No Country for Old Men [2007]

By Abayomi Olusegun

“No Country for Old Men” starts with a narration. It is a poignant piece by Tommy Lee Jones that sets the tone of the movie and has an instant enrapturing effect, drawing you into a world of grisly crime. The first character to die meets his end within the first 4 minutes. By the conclusion of the movie twenty-one, more people are dead.

This adaptation tells the tale of Llewelyn Moss, a war veteran, who happens upon a few million dollars in the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong sparking a manhunt by all-around principled bad guy Anton Chigurh. Local Sheriff Ed Tom Bell struggles with feeling beleaguered and inadequate in a world of men like that.

Anton Chigurh, with a sexless haircut, pneumatic guns and stone-cold demeanour can be described as a walking angel of death as he tries to kill every single person that comes his way over the length of the movie. He is fate’s messenger gloriously attired in cowboy boots and jeans. Some have reported him to be the most accurate depiction of a psychopath in a film so it is no huge wonder the Academy gave Javier Bardem the award for Best Supporting Actor. His character, however, felt flat in some places and the directors’ storytelling choices sometimes did not fully let the character’s mien be on full display, instead allowed the audience to make their own inferences.

“No Country for Old Men” plays around with its genres, never truly deciding to stick to a Western, crime, noir or thriller theme and this works in its favour allowing the script explores all these threads of human greed, violence, love and resentment in its own way. It is a good film, possibly even better than the Coen brothers’ other crime-in-a-small-town film, “Fargo”. “Fargo” also has similar elements of a small-town sheriff investigating multiple murders with cold killers as major characters and a briefcase of money. Frances McDormand excelled in that role in “Fargo” but it is Tommy Lee Jones’ Ed Tom that comes out on top in my opinion.

One might be excused for not minding its runtime as there is a lot of fun to be had watching such talent on display but the final act may crash in upon you, leaving you expecting, nay, needing more. And for a film with only sixteen minutes of music, it is quite memorable.