REVIEW - No Country For Old men (2007)

Texas Sheriff Ed Tom Bell remembers a day when respected lawmen could deal with a problem without having to even draw their firearms. He's tried to follow those old-timers' lessons throughout his career, but things nowadays just don't seem to be that easy.

Case in point: A local man named Llewelyn Moss is out hunting when he stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad. Amidst the bodies of dead men and attack dogs he finds $2 million. And though he's usually a levelheaded guy, he can't help but think of the good life that the cash could bring, so he takes it.

But what the money brings is a psychopathic killer named Anton Chigurh who's sent to retrieve the lost fortune. Llewelyn tries to use his hard-earned skills as a hunter and Vietnam vet to evade the heartless stalker, but Chigurh is relentless, and corpses begin to stack up like cordwood.

Sheriff Bell wants desperately to help Llewelyn and stop the carnage, but he always seems to be one step behind the quick-moving men. On top of that, the wizened officer realizes that he may be outside his depth on this one. Over the years, things have changed in some very bad and evil ways. And he may now be living in a world where a good man with good intentions can't make a difference anymore.

In conclusion, NCFOM is not a "happy ending" movie. It's a dark movie that's incredibly thought provoing, but not necessarily morally redeeming. If you're looking for a movie that requires processing and stays with you afterwards, this film is right up your alley.

POSITIVE CONTENT:

There are a few moments of characters doing the right thing, regardless of the cost. When Llewelyn comes upon the site of the drug deal shootout, he finds one man alive and begging for water. He takes the money and leaves the wounded man, but later he's driven by his conscience to return with water. In another scene, Llewelyn's wife, Carla Jean, goes along with her husband's plans for absconding with the money, but when he tells her he's going to put her on a plane out of town, she responds, "I ain't gonna leave you in the lurch." She eventually goes to the police out of concern for his safety. Elsewhere, the sheriff believes that revenge and "getting even" are foolish pursuits. He says, "All the time you spend to get back what's been took from you, more's just goin' out the door." It's also pointed out that the gradual eroding of respectful and civil interactions in a society inevitably leads to worse and worse things.

NEGATIVE CONTENT: Intense and bloody violence is the meat and potatoes of this movie. For example, it opens with Llewelyn stumbling upon about a dozen dead men and dogs scattered haphazardly between pockmarked pickup trucks.

SPIRITUAL CONTENT: God is either not thought much about or He's not thought much of in No Country for Old Men. "I always figured that when I got older God would come into my life," the beaten down sheriff grumbles. "He didn't."

TRIVIA:

• "No Country for Old Men", the title of the novel the film is based on, is part of the first line from W.B. Yeats' poem, "Sailing to Byzantium". The full line is "That is no country for old men".
• The Coen Brothers used a photo of a brothel patron taken in 1879 as a model for Anton Chigurh's hair style.
• Contrary to most successful films made from books, much of the film's action is taken word for word from Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel, and even occurs in the same order of events. Bell's final speech in the film, for instance, can be read on the final page of the book.
• While on location in Marfa, Texas, "There Will Be Blood" (2007) was filming nearby. While filming a wide shot of the landscape one day, directors Joel and Ethan Coen had to halt shooting for the day due to pyrotecnics from There Will Be Blood going off in the same frames.
• Anton Chigurgh and Llewellyn Moss are seen dressing injuries a sum of five times in the movie. Five is also the number of locks that Anton breaks in the movie.

(excerpts from "Plugged-In")