Don't forget the title

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 2008)

Having watched the two Oscar heavyweights "No country for old men" and "There will be blood" within one week, I can't help noticing the sharp contrast in audio style: while "Blood" came with background music so overwhelming that it threatens to take over foreground, "Old men" had only silence, natural sound and dialogue, with no music at all. There is no right or wrong: each style serves its particular purpose. Imagine the scene in "Old men" with Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) in the middle of the night in a sunken hollow strewn with a few abandoned vehicles and dead bodies. As the menacing headlight of an ominous looking vehicle at the top of a slope threatens to approach, any kind of music would do more harm than good to the blood-chilling atmosphere.
Let me back up a little. In their inimitable fashion, the Coen Brothers crafted this adopted story through a mesmerizing plot line that is ever elusive, giving you the slip every time you feel that you have got the hang of things. The plot line looks simple: a common young man who stumbles across two million dollars becomes the prey of a serial killer who is after the money (and his life), while a season sheriff comes after both  an almost standard cat-and-mouse story. But there are more than initially meets the eye.
But first, the three main characters. Moss is not your ordinary reckless young man next door. Seasoned Vietnam veteran, he shows his stuff when chased by a ferocious killing bloodhound, hurriedly loading his pistol but never losing control, and firing it when the canine's deadly teeth is within three feet of his throat. He is undoubtedly the prey, but not one that rolls over and play dead. But this is really the hunter's show. Javier Bardem ("The sea inside") who has won every Best Supporting Actor in sight is good enough to give Daniel Day-Lewis a run for his money had he been put in the contest for Best Actor, to which he has every right. The most amazing thing is that while his physical appearance is at times even comical (mainly due to the ridiculous hair style), his mere presence is so chilling that it makes Jason Voorhees, Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter look like fairy godmothers in Disney tales. I'll come to Tommy Lee Jones later.
As the movie follows the standard cat-and-mouse crime thriller development, the audience may be so hung to the edge of their seats that they forget temporarily that this is Coen Brothers. The climatic showdown that they tricked you into expecting never comes. Everything seems to fall apart in the last third of the movie. Not only that it is such an anticlimax, but you are not even allowed to see what actually happens. And that one last climax (which is standard for thrillers) is also a flop, and also one with an ambiguous, open ending. "What the hell is going on", you can hear some in the audience groan.
But while the audience is still hot on the trail with agitated expectation of a Hollywood style showdown, the Coen Brothers have all but concluded this plot line and moved off to an even more important theme, the development of sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), whose involvement in this crime case is merely incidental. The cat-and-mouse game ended almost as an afterthought, with none of the excitement the audience thought they have been promised. The focus has long since shifted to depiction of Bell as one of the "old men" in the title. If you think back, most of the small roles (starting with the attendant of the now famous "gas station scene" at the beginning of the movie) are old men. While the audience might have forgotten, the directors/screen writers have not, that this movie is trying to show why this desolate Taxes country is "no country for old men". Added to this is the final touch (the accident) showing how bazaar life and reality can be.
For those who still complain that they are not told/shown properly how Moss was hunted down, remember the pool side scene when a woman who is trying to seduce Moss. He tells her that he is married and is now out here keeping half an eye on his wife who is coming to join him and another half on something else so that he will not be caught unprepared, (something to that effect). The woman replies that this may not always be possible. There you have it, as clear as daylight, the directors' account of Moss's end, if you'd only pay attention.