No Country For Old Men (2007) * * * *

Directed by:  Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Starring:  Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly MacDonald, Barry Corbin, Gene Jones, Woody Harrelson, Stephen Root

No Country For Old Men sets itself up as a traditional good guy vs. bad guy showdown over $2 million in drug money found by a Vietnam vet named Llewelyn Moss (Brolin).     Moss is hunting one day, circa 1980, and stumbles across a grisly crime scene in the middle of the Texas desert.    He sees dead bodies, running trucks, and $2 million in a small briefcase.    He takes the money and leaves the rest to the vultures.     Little does he know the $2 million is wanted by not only Mexican drug lords, but a relentless hitman named Anton Chigurh (Bardem).    

Anton is unlike any movie villain I've ever seen.  He is scary, but in a quiet, menacing way.   He never raises his voice or runs after people.  He kills people based on the results of a coin flip which somehow plays into his demented sense of fair play.   His weapon of choice is a cattle stun gun which shoots a cylinder into someone's head and retracts.  Is he demented?   Or just a ruthless, relentless stalker who won't quit until the job is done?  Maybe a little of both.   See how he verbally toys with his would-be victims (or even those who aren't).   He speaks to them in a way that is not over-the-top threatening, but boy do you feel it.   His job is to recover the money for a Texas millionaire (Root) who used the $2 million to transact a large drug purchase.  He also makes it his mission to kill Moss and even Moss' wife (MacDonald), who is in the dark about how her husband is suddenly $2 million richer.   She just knows she has to stay with her mother in El Paso right now.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Jones) investigates the scene and in his own calm, reassuring way recreates the incident the way Marge Gunderson did in Fargo.  "Is this a mess?" his deputy asks.    Bell replies, "No, but it will do until the mess gets here."  Bell is not prepared for what is in store. He is soon to retire and will come across people who are more fearless and ruthless than anyone he has encountered previously.  As No Country opens, Bell narrates a story about an unrepentant convicted murderer who is on the way to the electric chair.  This is his first hint that criminals operate on a different level now.   He is used to criminals behaving with a sort of code of ethics.  He believes that there are boundaries even criminals don't cross.  He is wrong and soon sees he is out of his depth.

No Country For Old Men is not really even about the events depicted anyway.    It is about a changing time for lawmen and criminals alike.     They used to play by an unwritten set of rules.    No more.    Chigurh represents the new world order, if you will, as do the Mexicans.    Bounty hunter Carson Wells (Harrelson), who is dispatched also by the businessman to track the money, knows Chigurh and insists "he has principles."    He does, although they are not principles based on anything civil or decent.    

You think you know how No Country will unfold.    As the movie progresses, you realize that it can not unfold that way.     There is a feeling of doom in the air.     A key scene which establishes Chigurh involves his conversation with a gas station owner in the middle of nowhere.     It starts as meaningless, ambling conversation which takes on a sinister tone after the owner asks Chigurh about where he is from.    

Owner:  Will there be anything else?

Chigurh:   I don't know.   Will there? 

Owner:   Sir, is there something wrong?

Chigurh:   With what?

Owner:  With anything?

Chigurh:  Is that your question?   Is there something wrong with anything?

The tension escalates and yet neither party raises his voice.    Chigurh senses he may have to kill this poor guy, who was only trying to be friendly.    Soon, Chigurh presents a coin dated 1958 and says:

"The date on this coin says 1958.    It has travelled 22 years to get here and now it's here.    And you have to call it heads or tails."

Owner:  I need to know what I stand to win.

Chigurh:  Everything.    You stand to win everything.   Now call it.

The owner becomes painfully aware that Chigurh may kill him.    Chigurh is sadistically leaving the man's fate up to chance.     I won't say what happens, but I'm sure the owner won't start too many idle conversations any time soon.  

This scene establishes Chigurh in a way one hundred explanations could not.    It is exemplary screenwriting.    No Country runs neck and neck with Fargo as the Coen Brothers' best film.     Both are about police officers who fail to understand why criminals act as they do, but solider on because it is what they do.     Javier Bardem won a well-deserved Oscar for his performance.     He creates a true original in the annals of film history and that is not hyperbole.  

No Country For Old Men is a film which surprises and challenges the viewer.     It is to be treasured.