Its hard to really put into words just the kind of movie that No Country For Old Men is, so often words like "masterpiece" and "brilliant" and similar accolades get tosses around in this modern era of buzz words selling tickets instead of quality and content that when something that is truly deserving of such words comes along, you almost feel like you're insulting it by using words of that nature. You know as a critic you aren't insulting the movie, but as a fan, you do, I hate confliction like that, seriously. Its hard to put into words, this is just a timeless story of tough guy vs. even tougher guy in an insanely intense game of cat and mouse with each having everything they hold dear to lose, and it takes you along for the whole insane ride.The movie starts in southern west Texas in June of 1980, you see these beautifully baron backgrounds of the waistlands at the boarder between Texas and Mexico, you hear the tired and run down voice of tired and run down local sheriff Ed Bell, as he laments over the changes that have come into place in the region sense he grew up to now, how its become more and more violent and so unlike what he remembers, this naration is done to perfection by the amazingly talented Tommy Lee Jones, as the film progresses, though you don't really see much of Bell, he's mostly the "C Story" as we call it in the business, meaning the filler between the main story and the subplot, though I must admit, as a C Story, he is the glue that holds and connects the two other stories being told here together, as he should be. As the voice over ends as you cut to a police station and a deputy calling in the capture of a man who he claims is "is carrying an air tank that he uses for some stand air weapon he keeps up his sleeve" before he can get any more information out this man who is sitting cuffed behind him gets up and uses his cuffs to strangle the young deputy, this man, is Anton Chigurh (said "Sugar"), the remorseless murderer for hire who, among his other rather interestingly modified weapons of his trade uses a cattle gun to kill people. Anton is played by Javier Bardem, a mostly unknown actor who afew will remember from the horrible Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox team up "Collateral", but mostly has done under noticed, direct to rental, spanish or art house films, I believe this movie will make Javier a star as the next few years progress, you truly believe that he is infact Antone Chigurh and you truly believe that he is a bad bad man. Next we're on a ridge out on the Rio Grande and we meet Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin former star of the goonies, american gangster and Planet Terror to name afew of his impressive starlist, Llewelyn is a Vietnam War veteran who lives in a trailer with his wife and works as a welder for a living, he's out hunting and when chasing down a wounded coyote he hit while going for his real pray, pronghorn antelope (animal planet hizzah!) he discovers a grizzle shoot out scene that can't be more then afew minutes old, a circle of cars and the area is littered with dead bodies, even two dogs. Llewelyn comes across one mexican who's barely alive in a truck, while asking for water the man tells him to look in the back. In the back of the truck he finds a truck bed full of black tar heroin, and yet none of the money for it, assuming there has to be someone not far away thats got the money, he relieves the dead and dying of their guns then starts to follow the trail of blood he discovers near by. he finds the last one dead under a tree with a sack containing 2 million dollars. He relieves the corpse of his gun as well as the money, he heads home in his truck to go about getting things ready for him and his wife's new life to begin. He has a small change of heart later that night and decides to go see if the dying man is still alive or dead, in doing this, he gets spotted by the people who own the money that he now has in his trailer, who are able to track him by ID plate on his truck which he carelessly leaves in plain sight. From there the movie becomes an intense game of Cat and Mouse as Chigurh chases Moss all over southwest Texas and the bordertowns of Mexico for his 2 million dollar winfall, with Bell trying to track them both for different reasons and contemplating his retirement.
As the movie goes on you see just the lengths both men will go to just to keep this money, Moss for a better life for his and his wife, you find this out by the fact his first move is to send her out of harms way with abit of cash incase she needs it and the promise he'll follow soon after with the rest soon as he's finished off Chigurh and is free of the heat around his discovery. On the other side of the spectrum we see that Chigurh wants the money not to return to his boss, but for himself to get away and become a hitman for hire working for himself. Where Moss does out of his way to doubletrack and deter Chigurh at all costs from not only getting to him and those he loves, but innocents as well, Chigurh with out though or care kills anyone that crosses his path, even fellow hitman Carson Wells, who is sent to retrieve him and the money because he has become "sloppy" with his work, Carson is played by Woody Harrelson, which is abit of a surprise to me because I had thought Woody, or atleast his career, was dead, he given s good, albeit short performance. I won't give to much of the story away, its really the kind of movie you that you have to see and watch how it naturally progresses to fully get it all and just sit back in awe of just how powerful a film this is, plus, well, what good would it be if i spoiled the ending for you by telling you what happens?
I will however say that this movie is as visually interesting as it is storywise, the backgrounds and characters appearances tell just as much of the story as the actual script does, if the Coen Brothers did this purposely or not I don't know but it just worked so well. Everything from Tommy Lee Jones' dusty old sheriff's uniform and busted and beat up badge, to every single thing about Antone Chigurh, which was modeled after a man seen in an old book of patrons to whorehouses on the Texas / Mexico border that Tommy Lee Jones owned, how or why he came into ownership of this book i've no idea, Moss looks to be taken right out of a hickplotation or bad ass movie from the grindhouse era of film history which I love so much, he's like a mix of Kris Kristopherson in every role he's ever played mixed with Peter Fonda in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry and Steve McQueen in The Hunter, I just love that, you feel for him in so many ways and you want him to get the life he's trying to hard to make happen. Its interesting to note also, of the three main leads, you very rarely see Jones, Bardem or Brolin on the screen together, and if you do its just for afew stant seconds or maybe a minute or two at most, this gives you the real feel of a game of Cat and Mouse thats being played by these men and seeing how evenly matched Moss and Chigurh are you spend the whole movie debating in your mind if you wanna see a final conflict or not, because it would be the ultimate win to survive and get away from a man like Chigurh, a man who they claim is one of the best hitmen in the world.
I give this movie my full endurcement and encourage you all to either go to a theater or go find a torrent or something of this amazing film and enjoy it for what it is, a dirty, gritty violent tale of how there is no such thing as a clean getaway. There issomething in it for everyone, thrills, action, violence, foul mouthed 13 year olds, old depressed cops, and ofcourse, Mr. Antone Chigurh who is infact a very very VERY bad man... why you still reading this, go get to seeing it, you won't regret it.
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Laz
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