Review of No Country for Old Men (2007) by Cj W — 22 Feb 2014

The Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men is one of the best films they have ever made, and Cormac McCarthy's novel gives them the perfect setting for their stories of chaos in this seemingly normal world.

The story involves 3 different men in search of the same thing, but for different reasons, which is a plot that resembles Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. However, this is more of a western fable that deals with the moral decadence of society.

Anton, Llewellyn, and Tom are the main characters searching for the money that was left behind at a drug deal gone bad. Anton is evil, he's played by Javier Bardem, who gives an amazing performance, Anton is searching for the money not so much because he's greedy, but because he thinks it belongs to him.

And he will kill almost anyone who gets in the way of that, but he has what you can call principles, which really just means he kills only when it seems to have value for him. Llewellyn wants the money basically because he found it, and it's money, so he's not gonna give it up.

And Tom is the only one searching for the money with honest reasons, he is the sheriff trying to put an end to Anton's blood trail, and the best way to end it is to get what is the cause of it. All these characters perfectly demonstrate where our ambitions have gone, how far our vanity has gone, and where our morals used to reside.

This really is one of the most well written, directed, acted, and photographed of all the Coens' films. It is paced like a thriller, photographed like a western, and written like the Coens' brand of noir, which makes for a super entertaining film with much more depth than the average film.

No Country for Old Men is a film that no one should miss, and every film buff should have multiple viewings of.