"NEBRASKA" . . . the movie.

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2008)

From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska with a sawed off .410 on my lap through the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path..."
'round the age of 14 (1986 or so) I bought a copy from Springsteen's 1982 solo-album for 5,-DM (2,50 uro or approx. 2$) in a second-hand-record-store, listened to it twice and put it away  disappointed for finding no "Born..." party-sound but a dark and scaring side-path of the American Way. I obviously made the same mistake as the shop-owner then, underrating this album (good for me, so I could buy it for toffee). It was only the early '90s when I put it on again to find out that it's the most essential of all Springsteen-albums. Since then it's among my all-time-top-five-records, the only one carved in stone there.
License, registration, I ain't got none, but I got a clear conscience about the things that I done. Mister State Trooper, please don't stop me..."
Years ago a friend gave me a copy of McCarthy's "All The Pretty Horses" which was practically glued to my hands in the following months, making CM one of my all-time-favorite authors. Unfortunately since then I have neither seen the Horses..." screen-adaption, nor read No Country...". I was nevertheless pleased to read this movie to be made by the Coens, some of my main favorite and un-compromising filmmakers. Uncompromising as the novels of McCarthy.
The film is set in 1980 but it even appears as it was shot then; Josh Brolin comes along as a younger Nick Nolte in E.P.". The opening sequence instantly devastates all eventual hopes for a good" en-ding, as Walter Hill preferably did too around that time. Watching Javier Bardem's first appearance with his lunatic eyes and haircut reminded me of Powers Boothe in Southern Comfort". His interpretation of Anton Chigurh to me was the most terrifying psycho-killer-performance since Benoit Poelvoorde in Cést arrivé près de chez vous" (1992)
Only by the second time watching it I realized what the final consequence of his sole-inspection" in the sequence on the porch was. A brief but meaningful gesture, performed so minimalistic that it could easily be overseen, but strikes the viewer the deeper as soon as it's been noticed.
Seeing a man standing over a dead dog lying by the highway in a ditch. He's looking down kinda puzzled poking that dog with a stick..."
The Coens revive the early 80s with a love for the detail and the certain atmosphere which Hill and Tarantino probably envy and enjoy too. I'd therefore say that this film would fit better in a double-feature with "Death Proof" than the clumsily "Planet Terror". "Death Proof" also works with the Tarantino-typical sense for the hilarious, which the Coens cultivate that well and preferably; but "No Country..." is no fun, only bitter. Maybe a little like "Reservoir Dogs" (mind the torture-scene).
All in all there are gorgeous actors, a great script, no annoying score and an adequate because unromantic display about what violence is about  something truly horrible (as soon as it happens to yourself) that simply should not be:
"...People accept the most idiotic and unrealistic use of sex, violence and politics in any other book (...) I don't' take the reader into a world were all the girls are sexy and all the guys are dress-men, were somebody gets bashed with a rod and doesn't even have a headache next day, catches 15 bullets and wipes them away with a grin. Such a world I don't know..." Andrew Vachss,"Flood"-afterword, German edition.
Right. Neither does "No Country..."
I'm glad that the Coens worked once with Tommy Lee Jones now, a perfect match. As the character closest to the viewers point to lead through the plot, Jones was the right choice, his character Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, a valuable alter ego to look through his eyes, an old, experienced but disillusioned officer who tries to outweigh his sense for duty against his hope to reach retirement unharmed. Thank you all, cast and crew.
"Well I chased him through them county roads 'til a sign said Canadian Border 5 miles from here. I pulled over the side of the highway watched his taillights disappear..."