Film Bites

Llewelyn(Brolin) is a simple man; he loves his wife, Carla Jean(Macdonald), enjoys hunting and is a Vietnam veteran. His whole life gets turned upside-down when he stumbles upon a drug deal gone awry. Half a dozen men and a dog murdered in a blazing gun battle over a stash of cocaine and money. Obviously, with all present parties unable to claim the horde, Llewelyn decides to take the money. Soon, the greater powers involved want to know what happened to their property and hire Anton Chigurh(Bardem) to find out.

As a ruthless assassin, Anton could be perceived as the devil incarnate. He will mercilessly kill anyone without thought if they have something he wants. Hot on the Llewelyn’s trail, Anton leaves a wake of death that does not go unnoticed. Sheriff Bell(Jones) has seen a lot in his days as a law man. The latest string of brutal murders is the some of the worst. To try and save him, Bell tries to track down Llewelyn all while attempting to comprehend the logic behind current events. In the end, he realizes that life will happen whether you can comprehend it or not.

A philosophic film, No Country for Old Men is presented like an action/drama film. The action and drama are there, but something is missing. Maybe it is a lack of character motivation behind Anton Chigurh. Or perhaps it is the parallel stories in the film that never seem to connect fully. It may just be simply the absence of music in the film, but No Country doesn’t feel complete.

The Coen brothers are well known for their films which act as both silver screen entertainment and ruthless social commentary, but No Country seems to be lacking on both counts. The film doesn’t have an ‘end’ so much as it just drags you along then just stops. There are several places in the film which could constitute a conclusion of the film, but it doesn’t end where it would seem natural. Instead, the film is drawn out beyond those points and simply dumped leaving the viewer wondering, ‘what happened?’

As for social commentary, No Country has it in spades, but it isn’t anything that hasn’t been told before. The idea that life is ruthless and there are horrifically evil people out there is something everyone knows. Sure, this film will highlight that fact with plenty of squirting blood and pain-filled screams, but who really needs to be hit by a train full of the-world-is-evil-and-life-sucks-then-you-die?

In the end of the film, the only characters that live are Sheriff Bell and Chigurh. Those are the two characters I would have least like to have seen survive. Throughout the film, Sheriff Bell plays the grouchy old grandpa complaining about how the world has gone to hell in a hand basket and kids these days have no respect for anything. Near the end of the film, he gets told off by his father who explains that, sure life sucks now, but it has always sucked. I just sucked in different ways in the past. Chigurh is of course the sociopathic killer. The whole film you are engendered to hate him and relish the moments when he is wounded or disadvantaged. In the end, he lives.

I’ll be the first to give recognition where it is due. There has never been a film like No Country before. The pessimism that oozes out of this film is plentiful. The sad part is that moviegoers enter the theatre expecting a somber commentary but are presented with a downright depressing exposition of how miserable life is.