Confusing Title, Amazing Movie

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2013)

People complain about endings way too often. I sat down and watched No Country for Old Men tonight and the entire movie blew me away but the ending is something I will not touch upon in this review but something I am willing to discuss. Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones star in a fight for two million dollars. The Coen Brothers directed this masterpiece and it was all over the Oscars. Llewelyn Moss, Josh Brolin, stumbles on a drug deal gone badly in the middle of the desert in west Texas. He also stumbles upon two million dollars. Anton, Javier Bardem, is on a rampage as he wants to find the money. Ed Tom Bell, Tommy Lee Jones, is following the two of them in a battle for the cash.
Movie making is an art form and any good director does everything on purpose. The Coen brothers did everything right in this movie. All three main characters are never seen on screen but are so much alike and connected. If you dig deep into the details in this movie you will notice so many similarities between the three. The directing the two of the brothers do is one of the best I have ever seen in any movie. They choose to have very little music in their movie. That is a very bold and risky move in my opinion, but one that worked out beautifully. Most of the time you hear wind of the desert of a train in the distance. Dogs and children are constantly heard. Its music that makes the movie but also the little things.
Javier Bardem scared me. There I said it and I don't regret it. He is straight up evil in this movie. He is evil but he also has a code of ethics or morals. He is the antagonist, the killer, the bad guy, but he is "fair". There are a few scenes where he confronts people. Sometimes he kills them and sometimes he does not. The idea of the coin flip and the person gets to make the call and if he/she is right, they get to live. That idea is terrifying and you can see it on the face of a gas station owner. I was on the edge of my seat as he was on the edge of his life.
Josh Brolin does a great job in this movie but I hated Llewelyn. First of all I can't spell or say his name and I know that's not a good reason not to like somebody, but hey, it's my opinion. Llewelyn is supposed to be the protagonist but the actions he takes and how he acts I didn't really care if he lived or died. Not because his character was boring or unimportant, but because I knew I was supposed to cheer him on but he was a scumbag. His greed got to him as he became a nutcase with the money. He mistreated his wife, in my opinion, and just wasn't that great a guy to begin with. I hated his character but I loved the role he played in the movie. His end result in the movie wasn't disappointing, meaning I was happy with it, but I would have liked to see a little bit more out of it. There was a scene I needed to see with him in it, but it wasn't there.
Tommy Lee Jones is one of those actors who rarely flops and this is not one of them. Ed Tom is the cop trailing behind the two madmen fighting over the money. He has to put the pieces together. His role isn't too major and he kind of pops in and out of the movie, but he is magnificent. I lived his character; he was the real only pure character. This movie needed a guy like Ed Tom. He brought wit and charm to the character and as dark and exciting this movie was, it was also funny.
There is a scene I need to talk about. Llewelyn is at the Mexico border, covered in blood, and he runs into three guys. He tells the guy he will give him $500 for his shirt. The guy asks to see the money first. The other guy asks if he had been in a car accident, twice. Llewelyn gives him the money and then asks the other guy for his beer. The third guy asks how much for the beer. Now earlier I said how the three characters are connected. I mentioned this scene in particular; I'll let you figure out the rest. Think about it. It is the pure brilliance in this movie.
If I want to talk a flaw in this movie I would say its Woody Harrelson's character. I don't understand why he was there, I didn't find him important and he was a petty minor character. I probably didn't understand his importance because I couldn't understand a word he said. When I watch any movie I throw on subtitles but I watched this for a film class and there were no subtitles. The Texan accent annoyed me to pieces and parts of the movie were hard to understand. I give a pass to Tommy Lee Jones because he is like that and every movie.
Overall, No Country for Old Men is an amazing movie. If you are a fan of movies and like a high detailed story than this is for you. If you like good acting and relatable characters than this is for you. If you like wild goose chases tan this is the movie for you. If you like Oscar worthy movies than this is for you. If you like movies that get the WillyT Seal of Approval, than this is the movie for you.