The Coen Brothers
The 45th New York Film Festival Presents No Country For Old Men
Although they are usually considered to be among America’s finest filmmakers, some would say the Coen Brothers have hit a rough patch over the past few years. They obviously still had the cinematic brains to piece together interesting films, but they were turning a new page in their oeuvre for the 21st century. The branching out into more “Hollywood” type work is nothing to scoff at, but some say their last couple films missed the luster and magic of their earlier work. It seemed there was a slight move into sight gags and less sophisticated dark humor, which is one of the defining elements from the very start of their career with the terrific “Blood Simple.”
Enter this years New York Film Festival and the selection of the new Coen Brothers film as the Festival Centerpiece. Coming off of great reports at the Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals, No Country For Old Men was one of the most anticipated films of the festival and fall movie season. I entered the screening with ridiculously high expectations, having seen all of the Coens work (and enjoying most of it), and hearing the glowing reviews from my favorite critics; also the film is based on a book by one of my favorite novelists, Cormac McCarthy. All of my expectations were surpassed. No Country For Old Men is one of their most mature works and is executed to perfection on nearly every level.
No Country For Old Men showcases the ability of mature directors and actors to blend all of the distinct separate elements of a film into a cohesive and powerful unit. The Coens deviate little in their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel and the choice to follow the text pays great dividends. Considered by many as one of our greatest living writers, Cormac McCarthy writes about extreme characters with radical points of view in order to illustrate to the audience, who is constantly living in a middle ground gray area, the destructive power that the extremes hold. Though his view of humanity is downright depressing, the Coens, along with their actors, create subtle nuances in each camera movement and line of dialogue to establish a sly level of humor that helps the audience survive in between horrific spurts of nihilistic violence.
Javier Bardem is utterly frightening and unforgettable as the villain Chigurh, who kills with logic yet no moral conscience--he spares or takes away life at the flip of a quarter. Bardem, too, finds strange moments for humor (as if his hair cut did't do this anyway) which make Chigurh even more despicable. Chigurh is more concerned with keeping his boots clean rather than disposing of dead bodies; he knows he is indestructible. Just as McCarthy’s character Judge Holden serves as a semblance of pure evil in his masterpiece Blood Meridian, Chigurh does the same here. The imagination can run wild in reading Cormac McCarthy’s prose, but seeing the character visualized is chilling.
Enter this years New York Film Festival and the selection of the new Coen Brothers film as the Festival Centerpiece. Coming off of great reports at the Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals, No Country For Old Men was one of the most anticipated films of the festival and fall movie season. I entered the screening with ridiculously high expectations, having seen all of the Coens work (and enjoying most of it), and hearing the glowing reviews from my favorite critics; also the film is based on a book by one of my favorite novelists, Cormac McCarthy. All of my expectations were surpassed. No Country For Old Men is one of their most mature works and is executed to perfection on nearly every level.
No Country For Old Men showcases the ability of mature directors and actors to blend all of the distinct separate elements of a film into a cohesive and powerful unit. The Coens deviate little in their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel and the choice to follow the text pays great dividends. Considered by many as one of our greatest living writers, Cormac McCarthy writes about extreme characters with radical points of view in order to illustrate to the audience, who is constantly living in a middle ground gray area, the destructive power that the extremes hold. Though his view of humanity is downright depressing, the Coens, along with their actors, create subtle nuances in each camera movement and line of dialogue to establish a sly level of humor that helps the audience survive in between horrific spurts of nihilistic violence.
Javier Bardem is utterly frightening and unforgettable as the villain Chigurh, who kills with logic yet no moral conscience--he spares or takes away life at the flip of a quarter. Bardem, too, finds strange moments for humor (as if his hair cut did't do this anyway) which make Chigurh even more despicable. Chigurh is more concerned with keeping his boots clean rather than disposing of dead bodies; he knows he is indestructible. Just as McCarthy’s character Judge Holden serves as a semblance of pure evil in his masterpiece Blood Meridian, Chigurh does the same here. The imagination can run wild in reading Cormac McCarthy’s prose, but seeing the character visualized is chilling.
While Chigurh serves the purpose of evil in its purest form, Llewlyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin, is an ordinary guy thrust into this situation. By all accounts, Moss is a good man who wants to protect his family. In his discovery of a briefcase full of drug money, Moss serves on the other extreme of the story as pure good. He faces many moral dilemmas on his journey, but first and foremost comes protection of his family and the people who he loves.
The fate of the audience and the common man is displayed by old time local sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played brilliantly by Tommy Lee Jones. It is Ed Tom who realizes the position that Moss is in, yet moves forward as though he has seen this all before. He does his best to protect Moss and his family, but knows that Moss is in way over his head, no matter the efforts of the police or the world as a whole. Ed Tom lives in the real world, apart from the radical sides of good and evil, but even in these gray areas evil has becomes the dominating force. Ed Tom and Moss are both looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is only Ed Tom who tells us that we are all outmatched in the modern world of random acts of despicable violence.
The fate of the audience and the common man is displayed by old time local sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played brilliantly by Tommy Lee Jones. It is Ed Tom who realizes the position that Moss is in, yet moves forward as though he has seen this all before. He does his best to protect Moss and his family, but knows that Moss is in way over his head, no matter the efforts of the police or the world as a whole. Ed Tom lives in the real world, apart from the radical sides of good and evil, but even in these gray areas evil has becomes the dominating force. Ed Tom and Moss are both looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is only Ed Tom who tells us that we are all outmatched in the modern world of random acts of despicable violence.
Beyond the pure, pitch perfect storytelling is the equally mastered sense of visual style and cinematography. The superb cinematography from the incomparable Roger Deakins works not only to complement the story being told, but creates another elusive element to the world of our characters. The vastly still landscape holds the essence of the quiet and calm world that can in an instant turn into extreme violence. However, everything is executed so well that none of the elements call attention to themselves. Deakins doesn’t need to be flashy for us to recognize artistry and to notice the wonderful conjunction of every element throughout the film. Just as the Coens shift the tone of the story, the landscape and mood of the camera shifts as well--not just complementing the execution of the story, but becoming a beautiful component in the telling of the story.
Each move made by the cast and crew of No Country For Old Men was taken to serve the world that the Coen Brothers and Cormac McCarthy were striving to create. All the moves are so seemless that the perfection of the film is hard to notice while watching, but undeniable when you think about the film after the fact. No Country For Old Men is a return of sorts for the Coen Brothers to an earlier style and feel of some of their best films. However, it may also be a definitive move for the team into more sophisticated, smart, and haunting films. It will be interesting to see where the Coens go from here as following up “No Country For Old Men” will be a difficult task to say the least. If they are anything like this, however, there is a lot more to look forward to from these preeminent American filmmakers.
by James Hansen
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