DVD Pick: No Country For Old Men

Posted on March 24, 2008

The Coen Brothers swept the Oscars, winning Best Picture and Best Director for their post-modern noir Western, No Country for Old Men. The Coens also won Best Adapted Screenplay. The Best Supporting Actor trophy for Javier Bardem for his chilling turn as as the sociopathic serial killer Anton Chigurh.

Based on the bestselling novel by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men shares the nihilistic worldview of many of McCarthy's books. McCarthy's is a bleak landscape, in which subtle truths and shards of hope can sometimes be found. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a suitcase containing $2 million dollars at the scene of a failed drug deal that ended in a bloodbath he should have walked away. He doesn't, of course: he takes the money. On his trail is the utterly ruthless and evil killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who has been hired to get the money back. Chigurh dispatches anyone who gets in his way, leaving a trail of bodies behind him. Small-town sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is determined to stop Chigurh's reign of terror and sets off in pursuit.

It is a violent and yet somehow thoughtful film, which is essentially a character study of the three men. Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant as Sheriff Bell who, although he has seen it all in his career, cannot quite fathom the pure evil that is Chigurh. Javier Bardem is effectively terrifying as the psychopathic Chigurh, and Josh Brolin turns in a surprisingly shaded performance as Moss. The cinematography is stunning, providing the perfect backdrop for a story that is so raw, so tightly-paced that you really can't stop watching -- even though you may want to during some of the intensely violent scenes. Rated R for graphic violence and harsh language, the film is definitely for adults only.

The DVD also includes some great extras, including reflections of the cast and crew, a "making of" feature and "Diary of a Country Sheriff", which explores the relationship between the compassion of Sheriff Bell and the brutality of Anton Chigurh.