NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

The Oscar awarded as Best Picture in 2008 went to the gritty crime thriller No Country for Old Men.  

From beginning to end this is definitely a Coen Brothers (the directors) crime gone wrong drama with lots and lots of bloodshed and murder. And as rampant as this carnage is, you can’t take your eyes off the screen.

The story is an extremely intense one. Texas local Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad in the Texas desert. Amid a bevy of dead bodies, he discovers a suitcase with two million dollars in it. He decides to take the money for himself, and then spends the rest of the movie trying to outrun a psychopathic assassin named Anton Shigurh (Javier Bardem). Both actors turn in incredible performances. Bardem’s Shigurh is as mesmerizing as he is evil. He speaks very little, and when he does, you can’t help but hang on to every word. He is an intense crazy that you won’t soon forget.

As Shigurh increases his body count during his hunt for Moss and the cash, local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to discover what in the heck is going on in his west Texas town, and what his future in this violent world is going to be. The film is a magnificent look into lost innocence. It is as sinister as it is dreary and it’s certainly not a movie for everyone, but I found myself spellbound and thinking about it for days after viewing.