No Country for Old Men (2007)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Directors:

Ethan Coen
Joel Coen

Writers (WGA):

Joel Coen (screenplay) &
Ethan Coen (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 November 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

There Are No Clean Getaways

Plot:

Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.

Plot Keywords:

Voice Over Narration | Murder | Neo Noir | Mariachi Band | Police Officer Killed

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 88 wins & 36 nominations

Cast

Tommy Lee Jones	...	Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
Javier Bardem	...	Anton Chigurh
Josh Brolin	...	Llewelyn Moss
Woody Harrelson	...	Carson Wells
Kelly Macdonald	...	Carla Jean Moss
Garret Dillahunt	...	Deputy Wendell
Tess Harper	...	Loretta Bell
Barry Corbin	...	Ellis
Stephen Root	...	Man who hires Wells
Rodger Boyce	...	Sheriff Roscoe Giddens
Beth Grant	...	Carla Jean's Mother
Ana Reeder	...	Poolside Woman
Kit Gwin	...	Sheriff Bell's Secretary
Zach Hopkins	...	Strangled Deputy
Chip Love	...	Man in Ford

MPAA:

Rated R for strong graphic violence and some language.

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Australia:MA | Portugal:M/18 | Brazil:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Finland:K-15 | USA:R (certificate #43473) | Hong Kong:IIB | South Korea:18 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | New Zealand:R16 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:18A (Alberta) | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Sweden:15 | Netherlands:16 | Israel:16 | Norway:15 | Denmark:15 | Taiwan:R-18 | Spain:18 | Iceland:16 | South Africa:16 (16V) | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Malaysia:18PL | Argentina:16 | Austria:16

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Paramount Vantage

Trivia:

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen share the record of four Oscar nominations for a single person for the same film (in this case, shared by the two) with Orson Welles' four nominations for Citizen Kane (1941) and Warren Beatty's for Reds (1981). The Coens' four nominations are for Best Picture (as producers with Scott Rudin), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing (under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes). Welles was nominated both Best Picture (also as producer) and Best Director, as well as Best Original Screenplay (won, and shared with Herman J. Mankiewicz), and Best Actor. On the other hand, Beatty was nominated for Best Picture (also as producer), Best Director (won), Best Original Screenplay with Trevor Griffiths and Best Actor.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Anton opens the gas bottle, the valve would not make that squeaking sound. Removing the cap that protects the valve while in storage makes that exact sound, his bottle never was shown with the cap.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ed Tom Bell: I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five years old. Hard to believe. My grandfather was a lawman; father too. Me and him was sheriff's at the same time; him up in Plano and me out here. I think he's pretty proud of that. I know I was. Some of the old time sheriffs never even wore a gun...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The O'Reilly Factor: (2008-06-02)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Blood Trails

Expect the Unexpected as the Coen's deliver a pneumatic jolt to the head

There's very little "good" in No Country for Old Men beyond the mesmerizing acting and viciously dark screenplay. Instead, the unholy trinity of temptation, cynicism and pure, dark, evil take center stage in this modern western directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.

Based on the 2003 novel by Cormac McCarthy, the movie unfolds in the dusty Texas borderlands as hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the remnants of a desert drug deal gone bad, complete with a case containing two million dollars. Succumbing to temptation, Moss makes off with the money setting in motion a chain of events that leaves a trail of blood spattered carnage across the State as he is pursued by the ruthless, coin tossing hit man Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) among whose killing weapons of choice is a pneumatic air gun.

Bearing little in common with pretty much any previous Coen film with the possible exception of Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men is a dark, bleak, ode to the baser elements of the human soul, and a spit in the eye to the noble ones as well.

With a structural trademark hinging upon breaking the conventional norms of predictability, No Country is a movie that will unsettle you at successive turns - in the way deaths are dealt out; by its palpable tension that can almost be cut with a knife, and its periodic deviations from the narrative norm – the latter likely the only Coen brothers "quirk" for which their movies are renown.

Switching back and forth between the game of cat and mouse being played out by Moss and Chigurh and the investigation of unfolding events by cynical aging Texas Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), the Coens weave a web of dangled threads that one can't help but expect will be neatly tied together at story's end, only to tie them up in ways that buck the storytelling norm and manage to be both unsatisfying and true to their nature at the same time.

Unforgettable among this tableau is Bardem's Chigurh. The Spanish actor who has also appeared in Love in the Time of Cholera and Goya's Ghosts evokes the most amazing presence of a ruthless killer with his own twisted adherence to a bizarre code of ethics that nothing short of witnessing his performance can do it justice.

Sadly, however, justice is one of the few items in abundance in this movie. And yet, as unhappy as I am that the Coen's screenplay defiantly refuses to cater to the audience's inherent desire for satisfaction, I grudgingly have to admire them for opting for the unpredictable.

Consider the movie akin to one big coin toss – will it be heads or tales? Call it - you've been calling it your entire life.