You can't outrun life.

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2008)

... Or alternatively, as the tagline puts it: "No one gets away clean". At the outset, each character is confident that they can outwit their adversaries and that their idealistic vision will ultimately prevail. What time comes to show them, however, is that life always holds all the aces, and that not one of them will emerge from their struggle with an ending that suits them in the long term. Even Chigurh, the one whom all his fellow humans fear throughout the runtime - seeming to carry as he does an aura of supernatural invulnerability - gets an implacable air of natural justice served upon him by receiving the scars of hard-fought struggle. It's an extremely fatalistic message delivered to us, emphasised by the barren and unforgiving landscape that is the arena for these happenings. Sooner or later, every mortal will find themselves accountable to a force beyond their comprehension.
Javier Bardem becomes an utterly terrifying figure, despite never appearing to exert himself much, on screen. That's good acting, I guess, when you can distill your performance and still find it encompasses everything that is necessary. The other cast members are worthy of praise too, and the Coen brothers marshal each individual element at their disposal to deliver a full tale that seems note-perfect and quietly resonant. "No Country for Old Men" is a film that leaves its imprint felt for a long time after viewing, and will deservedly be hailed as one of the true masterpieces of 2007.