail of destruction wrought by Chigurh might mean that he’s not able to do his job anymore. His final scene, in which he recounts a dream is one of the most startlingly powerful scenes of the brothers’ career.
Of course, it looks fantastic, with regular cinematographer Roger Deakins responsible for some gorgeous and memorable images. People had issues with the ending, which is slightly oblique, but to me it’s a perfect way to end a film so concerned with the suddenness and randomness of violence. It’s also a film that arrested the perceived decline in the brothers’ career, topping out their decade with a minor masterpiece.
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