Setting the Record Straight

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2018)

This film is incredible, and those who are giving bad reviews simply don't understand the underlying theme of the Coen Brothers films. From Blood Simple to Hail Caesar!, the Coen Brothers are taking an existentialist approach, meaning they're showing their audiences the pointlessness of life and plans, which is why No Country for Old Men is so captivating, but also why reviewers feel that the movie has an "empty" plot. People often have a problem with the protagonist of the story loses to the antagonist, and then chalk it up to a bad plot, as if the writer/director hadn't seen this plot device for the 3-5 odd years they worked on the film. Ultimately, they've made a choice to kill the protagonist and leave the antagonist alive (also having us lose faith in the police officer) to give us a feel of existential dread, and further the idea that violence is not about the protagonist using it to restore balance, but it's about the fact that violence is not effective in real life. This is one of the reasons that Javier Bardem was cast in the role. When the Coen Brothers asked him to play Chigurh, he said he "hated violence," and made them want to cast him even more. It's because they too hate violence, and wanted the audience to feel unsatisfied by the ending because unlike Tarantino, they wanted the violence to feel pointless and unfair. So ultimately when you watch Coen Brothers films, try to see them through the lens of existentialism, because they tend to find the ideas glorified in movies (ie. robbery, fame, mystery, murder) utterly pointless. It's what made Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and finally No Country for Old Men, so successful.