Anton Chigurh walks into a West Texas gas station, flips a coin, and lets the owner live. That is the first thing No Country for Old Men teaches you about him: he is not in a hurry, and he is not merciful. He is methodical. The 2007 film, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, runs 122 minutes through desert, motel rooms and blood, and it never once blinks.
Trailer, via Miramax.
Llewelyn Moss and the Briefcase
Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam veteran and welder hunting pronghorns in the desert. He finds the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong: dead men, a wounded Mexican man begging for water, heroin in a truck, and a briefcase holding $2 million. He takes the money.
He returns that night with water. The man is dead. Two armed men chase him; he escapes by diving into a river. He sends his wife Carla Jean, played by Kelly Macdonald, to her mother’s.
Chigurh is hired to recover the cash. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, starts working the failed deal.
Javier Bardem’s Bolt Pistol
Bardem carries a captive bolt pistol, the kind used to stun cattle, and uses it to blow out door locks and kill. He strangles a sheriff’s deputy to escape custody. He tracks Moss through a device hidden in the briefcase.
The film’s best scenes are the quiet ones. Chigurh sits in a motel room and waits. Bell sits at a table and thinks about what he has seen.
There are no clean getaways.
The cast around them is deep: Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter seeking Moss; Garret Dillahunt as Wendell; Tess Harper as Loretta Bell; Barry Corbin as Ellis. The role of Moss was first offered to Heath Ledger, who turned it down to spend time with his newborn daughter. Brolin got it after making an audition reel during Grindhouse with help from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Bardem nearly dropped out over scheduling; Mark Strong was on standby.
What the Coens Do With Fate
The film revisits fate, conscience and circumstance — ground the Coens worked in Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Fargo. Here the pursuit blurs prey and predator until the distinction stops meaning much.
- Four Academy Awards, including Best Picture
- Three BAFTAs
- Two Golden Globes
- AFI Movie of the Year
- National Board of Review best of 2007
It grossed $171 million worldwide against a $25 million budget, and it premiered in competition at Cannes on May 19, 2007.
The awards matter less than the patience. No Country for Old Men refuses the clean ending, and that refusal is the point. The film leaves its violence unresolved, and that is what makes it hold up. It never explains itself.
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