Cormac McCarthy is the new Herman Melville. The Coen Brothers are the new Howard Hawks. “No Country for Old Men” is the new… it’s unclear.
“No Country for Old Men” follows the story of three men. The first is Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a down and out country boy who, while hunting one day, comes across a suitcase holding 2 million dollars at the grisly site of a massive drug deal at the border gone horribly wrong. He is hunted by Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a cool-as-a-coma hired gun on a greedy mission, with a fondness for reflecting on life, death, and the flip of a coin. Also on Moss’s trail is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), an aging, troubled lawman dealing with the horrible inconsistencies of a world changed. Set under the bleak Texas sun, the film presents a world where it’s every man for himself and there is no such thing as a clean getaway.
Joel and Ethan Coen both write and direct “No Country,” their follow-up to 2004’s “The Ladykillers” and first triumph since 1998’s “The Big Lebowski.” The film, based on the eponymous Cormac McCarthy novel, opens with Moss coming across the aftermath of a massive firefight. The sole survivor, shot in the gut and unable to move, asks Moss for some water. Unable to help, Moss sets out to find the money he assumes to have accompanied the hundreds of kilos of heroin in the trucks. Moss then returns home with the loot and many of the drug dealers’ automatic weapons, leaving the injured man to die. However, like many a protagonist before him, Moss makes one decision that will change his life and the lives of those around him forever.
Unable to sleep, Moss returns to the site with the water the man had asked for, only to find the man already dead. Soon a truck of the dead smugglers’ associates pulls up, setting into motion a horrible game of cat and mouse that spills much blood and leaves no one safe. The smugglers hire Chigurh to retrieve the money. One of the silver screen’s most terrifying characters in recent years, Chigurh operates with a cold precision, his character more an amoral, vicious and unfeeling hand of God than an actual person. Armed with a pneumatic air gun used to kill cattle, a fondness for blowing up cars, and a retro-as-fuck haircut, Chirgurh leaves a trail of carnage and sorrow as he chases Moss around the southwest. However, Moss, unwilling to part with his new found riches, is no easy target and goes blow-for-blow with the killer as he desperately reaches out for the good ole’ American dream of easy money.
Many have been troubled by the film’s fourth act, as it lingers on for twenty minutes or so after the main plot lines have been tied up. We find ourselves following Jones’ character as he tends to the mess caused by this macabre scavenger hunt. A noticeable deviation from normal Hollywood fanfare, the viewer is left to wonder why the film’s structure avoids what seem like natural endings in favor of strange, drawn-out monologues. Many people have left the theater a little confused or even angry, and I don’t have a good answer for them. Without having read the book, it’s hard to say if this fourth act is a structured formalist play by the Coens or a thoughtful postscript from America’s greatest living novelist. The fact is: it doesn’t matter.
In a world of cookie-cutter genre pieces and rehashed poster taglines, is it really so bad to be confused when you walk out of a movie theater? Is it that bad for someone to mess with the tried and true three-act structure that has dominated cinema since the advent of the feature film? Is it that bad not to have a film handed to us in a neatly wrapped to-go box where we don’t have to think about any of the characters ever again, because all their problems have been so excellently presented, complicated, and concluded by Hollywood’s greatest writers? I say no—something original isn’t so bad.
I don’t understand the film’s ending, but the lack of clarity doesn’t bother me. Naturally, the Coen brothers have not revolutionized the feature film, or even left a lasting effect on the shape of the market. I will, however, give them credit for choosing to do something thoughtful in place of something simple.
All in all, “No Country for Old Men” is as solid as a damn redwood. The Coen Brothers are some of our greatest filmmakers, and, although very capable of underperforming, they have returned in full form with a film that will be remembered as a breed apart. While it’s not playing at our local theaters, a quick trip to another town would be well worth this story of humanity, and lack thereof.
Leave a Reply