Terminator + Gunfight at the OK Corral (Contains spoilers)

Rating: 3/10 (28 July 2008)

Ever since 'Billion Dollar Babe' won the Oscar, I too have begun to doubt the Academy's ability to select real winners capable of standing the test of time. Unfortunately, 'No Country for Old Men', is another film that makes me wonder what the selection panel were thinking when they chose this movie for best picture. But it is not all bad by any means.The writing is good, the performances are excellent, (I certainly agree with the praise lavished upon Javier Bardem - the film is worth seeing if only for his almost reptilian portrayal of an extremely menacing and memorable bad guy), and, all in all, this is a stunning example of film making at its best. So what's missing?
The film finishes leaving an impression that the bad guy (Bardem) is more principled than many of the people he has killed. Indeed some are scum and he makes the world a better place by eliminating them. But he also murders a number of totally innocent victims who simply are in the wrong place at the wrong time. One character is killed simply because Bardem's character told the victim's significant other, who he has already killed, that he would do so. While keeping such a promise shows that the man is true to himself, when many other characters are not, the problem is that it's hard to associate any kind of rational morality with a someone who is so obviously a psychopath and who violently murders at least 10 people. It is impossible to empathize with this character.
(I also have a problem with Tommy Lee Jone's character as he contributes so little to bringing Bardem to justice. Josh Brolin and Kelly Macdonald are very good, though.)
We love Hollywood movies to give us happy endings, but instead this movie gives us a healthy dose of reality by reminding us that no one lives happily ever after in the real world. in doing so 'No Country for Old Men' ignores the reason why so many of us go to movies: precisely to find the happy endings that the real world denies us. We want movies that give us hope that the good in people outweighs the bad. We need to go on believing that good does triumph over evil. And that our entire concept of right and wrong is valid. Sadly, 'No Country for Old Men' reinforce the values that define society, it simply reveals the very worst of human nature. Maybe we need to be reminded of that, although real life massacres at US schools are probably more effective in doing this. in the end, this movie doesn't give us hope, it is reduces the audience to the role of voyeur amidst a relentless killing spree.
I think if you analyzed every movie listed on the IMDb database site, you'd find no more than 20 basic story lines. Things like: perseverance under adversity, relationships and romance, redemption, self-discovery, sacrifice, revenge etc. etc. I don't know what genre this Coen Brothers movie is trying to fall into. In fact, I suspect that it is deliberately trying to break the mould. But, Scott Peck, the famous psychologist, once said that every human interaction is an opportunity to learn or to teach. I believe that any good film should teach us something about the human condition as well as entertaining us. By teaching us nothing, the movie leaves a void rather than an imprint.
Ultimately, we want films that reflect unassailable truths about life,but truths that give us hope and a purpose to otherwise meaningless existence. Often it isn't the story itself that is important, but the telling: the way in which events lead us in a surprising way to the conclusion we hope and expect to see. For all these reasons, I'd like to see Bardem's character meet his nemisis.
Despite these deep flaws, it is still a remarkable movie.