Sin lugar para los débiles

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.

I don't remember being so scared in a movie theater since "Don't Look Now" Here the Coen Brothers take everything a step further with exhilarating ease. The terror was genuine and not because we were rooting for Josh Brolin or anybody in particular. The terror was personal, Joel and Ethan Coen made that terror visceral and tangible. It has to do with our own nightmares. Josh Brolin was a perfect piece of casting because in a way he doesn't have many personal colors. He's one of the bunch, one of us and we could put ourselves in his shoes. That is the art of film narrative expressed in a way that we've never experienced before. I heard people old enough to have seen Hitchcock's "Psycho" in the theaters and what glued them to the screen was their own fear. Well, that's what I've experienced here. Javier Bardem is superb, considering that he's the reason for the fear. He carries a human/inhuman kind of strength and we know he'll get us, sooner or later and if we consider the ending of the film, he might still do. Worthy Oscar winners, all of it and all of them.

No Country For Old Men. It's a near perfect western thriller gone somewhat wrong in the end. Hero a hunter himself finds a bag full of money from a crime scene but then gets hunted down by a crazy lunatic killer. Adding other dimensions there is aging sheriff trying to help hero without his knowledge. The movie starts and flows like a clean water with edgy characters, tricky situations and some clever ideas. Then when you are all set for bang-bang climax, movie takes a different route, plot becomes ambiguous, motives become unclear and our hero is out of the story just like that. If you are not overly miffed by the deviation in last half an hour, then you would be attracted to this like an iron to magnet because of its crazy characters, witty dialogs, haunting atmosphere and chilling silence.

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.

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.