Mans Misfortunes Always Leaves a Trail

Rating: 10/10 (28 March 2008)

"No Country for Old Men" has it all. It's a chase film, but it's also subdued with symbolism and subtly. The acting is top notch and everybody has heard of Javier Bardem' great performance, but I think the real standout comes from Josh Brolin- in a career year- as Llewelyn Moss. Tom Lee Jones gives a powerhouse performance in subtly which only fits the nature and the tone of the film. Kelly McDonald is fantastic as Llewelyn' wife. When those two share a scene we really get a great understanding of their relationship in just a few moments here and there. Woody Haralson will remind you why he's an actor with a very good performance as a bounty hunter.
The film starts and ends with Tommy Lee Jones' character, Ed Tom Bell. He has been a Sheriff since he was 25 years old with a history of lawmen dating back to his grandfather. Late in his career and late in life Ed Tom struggles with his past, future and legacy. He always questions whether or not the old timers would be proud of him because he's not proud of himself. He feels as if the world is changing; the violence is changing; man is changing and he can't keep up anymore. He's being passed by, by the younger man much like his dream with his younger father. Ed Tom is slowing down and the people he's chasing are moving faster until they stop and start a fire. Only then does he catch up. Once he get's there he knows he'll face something he doesn't understand and he'll have to put his motto at risk: "I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand." The evil he chases is cunning, smart, dark, and almost invisible until the final moments where fate steps in and delivers what's coming.
As Bell is the focus of the film, Anton Chigurh, is the driving force in the film. His evil is destructive, it's overwhelming, it's senseless, and it's the fate of a coin toss. Anton' evil is best shown in a gas station scene where he subtly threatens the life of a gas station proprietor. The dialogue in the scene is incredible and it's the Coen' at their best. After the gas station proprietor infuriates Chigurh, because of his stupid questions, Anton decides to let fate step in and settle the dispute in a coin toss. As he crinkles up a candy wrapper, and lets it go, it becomes out of the hands of Chigurh. Fate has stepped in and the coin that has been traveling for 22 years is now here and that will decide whether the man lives or dies. It's his call and its either heads or tails. Chigurh can't call it for him, but he is his fate since he and the coin arrived at the same time. Chigurh simply doesn't care what the result is, but there has to be a result. Another great scene which shows Chigurh' Grim Reaper like evil is where one man watches another man die right in front of him at the hands of Chigurh. The man absurdly asks; "Are you going to kill me?" and Chigurh turns around and looks right into his eyes with a grin on his face and responds with an absurd question of his own, "Do you see me?" Moss is a simple man. A Vietnam War veteran. A man with a determination to find a way out of the life he currently inhabits as greed and fortune take over his fate. He tries to run. He tries to get away and live happily ever after and he believes he will even after he is "immobilized" by a gun shot wound from Chigurh. Like any person, Moss follows mans evil on a hunting trip as he tracks down the blood trail of a wounded dog. He follows the trail back and finds a slaughtering and Mexican Drug deal gone horribly wrong. Moss finds a man in need of water and he tells him he "ain't got no water." He smartly figures out there has to be money somewhere and figures one man was left and ran off. So he searches out for the "last man standing," leaving the other man dying of thirst. Moss comes to a shade tree and through his eyes we can see a figure next to the tree. He waits for movement, and then he walks to the tree and finds a dead man with a satchel full of money. His fate doesn't involve a coin toss, but rather a satchel full of money and a transponder. This will bring Chigurh to Moss.
The films end will leave viewers dissatisfied because the final act of the film is quite different than the first two acts. The final act isn't shot in the vast, empty hot lands of western Texas, but in an urbanized environment in the city. This goes well with the change of Bell' character. The terrain is not his costume. It's not his country. The final act is fast paced unlike the first two. There are no horses. There are more than pistols- machine guns. The violence is no longer shown. It's shown through a spilt milk bowl or Chigurh checking his boots. The violence takes a backstage seat where the first two acts are loaded with violence pushing on excessive. As the film unravels like the candy wrapper, Bell's fate steps in. He goes back to the big crime scene. He sees and knows what's on the other side of that door. He knows he is putting his soul at hazard. He's pushing his chips to the middle of the table and he enters in the face of evil where fate takes over.