"No Country for Old Men" is suspenseful, bleak and haunting. Nothing about it is life-affirming, yet one can’t help but be uplifted by the mesmerizing quality of the filmmaking and the masterful performances.
Stripping back Cormac McCarthy’s elegiac western, the Coens have produced one of their finest films. It’s reminiscent of their early neo-noir "Blood Simple" and their much-lauded Oscar-winning "Fargo," yet it has an epic sweep that puts both of these films in the shade. As it cuts between three main protagonists, it builds a mythic, sometimes operatic, picture of America’s dark soul.
The ostensible hero is Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a Vietnam vet who stumbles across the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong while hunting antelope in Texas. Taking a valise stuffed with $2 million, Moss goes on the run. Little does he realize that the suitcase is fitted with a tracking device. Following its signal is hitman Anton Chigurh (Best Supporting Actor winner Javier Bardem) armed with a cattle stun gun and a menacingly calm demeanour. Pursuing them both is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a disillusioned policeman despairing of America’s violent tradition.
Fate is against everyone here; nothing ever turns out as it’s supposed to, nobody ever gets quite what they wanted or deserved. Portents of doom are everywhere.
The down-home Texan-flavored dialogue -- some of it lifted directly from the book -- is comfortingly familiar and serves as a jarring counterpoint to the onslaught of hideous violence.
The story and the way the Coens tell it feel simultaneously age-old and contemporary. Though the Western landscape has been mythologized, the focus is on a new frontier: a no-man’s land where rules don’t apply and the drug trade flourishes. With its sly wit, dark intelligence and tense action sequences this film re-establishes the Coens as two of American cinema’s most talented directors. Oscar-winner for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, it’s also the best adaptation of McCarthy’s work to date and an unmissable crime movie.
An intense, nihilistic thriller as well as a model of implacable storytelling, "No Country for Old Men" is rated R and has a running time of two hours, two minutes.
Images
''No Country for Old Men'' at the Sm...
Date and Time
Friday Mar 28, 2008 Tuesday Apr 1, 2008
March 28th, 29th, 31st & April 1st at 7pm
Location
Smith Opera House82 Seneca StGeneva, NY
Fees/Admission
$5 general admission $3 for students & senior citizens
Website
Contact Information
315-781-LIVE (5483) or toll- free 866-355-LIVE (5483) for
