The Oscar Project #80: No Country for Old Men (2007)

by Chris Marshall:

Even though it is starkly different from most of their earliest movies, No Country for Old Men is one of the finest Coen Brothers films. It takes a very serious, somber tone, but it would be a mistake to say there are no laughs; they are just of a much different variety than typically seen in their past work.

But that makes sense. This is by no means a comedy—Cormac McCarthy has never been considered much of a jokester. Instead, its goal is no less than to personify Evil in the character of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). Is he human? Is he a monster? Some combination of the two?

He actually reminds me in many ways of Leonard Smalls, the biker from Raising Arizona. They both seem to appear out of nowhere and take joy in killing the innocent. Even animals aren’t spared. Smalls blows away a rabbit and a lizard as he rides down the highway; Chigurh shoots at a crow with his shotgun. Both of them seem, paradoxically, more and less than human simultaneously. Chigurh appears completely unfazed by pain. Even he’s limping or otherwise physically impaired, his face betrays nothing.

Of course, Raising Arizona is a comedy, so Smalls is defeated in the end. No Country for Old Men is very much a tragedy, and nobody is spared. Even those who survive—a small list indeed—are forever marred by what they’ve been through. Chigurh is a ruthless, methodical, efficient murderer. I kept track, and he eventually kills 16 of the 18 people he speaks to during the course of the film. And it’s hard to believe he was just getting his murder career started, so the list is likely much, much more extensive.

Or is it? Again, we know nothing about this guy’s background. For all we know, he could have sprung completely formed out of the aether. The hardest thing to believe about this movie is that, at the beginning, he is in police custody. How could anybody possibly have caught him? Then again, maybe it was all just part of his master plan.

The "Anton" haircut never caught on like the Rachel did.

There is a plot, but it’s really nothing more than a coatrack upon which to hang the theme of the film. The brutal, essentially random nature of evil and death affects everyone. Perhaps the most famous scene takes place in the gas station early on, when Anton makes the attendant call the flip of a coin. “What do I have to gain?” the man asks. “Everything,” Chigurh responds. 

Luckily, the man called it correctly. By winning the coin toss, he saved his own life. Had the coin landed the other way, he would have been dead. Thus, he was one of only two people to survive Chigurh’s presence. The other was the receptionist at Llewellyn’s trailer park; I’m not exactly sure how or why she survived. Or maybe he killed her after the scene ended. Who knows.

Meanwhile, Llewellyn, who found and took a briefcase full of money, setting off the entire situation, is trying to escape him. At the same time, the sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and a bounty hunter (Woody Harrelson) are trying to track him down. Neither will be successful—well, Harrelson finds him (unfortunately)—and by the end of the film, it is still unresolved whether or not Chigurh will continue his killing spree.

There is so much more to say about this movie, but unfortunately, I’m writing in a tight time window tonight. I will say that, although I do think No Country for Old Men is at least close to a masterpiece, everything I write about it should be taken with a grain of salt. I try to avoid this the best I can, but I do have a little strain of fanboyism regarding the Coens. I’m yet to see a film of theirs that I dislike (even though I am missing a few, which will be resolved in a couple of weeks), and because of that, I’m afraid I have a tendency to overlook some of their movies’ weaknesses.