No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is the Coen Brother's best film since The Big Lebowski (1998) and Fargo (1996). The story is an adaptation of a book by the same name by Cormac McCarthy. A drug deal has gone wrong near the U.S.-Mexico border in 1980. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a welder that stumbles upon the abandoned drug deal shoot out, and decides to take a large sum of cash ($2 million). But taking the money causes some people to hunt his trail, particularly Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). Moss occupies most of the story-line, but is not your typical American movie-hero. Instead, he is a Tragic hero, as he's likeable and not particularly evil, but he's greedy when he starts to protect his found money. Anton is a cold hard killer and at times uses coin-flips to decide whether to spare people's lives (unless of course you really inconvenience him). Chigurh is described at times as "just a psychopath" and the "ultimate bad-ass." He carries around a cattle gun, which normally shoots a rod at an animal's head to make it "lose consciousness"; but Chigurh uses it to break open locks and shoot people in the head. Bardem is a heavy-weight actor, staring in such films as The Sea Inside, where he plays a quadriplegic who fought for 28 years for euthanasia and the right to end his own life. Tommy Lee Jones' character (Sheriff Ed Tom Bell) was great, and anchored the movie morally. He also provided scenes that were subtly humourous, that evolved organically. The movie had no soundtrack, and was as minimalistic as the barren Texas landscapes that it featured. (spoilers) In the end, the movie is a tragedy. Chigurh is a completely unstoppable evil force, and ruthless too, as he kills the wife just for the sake of killing. Sheriff Bell's remarks cast a hopeless attitude on a modern cultural landscape that features violence and dishonesty. (spoilers end)

There is one more Western movie coming out at the end of the year that I want to see called There Will Be Blood, by P.T. Anderson. The genre is seemingly making a mini-resurgence, as all of the 2007 Westerns have been very good. Even though this movie is more a modern Western than a classic one, it exceeded 3:10 to Yuma and Jesse James in quality. In sum, the Coen Brother's are masters of their craft and exceed conventions on so many levels, that this movie is a must-see for movie-lovers.