Sunday Night Movie Review: No Country For Old Men

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Let me tell you, things have been crazy busy at work over the last few months. In fact, I can’t remember the last weekend I had where I didn’t open my work laptop for an hour. When it gets this bad, the scaries get worse. In my attempt to combat the looming anxiety of wondering who’s going to kick me in the nuts this week (metaphorically speaking), I’ve tried to fall into a routine every Sunday night. Part of that routine is watching a new movie that I either have never seen, or haven’t watched in a long time.

In an attempt to help others cure their scaries–or to give people movie recommendations, I haven’t decided yet–I’m going to review the movies I watch and give them an overall rating at the end. Let’s see how this goes!

Also, just as a heads up, if you haven’t seen the movie I’m about to spoil the shit out of it.

Movie: No Country For Old Men

Streaming Service: Netflix

Synopsis: A drug deal gone bad and a bag full of cash entwine an unsuspecting hunter, a veteran sheriff, and a murderous hit man in the stark West Texas desert.

So, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know too much about this movie. I knew it took place in Texas and I’ve seen the “How much have you ever lost on a coin toss?” scene, but that was totally out of context so I had no idea how it related to the rest of the movie.

For those who haven’t seen it, No Country for Old Men is a movie about a guy named Llewelyn (played by Josh Brolin) who goes out hunting one day and stumbles upon a ghastly scene of bodies and trucks, both riddled with bullet holes, in the middle of the Texas desert. He wanders around the scene and ultimately finds a briefcase full of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Meanwhile, a psychotic hitman named Anton (played by Javier Bardem) is seemingly on the hunt for the aforementioned briefcase and will stop at nothing to get it.

Also, Tommy Lee Jones plays a sheriff who pops in every here or there to comment on the DEA and widen his eyes while maintaining no other movement on his face.

Holy shit. This movie left me with so many questions, but not in a bad way. The Coen Brothers do an awesome job of giving you the opportunity to fill in the blanks with your own imagination. Did Anton kill Carla Jean? What the hell happened to Llewelyn that they couldn’t show what happened to his face on screen? Wait, why is Anton even invested in any of this? Or is he just fucking crazy?

What’s great about this movie is that there’s little–if any–musical score in the background. You don’t realize it at the time, but the lack of music actually forces you to watch what happens to these characters as though you were in the moment with them. Take, for example, the coin toss scene. The only sound played in the background of that scene is the hum of the refrigerator in the gas station. However, the intensity behind Anton’s entire demeanor and the intimidation he deploys onto the gas station attendant is so palpable that my stomach was in knots.

The other great thing about No Country for Old Men is Javier Bardem’s entire performance. I like to think I’m pretty observant, and I’m confident when I say that I don’t think he blinked once during the entire film. Honestly, I don’t think Javier Bardem was acting. Look at every role that motherfucker has played. Hitman. Bond villain. Ghost pirate. Javier Bardem is either a real-life psychopath or saw some shit growing up because there is not an ounce of anything in me that thinks I could successfully pull off a role as a mass murderer.

No Country for Old Men is a great movie, but that doesn’t mean I’m jerking off over it anytime soon. If I could change a few things, I absolutely would. For example, it seems kind of fucked up that Llewelyn is ready to die so quickly. Like, so quickly. When he goes to bring the gallon of water to the dying drug dealer and he tells his wife, “If I die, tell my mom I love her.” Dude hold up, why would that even be on your mind? It’s not like he’s got some dark past or anything. He fought in Vietnam and came back to become a welder. Yet based on the things he says and his actions in the film, it seems like he’s lived a life of crime.

The other problem I have with this movie is that we spend the whole damn movie getting to know Llewelyn, rooting for him and watching him come so close to getting out of this whole thing alive, only to have him die off-camera. What? Have some fucking decency and let us know how the main character dies. Was it because he did something stupid? Did he not think ahead? Or is this one of those film things where the way he died doesn’t matter because the story is about more than just him and this was an opportunity for us to realize that bad things happen to good people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time?

All in all, No Country for Old Men is a great movie and I’ll always recommend it for anyone looking to kill two hours. That being said, the lack of dialogue forces you to pay close attention to what’s going on. If you look away to check your phone for a few minutes, you might miss something important. Plus, the film throws you into a world where you’re not entirely sure what’s going on and never get an explanation for it. Some people are okay with that, some people aren’t. Either way, it left me with more questions than answers.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 coin tosses won, definitely would recommend..

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Charlie

Using sarcasm as a defense mechanism since 1993. At any given moment I'm either tired, drunk, or stressed out. Get at me at charliepgp@gmail.com or whatever.

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