If there was any doubt about the ability of the Coen Brothers to conjure up flawless and varied crime epics that effortlessly straddled the divide between haunting and quirky, then they were all but dispelled by the Oscar win for No Contry For Old Men. A suitably dread laden chase film that originally sprang from the pen of Cormac McCarthy, it was the latest example that the brothers were practically unmatched when it comes to movies about small crimes have big ramifications. They’ve dabbled in this sort of sandbox before with brutal, Texas tinged neo noir, Blood Simple kick starting their careers back in ’84, and in many ways No Country For Old Men marks the brothers coming something of a full circle. However, while that Texas fried taste of noir was still present, this film carried with it an even greater notion of some grand, apocalyptic Western that had salt of the earth old timers experiencing existential crisis thanks to the evils that modern life brings. After a back catalogue of classics, is No Country For Old Men the Coens crowning achievement? Prepare for a cinematic experience that strikes you like a bolt through the brain.
The year is 1980 and while Texan nobody Llewelyn Moss is out hunting out in the desert one day, he comes across a scene that at once is both incredibly fortuitous and strewn with disaster. Located in the literal middle of nowhere is the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong that sees numerous trucks and a bunch of bullet riddled bodies gathering flies under the baking sun. Tracking the mortally wounded “last man standing”, Moss eventually finds him after finally expiring under some shade – but alongside a sizable bullet wound, the other noticable feature of this dead Mexican is a briefcase that contains $2 million in cash.
Rightly believing that this could be the chance of a lifetime, Moss grabs the money and scrams, hiding it from his naive wife, Carla Jean and hoping to sit on it until the heat blows over. But after wrongly heading back to the scene of the crime, his cover is blown when he’s spotted and as a result, he decides to go on the run, sending his spouse to live temporarily with her mother for safekeeping. However, while his plan could’ve worked under normal circumstances, one thing Moss simply couldn’t have counted for is hitman Anton Chigurh, the bowl-cutted force of psychotic nature that’s been hired to locate that wayward money.
Armed with a blood chilling sense of deranged honor and a portable version of a bolt pistol normally used to slaughter cattle, Chigurh breezes through proceedings, culling all and sundry in his path whether they have information about the money or not. But while Chigurh and Moss dances their $2 million tango, bringing up the rear is Terrell County Sheriff Ed Tom Bell who, despite his keen powers of deduction, seems utterly stunned at the carnage left for him to clear up.
Possibly the most fascinating thing I found about the movie is how the Coens have seemingly retro-fitted Cormac McCarthy’s source material into something that a diametrical opposite to their earlier Oscar winner, Fargo. Where one is set in the stinging cold and contains a garrulous cast, the other is located in the burning heat and loaded with monosyllabic souls. Where one featured ruthless, impulsive criminals who erred on the side of stupidity, the other features a cold, calculating antagonist that radiates pure evil. And while both feature officers of the law that seem to be part bloodhound; Fargo’s Marge Gunderson is something of an upbeat optimist, where Tommy Lee Jones’ impossibly grizzled lawman can’t help but stare uncomprehendingly into the void at the mounting inhumanity that faces him every day.
In many ways, the downbeat nature of McCarthy’s works seem perfect fodder for the Coens who have often delighted while toying with dialogue and tinkering with such weighty genres as the Western and the brothers have got a typically accomplished cast to deliver such typically eloquent, yet understated lines as “Age will flatten a man”. Tommy Lee Jones, for example, could probably play this type of leathery, crusty lawman in his sleep, but aside from squinting a lot a delivering the odd, measured comment, the genuine feeling of angst he’s experiencing as he hurtles toward retirement gives him layers as mortality could beckon far sooner than he’d like. Similarly, Josh Brolin has also built himself up a nice line of taciturn tough guys, but the game extended game of cat and mouse that Moss finds himself in due to that big bag of cash means that the actor has to convey things while almost being completely on the run and we even get the likes of Woody Harrelson and Kelly Macdonald in side roles for no extra charge.
However, walking away with the entire movie lock, stock and silenced shotgun barrel is Javier Bardem’s terrifying enigma, Anton Chigurh who surely must stand as one of the most arresting villains of the year, if not the decade. Looking fairly ludicrous in a hairdo that seems to have been cribbed from one of The Monkees, the actor portrays this complete moral vacuum of a man in unforgettable fashion as he rapidly displays an utterly illogical code of honor that invariably leads to him murdering at least a third of the cast. It’s an absolute stunning performance and not only does Bardem deliver one of the all time greats, while asking total strangers to barter their lives on a single coin toss, but it shows that the Coens still have an absolute mastery over their casting.
However, the real wonder of No Country For Old Men is how the Coens manage to manipulate what some may consider to be a string of seemingly anti climactic events and wring every last vestige of dread-seeped poignancy out of it. Yep, in classic neo Western fashion, characters either get abrupt ends that explain nothing, some are rudely annihilated off screen and others see their stories trail off into vague nothingness that may frustrate viewers fond of more decisive endings. But with its measured non-ending that provides no real satisfying explanation for virtually anything that’s occured, the Coens find their most haunting note – rarely does anything make sense in a way that we’re truly able to understand and as the aging Ed Tom Bell struggles to process the brutal and seemingly nonsensical events that’s needlessly claimed the lives of so many random people, the only thing that’s truly certain is one day, we all have to croak.
A film measured mostly in deafening quiets and bursts of nightmarish tension, some may fail to see why the film is held in such high regard. However, while I have to admit I lean more in favour of Fargo’s frosty farce rather than this sweltering Texas horror show, the Coens by have suggested that there may not be any country for aged males, but there’s plenty here for the rest of us….
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