Review

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2017)

The Coen brothers bring the 2005 novel, No Country for Old Men by, Cormac MacCarthy, to life in the most gruesome, homicidal, and brilliant way possible. Although it initially could be classified as a "western", it is also so much more. It is also an adventure, thriller, drama, and a crime film as well. You will enjoy this intense and unpredictable film no matter which movie genre you prefer.
The movie follows a man named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), down on his luck, who stumbles upon the deadly aftermath of a drug deal gone terribly wrong. Among the carnage he finds a briefcase of two million dollars and makes the ill-fated decision to steal the money instead of reporting it to the police. From that first moment on, he is hunted by the crazed psychopath, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who has been hired to get the money back. All the while, the local Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), investigates the crime scene and is soon after both of them trying solve the case.
This movie is a "one-of-a-kind" because it uses scenes of dark humor with minimal dialogue coupled with extreme violence and gore to tell its story. One scene that illustrates this perfectly shows Anton Chigurh holding someone at gun point and contemplating whether to kill them. The scene then cuts to Chigurh checking the soles of his shoes for blood, telling us that the deed had been done. Tommy Lee Jones's character, Sheriff Bell, adds some, much needed, dark humor to the movie without any dialogue at all. In one scene Bell walks into a trailer where people have been murdered and just sits down on the couch and drinks some milk. It is so bizarre and unlike "normal" police behavior that it is funny.
Casting decisions for this film could not have been more spot on. Javier Bardem plays the role of a remorseless psychopath perfectly. From his horrible haircut, to the way his, deep, breathy and monotone voice gives you a sense of doom whenever he comes on the screen. In addition, Josh Brolin does an excellent job playing Llewelyn Moss, a desperate man on the run who you actually start to feel bad for and almost forget that his greed led him to be in this situation.
Overall this is a fantastic film that puts a gruesome twist on classic westerns. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves thrillers with dark humor to break up the serious nature of it. The Coen brothers really hit it out of the park with this film and the four academy awards that it won proves that it will be remembered for a long time as one of the greats.