Classy, Visual and Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 2008)

This film is the kind of movie I want to win the Best Picture Oscar. It carries great acting, strong visuals, great script, excitement and above all a series of themes. I believe 2007 was a very strong year for film and this movie is the best of the lot.
Firstly the acting in this movie is spot on. Brolin, Bardem and Jones with truly phenomenal performances. Bardem is the epitome of the psychopathic killer and completely sells it. Right from the start he is great. The first kill and then the second he just has such a menace about him. Brolin also shines here. But Tommy Lee Jones is just a wee bit better than Brolin. They achieve this brilliance through under-acting. In some films over acting is required but in this they brilliantly chose to go for the under statement.
The way the film is shot captures the isolation and emptiness of the landscape but also come across as aesthetically pleasing. Shot length isn't rushed and that is important to the suspense and action aspects of the film. Overall this film had a hell of a lot more visual presence than all the films of 2007. By Presence I mean that the shots look like they could be still photos or they convey a lot of information about the characters or the world in which the film is set.
This film's script is one of true class. Each character has been thoroughly written to perfection. All, even minor characters, have their personalities conveyed through the dialogue and plot, the acting as well but this is a pretty good script. The script got me the first time with the charm that Sheriff Bell has. His lines like, "true story? I couldn't swear to every detail but it is true that it's a story" add a sense of comfort that a grandparent would give. Even if it is a disheartening confession. As it is this is a colossal script.
It's the slow yet gripping pace set by the rest of the film which give the action scenes such force. By themselves they are brilliantly captured on film and epitomised by the suspenseful yet not climactic showdown between Moss and Chigurh. The brilliance of it is down to Chigurh taking away Moss' hope of ambush then Moss taking away Chigurh's hope for execution yet it ends in stalemate. In a formulaic movie this would have been followed by an end showdown bu the Coens brilliantly chose not to let the audience see Moss' demise.
This movie has several themes. The strongest being the nature of violence. This is shown through Chigurh's persona and Bells' contemplations. Chigurh commits violent acts for no reason and doesn't understand that he could just leave the situation alone. Bell acknowledges this fact and tries to understand why someone could be like this. In the end he finds there is no reason, its just the way the world is. The second idea comes in at the end when Bell discusses his second dream. He tells of how he and his father rode into a canyon and his father covered his face with his hood with no conversation between the two. On this I have read many different views, none of which are wrong. It's very open ended. But I tied it back to the beginning and how he talks about how he thought his father was proud that he was a sheriff at the same time as Bell. Yet in the dream there is no warmth between them, this could mean that Bells' father is not proud of him or that Bell has been a better man than his father. But Bell has always compared himself to the "old timers" who died or were crippled before retirement and it could be that he feels that he is now an outcast.
Anyway you look at it this film is very entertaining and provides food for thought. A MUST SEE!