Film #5: No Country For Old Men

What's going down?
Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is an average man living in a Texas trailer park. When he stumbles upon the scene of a drug deal gone bad and discovers a briefcase containing two million dollars, he becomes the target of psychotic killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who is willing to do anything and kill anyone to recover the money.

Who's in it?
Tommy Lee Jones gets top billing as Ed Tom Bell, an aging sheriff who questions what drives men to commit the acts of violence he witnesses. His ruminations provide the film's philosophical focal point. Josh Brolin is Llewellyn Moss, an ordinary man who sets off a chain of violence he never fully comprehends... until it's too late. The film, however, truly belongs to Javier Bardem, who turns Anton Chigurh into the most intimidating film villain since Hannibal Lecter. In his very first scene, Chigurh murders a cop by strangling him with his own handcuffs, an expression of crazed ecstasy on his face. It's indicative of what's to follow, as Chigurh indiscriminately kills his way toward the stolen money. Woody Harrelson also appears as cocky mercenary Carson Wells, hired to take out Chigurh.

How's the production?
The Coen Brothers handle this film like an old-school western. It doesn't feel like a modern film; it's much more timeless than most of this decade's films.  The Texas settings manage to avoid being associated with a particular era, thus adding to the timelessness of the piece. The script treads some of the same territory as Fargo, with its philosophical questions of what drives men to commit atrocities in the name of money. The entire film is excellently composed, with every shot working to advance the plot; nothing is added unnecessarily.

The Greatest Scene:
Two scenes that help define Anton Chigurh's character. In the first, a gas station attendant, not realizing at first the dangerousness of his customer, finds his fate - life or death - riding on a flip of Chigurh's coin. The dialogue elevates the tension of the scene almost to breaking point, as the audience, but not the attendant, already know what Chigurh is capable of. In the second, and injured Chigurh blows up a car to create a distraction so he can steal medical supplies from a pharmacy. He takes the goods back to his hotel room and proceeds to remove the bullets from his leg and stitch himself back up. The scene only helps to establish Chigurh's methodical, detached take on his own pain, as well as that of others.

Personal Impressions:
They don't make movies like they used to... okay, they do, and this is a prime example. The Texas setting, the running-after-money plot, and Tommy Lee Jones' lawman character all evoke classic westerns... Jones is the white hat, Bardem is the black hat, and Brolin is the not-quite-heroic gunslinger. Rather than the blockbuster action film take on violence, where little regard is payed to the consequences of the on-screen destruction, the Coens spotlight the devastation, emotional and physical, caused to the survivors of the film's events. Javier Bardem is superb in the role of Chigurh, crafting a killer completely remorseless and unpredictable. Tommy Lee Jones also shines as his character realizes that he may not be able to fulfill his mission of maintaining the law forever. The abrupt ending also seems to fit the film - in real life, there are very rarely clean endings; the characters' lives will go on after they have seen each other for the last time.