No Country For Old Men: Despite What Anyone Says, the Academy Got it Right

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2012)

No Country For Old Men starts out as a traditional Western: beautiful cinematography, funny accents, cowboy hats, Mexican drug cartels, satchels of money, the works. We have our good guy, down-on-his luck sharpshooter Llewelyn Moss who finds the money, and we have our bad guy, raging maniacal psychopath Anton Chigurh who is chasing after him. Now before you go ahead and say, "I know where this is going," you can stop right in your tracks because you don't. You can and never will know where this is going until you see the movie. Now to all those nay-sayers out there, calling this film petty names and making fun of it. While I respect your opinion, you must look beyond the surface of this film into its deeper meanings and implications. No movie is perfect (I personally think this one is, but that's just an opinion), but you are criticizing the length of a shot or a technique one character uses, all of the little things, while important, are no reason to give a movie a one or a two. Looking beyond the surface, one can find many hidden themes to this movie. One is about the nature of violence, an age old theme that dates back to Biblical times. Ed Tom Bell, the local sheriff, opens up the story talking about how the older sheriffs didn't even carry guns. Then, you meet Anton Chigurh, the reason behind Bell's decision to wear one. Chigurh strangles a man with his handcuffs, and kills many others with a silenced SPAS-12. His very presence is intimidating, his actions are unclear and ambiguous, and his face expresses no emotion. He is the perfect villain. Finally, you have Llewelyn Moss, who is, arguably, the main character of our story. He kills exactly like Chigurh: he shoots beings that he believes are inferior to him. However, he doesn't shoot blindly; he takes his time, lines up his shot, processes his thoughts, then shoots at an animal (he misses anyway). The only other time he tries to kill is out of self- defense when Chigurh is attacking him. Chigurh represents the unnecessary violence: killing for pleasure, for sport, and killing beings of equal stature. Moss represents this to a much lesser degree: he never tries to kill humans for sport, but he kills animals for sport. Bell is pure goodness: he doesn't kill anyone on screen. He doesn't even try to. He talks about a death he enticed once, but that was only as a preventative measure against more death. You also have the relationship between the hunter and the hunted. Everyone plays both characters in this film. Chigurh is hunting Moss, and is always hunted by the police. Moss is hunted by Chigurh, the police, and his wife, but, in return, he hunts game and once goes after Chigurh. Bell is hunted by his conscience, but is also hunting Moss and Chigurh. There are so many other intricately laid details that point to many other global messages that there are too many to delve into. If you just want to watch this movie for the sake of watching it, please note: it is very gruesome, and it features one of the best villains in the history of filmmaking. Very few people will appreciate this movie, not because of its beginning, but because of its ending. The ending is very articulately planned to have complete and utter meaning in every camera movement. Focus on the ending, be warned of gruesomeness, and watch Javier Bardem give the performance of a lifetime. Go see No Country For Old Men.