So much more than a mere genre pic, the Coen Brother's No Country For Old Men is a masterpiece buoyed by sparse dialog, restrained performances, stark imagery and endless volumes of subtext.Without a doubt this is the Coen's most mature and accomplished film to date, an impressive feat considering how many great films are already behind them. What makes NCFOM so rewarding is the Coen's willingness to paint outside the lines, to throw convention on its ear and to remind audiences that the greatest movies always leave you with more questions than answers.
After watching this film six times, I'm as captivated by it now as I was during the first viewing. Because NCFOM is so dense and so subtle, seeing it again has allowed me to pick up all the little pieces, confirming how tightly constructed, thought out and perfectly executed this film is. One particular scene, Llewelyn Moss' (Josh Brolin) death scene, caused a debate between a friend and myself. He felt cheated, arguing the Coen's had mistakenly left the footage of the actual killing on the cutting room floor. There was no doubt in my mind they never shot the scene for if they had it would have betrayed one of the principal themes woven into the story. I haven't read Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, but I know his work well enough to safely assume this ending fits into his fixation with unrelenting realism. In other words, in real life you don't always get the money shot since you never know when its going to come (no pun intended).
In defense of my argument I cited the scene previous to Sheriff Bell's (Tommy Lee Jones) discovery of the freshly killed Moss. In this scene Moss' impending doom is foreshadowed when the girl at the pool asks him what he keeps looking out the window for. He answers "lookin' for what's coming" and she shoots back "but no one ever sees that."
The entire film is peppered with references to fate/destiny and the road that leads you there. Most telling is Anton Chigurh, brilliantly brought to life by Javier Bardem, who is obsessed with fate. When pitted against Moss' wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), Chigurh's frustration is stapled to his face when she refuses to let his coin decide if she should live or die. The very next scene, a surprise car crash that bludgeons Chigurh, is yet another reference to the universe blindsiding you at any moment's notice.
Prior to Carla Jean's meeting with the Grim Reaper, Sheriff Bell tells her the bogus story about the guy who gets messed up by the dead steer: "even in the contest between man and steer...the issue's not certain." He then tells her about how air guns are now used to kill steer and they no longer know what hits 'em. The epilogue proves to be the final brush stroke, using Bell's dream to articulate the one and only absolute: that, one day, we'll all be dead.
For once the Academy awarded the best film and best directing Oscars to the film and filmmakers most deserving. Time will tell, but I'm confident future generations will not debate this choice...in fact, I'm sure NCFOM will go down in history as one of the best films ever made. Now that it's on DVD, I look forward to many more viewings in the weeks, months and years to come.
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