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Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin star in this Southwestern chase movie that doubles as a meditation on man’s perpetual but futile attempt to make order out of chaos. Brolin’s character, Llewelyn Moss, stumbles upon the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong in the west-Texas desert. He absconds with the money, unwittingly setting a deadly killer of almost mythic proportions hot on his tail. Bardem plays the psychopathic assassin, Anton Chigurh, who uses a crude, high pressure bolt stunner — typically used to kill cattle — to pierce the skulls of his victims. While Brolin spends the film narrowly evading Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones plays the bewildered sheriff investigating the bloody messes they leave behind.
Directors Joel and Ethan Coen (O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona) bring their unique neo-noir and dark comedy sensibilities to the film, which is based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy (The Counselor, The Road). The three main characters never meet one another and dialogue is largely reserved for a smattering of monologues delivered by Bardem’s and Jones’s characters, who represent two dueling life philosophies. Bardem’s character is a big believer in fate and destiny. He flips a coin and forces innocent bystanders to ‘call it’ to determine whether they’ll live or die by his hand. On the flip side, Jones pontificates on the increasingly disturbing struggle between good and evil, and begins to question whether or not it’s a whirlwind worth stepping into.
No Country for Old Men can be enjoyed as a straight-forward thriller, but there’s also a lot of juicy, ambiguous subtext in McCarthy’s writing. The Coen’s don’t dare steer us too far toward any particular interpretation, ending the film with a monologue from Jones that’s somewhat of a Rorschach test for the audience. Your own life philosophy may determine whether you find the ending chilling or comforting. The acting is brilliant, with Jones delivering one of the most subtle and moving performances of his career, and Bardem leaving a mark indelible enough to earn him passage into the pantheon of all-time great movie villains. Roger Deakins’ masterful cinematography and Skip Lievsay’s Oscar-nominated sound design further enhance this viscerally and psychologically engrossing film.
With Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson, Stephen Root, and Garret Dillahunt.
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Directors (Joel and Ethan Coen), Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), Adapted Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Oscar Nominations: Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Film Editing (Joel and Ethan Coen as Roderick Jaynes), Sound Editing, Sound Mixing