Astounding, jarring, jolting, deeply troubling

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2008)

As as big Coen brothers fan I had to go see it. Which I did last night on the big screen. I found myself walking out of the theater on trembling legs and queasy stomach. As a well crafted vehicle this is the Coen brothers finest achievement, even eclipsing the much lauded "Fargo".
I recall John Goodman's portrayal of a psychopathic killer in Barton Fink and how uncomfortable he made me feel; his hypnotically executed persona made your skin crawl.
In "...old men"...Javier Bardem perhaps even surpasses Goodmans nightmarish and very frightening evocation of pure evil. Bardem lurches through the film and he reminds me now, when I think of it, of what I think the "golem" must have looked like. The "Golem" was a mythic creature, supposedly created by the Maharal of Prague in the 16'th century, in Prague. This creature was something that did not have a human soul but was sort of like a demon, conjured up and controlled by Kabbalistic means. In any case, Bardem looked like a demon who had not a single molecule of humanity in his blood.
There are several things that disturb when you watch. The need to make sense out of an action is what makes us humans rational. When you watch random and inscrutable acts of violence we are upset because it challenges our normative states. If you dwell on it, what is so off-setting is that this violence is so reminiscent of nightmares that scare us so badly we wake up in a heart pounding sweat. That's what you feel when you watch Bardem.
I read somewhere that Bardem is not an English speaker. If so, then perhaps he spoke all his lines phonetically. (I read the same of the two lead actors in "Crouching Tiger..." that they too did not speak the language of the film and they had to phonetically deliver the lines). Bardem's approach to his lines is to deliver them with a freaky coldness. His voice implies that he feels completely in control, completely sure of the outcome and not touched by any outcry from his victims. That he might kill randomly is something he cares nothing to notice. His character is a nightmarish ghoul come to life.
This is a very violent film and children should be protected from watching this at any time now or in the future. It is difficult enough for us adults to have our nerves jangled and shocked. This is a film with an excellent script, all actors working at their best, knowing, it would seem, that this was a momentous and very important undertaking.
Closing off for now, I would have to say that Tommy Lee Jones gives one of the most outstanding performances of his long career. What a fabulous actor's actor; our attention never leaves the baggy eyed face. That voice, so finely honed, so perfectly under his emotionally controlled output....we are in his grip. His grip is our conscience; the grip of Bardem is the grip of the unconscious. This film, this story is as about as disturbing as it gets. There is no resolution, but neither is there one when we awake from a traumatic nightmare. Not a film for the weak hearted or delicate nerves. A film that will haunt the mind for a long time. Not one I really want to see again too soon.