One of the best American movies of the past decade, The Coen Bros 2007 Best Picture Winner NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN packs an amazing punch.
Excellent Tommy Lee Jones stars as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, an aging, quietly philosophical small town sheriff that doesn't like the way his state, the country and the world is headed.
Bell's dialogue is so well written by the Coens (based on Cormac McCarthy's novel) that there isn't a wasted word spoken.
Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss, a Texas hunter who stumbles onto a drug deal gone bad in the desert and finds himself in possession of $2 million dollars that a lot of very bad men would like back.
Javier Bardem is brilliant as killing machine Anton Chigurh, a murdering psychopath for hire that operates under his own moral code and convictions.
The film is tense, smart and exciting as these three men are propelled toward each other in a very quiet, rural setting that seems primed to explode at any moment.
The brilliance of the Cohen Bros as filmmakers is to cast small roles with great actors, including Woody Harrelson as bounty hunter Carson Wells and Kelly Macdonald as Moss's innocent wife.
They also reinvent the story by telling it in less than linear fashion, jumping forward in time to a critical moment in the story, leaving the viewer to fill in the gaps in the timeline.
It is sometimes jarring as key action scenes happen without the usual set up.
The Coens balance this with long, quiet scenes like the opening Jones monologue against desert landscapes and Brolin's positioning of the money in the hotel room that lull you into casual viewing mode just before exploding at you with violence and mayhem.
Bardem, Jones, Brolin and Harrelson are all in top form throughout, with Bardem especially powerful as a madman with a very clear agenda in his twisted mind.
Clever, resourceful and effective, this is one of film's greatest villains and Bardem deserved his Oscar for the role and for sporting that haircut!
With very little music, powerful sound effects and an excellent script, NO COUNTRY is a great American film and gets an A+.
Just sit back and savor the dialogue, it doesn't get any better than this and lands
comfortably in my all-time Top 100 films.
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