Sin lugar para los débiles

No Country for Old Men won four Academy Awards in 2007, including Best Picture and Best Director(s). Despite the critical acclaim, the Coen Brother's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel was probably a bit of a head-scratcher to many people.

The film's narrative begins in familiar fashion, introducing you to the main characters and setting up the plot using recognized, established filmic devices. Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon a suitcase filled with cash and wants to keep it for himself. Anton Chigurh is the sociopath who will stop at nothing to get the cash back. Ed Bell is the Sheriff tasked with bringing Chigurh to justice and, it is presumed, keeping Moss and his wife, Carla Jean, from danger. In addition, there's a corporate backer, a hired gun, and a Mexican gang who are also after the cash (i.e., the McGuffin). So much for the usual narrative elements.

When the film continues far beyond the point that the expected narrative structure breaks down, viewers are left to grasp at what the film is actually about. What, if anything, is this film trying to say?

I propose that the film is, among other things, a meditation on the impotence of human and divine systems of justice in light of unflinching, unrelenting, random, radical evil. There are a number of elements in the film that indicate such a meditation, but one need not look much further than the meditations of Sheriff Bell, whose words begin and end the film. Consider:

"There was this boy I sent to the 'lectric chair at Huntsville Hill here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killt a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. 'Be there in about fifteen minutes'. I don't know what to make of that. I sure don't. The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure."

With these words, the film's "story line" unfolds, with Sheriff Bell trying, and failing, to be effective.

At the end of the film, the retired Sheriff Bell describes a dream to his wife:

"It was like {my father and I} was both back in older times and I was on horseback going' through the mountains of a night. Going' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on going'. Never said nothing' going' by. He just rode on past... and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was going' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up."

The film is nihilistic in both structure and content. If you would like to force a less despairing ending, Bell's dream could be interpreted as a ray of hope: a light shines in the darkness! On the other hand, it is a dream that he wakes up from.

I don't know what to make of that. I sure don't. But that doesn't mean I can't try.

An opportunity presents to get rich quick, a stash of cash made up of bills thick as a brick, but your conscience sets a trail, for a reaper to assail, a real psycho, has a vessel with a kick. You start to make a run, but you're tracked down, these pursuers cause a grimace, and a frown, until you spot the hidden tracker, locater for deadly attacker, you make escape, but get injured, as you leave town. Determination keeps the story rolling on, everyone risks, the singing of, their own swan song, the lives of others are ignored, fate, luck, destiny explored, but the bounty counts for nothing, if you're long gone.

Some of the finest cinematic characters you'll encounter.

While on a hunting trip, a sportsman (Josh Brolin) finds dead men and a stash of cash in the remote back country of West Texas, the result of a drug deal gone wrong. The greedy hunter takes the cash, but soon discovers that the resourceful criminal responsible for the drug deal, an outlaw named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), has a way of tracking the loot. The hunter thus finds that he is the hunted. Meanwhile, an aging Texas sheriff named Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is after both the sportsman and Chigurh. The story is set in the early 1980s.

To some extent, this film is a character study of Sheriff Bell, an honest lawman who is wise, observant, grounded in reality, and has a long memory. "No Country For Old Men" is really his story. He doesn't know quite what to make of the drug war that has crossed over from Mexico into Texas; it's something new (for the 1980s); and it makes a land that has always been hostile to settlers even more hostile and dangerous.

The film's premise is quite simple, and the story is straightforward with minimal twists. A lot of time and care are taken with procedural actions: loading a gun, dressing a bloody wound, constructing a pole to retrieve a package from an air vent, for example. Dialogue is minimal; there's lots of silence.

Overall casting and acting are impressive. I especially liked the performance of Tommy Lee Jones who seemed a natural choice for the role of Sheriff. Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin are also well cast. Several minor roles are extremely well performed, like the store owner who is asked to call a coin toss, and the rotund lady who, with a dour face, defies Chigurh's requests in a characteristic Texas twang.

The film's color cinematography is quite good; there are lots of sweeping, wide-angle outdoor shots. I really enjoyed the geographic setting, with that whistling West Texas wind, the silence, and the stunning vistas. It's a landscape that is starkly beautiful. Yet, despite its beauty and wilderness traits, it can quickly turn hostile and unforgiving for anyone unprepared for its hidden risks.

"No Country For Old Men" is a fine film. I'd describe it as a chase story -- character study combo, with elements of noir, especially in the visuals. Violence may be a tad much for some viewers. But given the subject matter, it is entirely appropriate.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

A hunter (Josh Brolin) comes across a group of trucks with dead bodies everywhere and discovers $2 million in cash, which he takes. Soon a psychotic killer (Javier Bardem) is after him while a local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to figure out what's going on. I'll start off by saying that I'm not a big fan of the Coen brothers. With that out of the way, this is certainly the best movie I've seen from them but it goes downhill very quickly in the final thirty-minutes, which are quite horrid to be honest. However, everything before that is masterfully done with a beautiful craft that makes this familiar story come off very original, dark and at times funny. I really enjoyed the slow pace that the film carries but I'm not sure if that's how I should describe it. The movie has plenty of graphic violence and action and what makes it so shocking is that it usually comes out of no where or happens when you don't expect it. The pace of the film is slow but this helps when the violence breaks out. The performances are all terrific with Bardem stealing the show as the psychotic killer. Whenever he's on screen you can't take your eyes off of him and his silent performance speaks more than any words could. I was also very impressed with Brolin who I'm usually hit and miss on. Woody Harrelson has a few nice scenes and Tommy Lee Jones is the old Tommy Lee Jones we all love. The film was a lot of fun until the conclusion, which I thought was quite awful.

Opinions do look to be sharply divided on this typically interesting effort for the Coen brothers. Some hail it a masterpiece, others don't see the appeal at all. While this viewer doesn't quite fit into the former camp, he will say that it's one of the more unconventional examples of crime fiction that one is likely to see. It's much more of a character piece than anything, with some grisly scenes of violence here and there. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, it centres around three characters, one being a poor hunter named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), who one day stumbles into the aftermath of some drug deal gone horribly wrong. He finds $2 million on the scene and impulsively decides to keep the money for himself, while a mysterious, creepy, sadistic stranger named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) tracks him down, porting a unique pressurized air weapon. Somewhat involved is a weary Texas sheriff, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who's unsettled by what he sees as the changing times. Now, granted, what's going to test the patience of some of the viewers are some of the monologues; this isn't for people who want a straightforward story and who are turned off by philosophical musings. One can hardly fail to notice how low key most of this narrative is; even in the more intense scenes there's never really a sense of urgency. On the plus side, what we do get are some excellent character moments from the solid star trio of Brolin, Bardem, and Jones. The supporting cast is equally impressive - Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root, and Beth Grant. The Coens work with some of their reliable prior collaborators such as composer Carter Burwell and cinematographer Roger Deakins. All things considered, "No Country for Old Men" may not be to all tastes, and does require some patience on the part of the viewer. It also doesn't resolve itself in the way one might expect for this genre, and might prove to be less than satisfactory in this regard for some of those watching. There's one fantastic confrontation near the end, but the film closes, curiously enough, after a monologue by Bell about a dream he's had. How much or how little all of this works will be up to the individual viewer. In any event, the actors are all fantastic, especially Bardem, and they make the journey worthwhile. Eight out of 10.