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Bookmark this pageNo Country for Old Men (2007)
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Synopsis
Joel and Ethan Coen are back with a bloody adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s terse literary thriller about a Texan Vietnam vet who stumbles into the aftermath of a gangland drug operation. Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem star.
Movie review
From Time Out London
West Texas, 1980. Out hunting deer in the desert down by the Mexican border, Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) happens on a heap of carnage: torn-apart trucks, corpses of men and dogs, the bloody bodies of others who’d be better off dead, and a case packed with cash: about $2 million. With no witnesses, and confident he can handle himself, Moss opts to keep what’s clearly payment in a drugs-handover gone wrong, and treat himself and wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) to a life considerably better than their trailer-park existence. Trouble is, psychopathic hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) also wants the loot, and begins carefully hunting the hunter, in turn pursued by veteran sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who can’t help feeling the world’s turning more crazily violent.
The Coens’ first outright adaptation is of a Cormac McCarthy novel so attuned to them that the film feels – at least until the final few scenes – as if it’s based on one of their own original screenplays: ‘Blood Simple’ meets ‘Fargo’, almost. For all its fidelity to its source, however, it’d be wrong to think it merely an illustration. The Coens meticulously select the most filmic moments of McCarthy’s terse, gripping book; they trim the sheriff’s nostalgic reveries and philosophising, embellish and enhance the action, and succeed overall in transforming the novel’s economic descriptions into a full-blown world populated by vivid, plausible characters.
Most impressive, they find a cinematic equivalent to McCarthy’s language: his narrative ellipses, play with point of view, and structural concerns such as the exploration of the similarities and differences between Moss, Chigurh and Bell. Certain virtuoso sequences feel near-abstract in their focus on objects, sounds, light, colour or camera angle rather than on human presence. As in ‘Barton Fink’ or ‘Fargo’, the Coens prove that properly innovative artistry and engrossing entertainment can co-exist to utterly compelling effect.Notwithstanding much marvellous deadpan humour, this is one of their darkest efforts: Chigurh, especially, is a nightmarish creation, polite manners and pageboy bob perversely accentuating the volatility in his strangely logical head. Roger Deakins’ superb camerawork, top-grade performances all round, and understated, assured direction ensure the film exerts a grip from start to end. A masterly tale of the good, the deranged and the doomed that inflects the raw violence of the west with a wry acknowledgement of the demise of codes of honour, this is frighteningly intelligent and imaginative.
Author: Geoff Andrew
Time Out London Issue 1952 - January 14th 2008
User reviews of this film
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- merina said...
- Posted on Feb 18 2008 01:41 It is indeed a strange film, but Javier Bardem´s performance is incredible! He´s such a good actor!!! It is very good to see a movie and at the end think that someone´s making some joke and is more comming!! ha! enjoyed thoug....
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- Mark said...
- Posted on Feb 16 2008 19:16 Bunk. I spent the last half hjour cutting my toe nails and reading the argos catalogue because its so awful.
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- Colin said...
- Posted on Feb 14 2008 12:38 Brilliant film. Excellent acting and I actually like the ending - it makes a change to have a situation ending probably as it would in real life, rather than how we would like it to end.
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- DAVEJARVIS said...
- Posted on Feb 13 2008 12:52 I was reluctant to see this movie at first, but because of all the awards it picked up, I thought I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed this movie and at the same time I hated it, it really grips you and the acting is brilliant, but I think the only way to describe this film, is to say that it is only half a film!!! THE FILM JUST ENDS, not at an exciting climax or cliffhanger, but with tommy lee jones talking to his wife at a breakfast table! WHAT were the directors thinking? it really feels like you have just paid for half a film! i would recommend it, but dont expect to come out of the cinema feeling any purpose to why you have just been there!
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- Jean M. O. Fischer said...
- Posted on Feb 13 2008 11:57 I normally enjoy Coen brothers’ films for their off-beat humour showing the chaotic, unpredictable nature of real life in their quirky stories. They might be disagreeable but always watchable. As an audience you are taking for a ride but you are enjoying it. In “No country for old men” I felt I was taken for a ride but then dumbed with the film continuing without me. In making films about shallow characters in search of a life the Coen brothers’ filmmaking have become their characters: this is a shallow film in search of story and, like their characters, they are not finding it.
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- Danny Boy said...
- Posted on Feb 11 2008 16:37 I saw this film, and was amazed by it I want to see it again, only the very best of films can persuade me not to spend my money on alcohol, and this is clearly one of them. The acting is superb, the camera work is top notch and the lack of soundtrack compliments the tension in the film superbly. I also don't like to criticise other people's views but the people who say this film has no ending should really ask why they are watching a Coen brothers film. For example, nothing technically happens in The bif Lebowski, yet that film is superb. Also, the character development of Tommy Lee Jones' character makes this film for me, the decision to escape the inevitable consequences.... best film of the year, and its only February!!!
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- DavetheBadger said...
- Posted on Feb 09 2008 12:29 Really enjoyed this film, with excellent performances from all the cast, but like lots of people I was disappointed with the ending. Maybe it's just one of those movies you have to watch more than once before you get it!
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- Mega said...
- Posted on Feb 08 2008 18:42 Do Not waste your time wait for dvd and turn off after car crash ( - fast forward bit with his dad in deseret as well) Basic plot only saving is some great acting
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- Leon Saint said...
- Posted on Feb 08 2008 18:27 This is the second best offering from the Coan brothers, with the dark and moody effort not quite reaching the heights of the classic Millers Crossing. That i have rated this as one of there best though, for those who know and love there work, clearly proves what a master piece it is. It has taken the viewer back to where the Coans started with a film similar to Blood Simple yet far superior in production values and cast. If you find this boring and dull, slow and empty, then you are not looking deep enough into it, so if it is light entertainment your after avoid, but if its a film you will think about for a long while to come...enough said i think.
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- Omar Khan said...
- Posted on Feb 08 2008 16:06 Movie and acting both are very average -plot itself is nothing new. One guy stealing the money and the other killing everybody else to get to it. Film is way overly exagerated in terms of ratings.
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- John Smiles said...
- Posted on Feb 07 2008 18:54 Nice to see the Coen Brothers get their act together again. Beautifully shot, tight plot, a propelling tension that made me clench up throughout, very well acted, but best of all - the central message of the film isn't just ladled out to us. I enjoyed having to think it out.
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- Ruth said...
- Posted on Feb 07 2008 17:09 If you enjoy watching coastal erosion then this is your film. this is an awful film with long pointless boring conversations that have no relevance to the movie and there isnt even an ending! Even if I was bored I would rather watch paint dry then this movie again. Make your own minds up but I really would not recommend it.
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- Rich said...
- Posted on Feb 07 2008 16:21 Me and a friend went to see this film last night and I can say with any doubt, that this has to be the worst film I have ever sat through. The film seemed to jump around with no real direction, and there seemed a lot of pointless drery scences that added very little to the movie . Yes I will admit the actor who played antonio did an excellent portrail of a lunatic killer, but does this does not exuse this from been a truely terrible film. I have never been in a cinema were everyone in the room has just laughed when the credits came up after the shit ending. The only thing thought-provoking about this film is why have I just wasted two hours of my life watching it!
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- oshoshitzu said...
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Posted on Feb 07 2008 03:03
Can't help thinking that anyone who says that this film is crap is as insane as the psychopath in the film.
This is a great movie. Loved it! - Report as inappropriate
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- Barbara said...
- Posted on Feb 06 2008 17:32 I have never been as stressed during a film in my life. It is definitely NOT a woman's film. I jumped so high at one point that I scratched my nose and it bled!!!! A week later and the cut is still there. I was hoping my friend would ask if we could leave....but unfortunately she didn't. Every time I looked at my friend, her eyes were tight shut!!! I'll never look through another keyhole in my life :-) If you like blood, gore and a heart attack....this is the film you should watch. After all that, quite a poor story line. :-(
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Cast & crew
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Kelly MacDonald, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root, Javier Bardem full cast
Duration: 122 mins
US Release: Nov 9 2007
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