No Country for Old Men

Oh, the critics. Oh how they love to tell the public which movies are the best. And sometimes, they're right. But man do I wish they were wrong.

Yes, No Country for Old Men is arguably one of, if not the, best movie of 2007. Unfortunately, the public has to wait until the wee early months of the following year to see these cinematic cornerstones.

Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen of Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Blood Simple (trust me, you've seen one of their films), adapt this novel turned grab-the-arms-of-your-chair thriller. And really, it thrills. And shakes, and makes you jump in your seat. Trust me. As someone who never budges during a scary movie, this one made me pop back more than once.



The story centers around three men. Llewelyn, a fierce Josh Brolin (where's he been?), stumbles upon the ruins of a drug deal gone slaughterhouse while out hunting. And in Coen brothers fashion, what does he find? Money. A couple of million to be exact. And in the bed of the truck? The heroin that started it all. Javier Bardem plays the lunatic-psycho sent to hunt Llewelyn down and get the money back. His drive is of madness with no mercy. Just the look in his eyes sends fear down your spine. Tommy Lee Jones plays Sheriff Bell, an aging police man who is becoming increasingly disenfranchised with the changing pace and values of 1980's culture. He investigates the crime.



The movie is a cat and mouse game between Brolin and Bardem's characters as Jones' sheriff is a step behind but with his experience, he knows how the game will end.

The film talks of the changes in society. Why place high priority on things that could potentially be deadly to us and what are our motivations behind them?



The conversation that closes the movie, a dialogue between Jones' Bell and Barry Corbin's Ellis, is probably the most prophetic. The two discuss the demise of our society and the old man's ambition to return to a less complicated time. But Ellis reminds Bell, and the audience, that such a digression would be selfish.

Hmm...perhaps there is no place for the old because the current generation leaves them behind? ***A***