The desert, the drugs and the duel for the treasure

No Country for Old Men, directed/written by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel

**** out of 4

Out in the middle of nowhere near the Rio Grande, Llewelyn (Lou-ellen) Moss (Josh Brolin) is hunting deer one day when he comes upon a bloody botched drug deal. Moss discovers several dead bodies, a few pickup trucks (one of which contains a stash of heroine) and stone’s throw away from the bloody mess --- a suitcase containing $2 Million. Little does Moss know that the he has just gone from the hunter to hunted as a tracking device is embedded in the bills.

The hunter is the humorless Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a psychotic, merciless serial killer, and the lone survivor of the failed desert drug deal. Chigurh is intelligent, resourceful and seemingly indestructible. He utilizes a pneumatic gun (used for putting cattle to sleep), a device that resembles an oxygen tank with a hose attachment, to calmly kill some of his victims and shoot out the locks on doors. Chigurh revels in pressing his victims with questions in a sort of twisted Socratic style to point out inconsistencies in their thought. Sometimes he decides their fate with a flip of the coin and urges them to call it.

On the side of the law is aging Texas Sheriff Ed Tom Bell played by the always dependable Tommy Lee Jones. Sheriff Bell feels like he is overmatched at this point in his career, yet he is vigilant in trying to track down both Moss and Chigurh. He hopes at least to find Moss for the sake of his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald). Also, entering the equation is former officer (presumably because it’s never revealed) and now day trader Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), one quite familiar with Chigurh and remarks that “he’d kill you just for inconveniencing him.”

The bulk of No Country is a heart-pounding, rhythmic, western-style duel in extended form between Moss and Chigurh. Like some stories from the Wild West, the law has little influence on a fight to the death between two men. Moss is no killer but he is smart and good with his hands in making things to hide the money in a hotel room and stay alive. Chigurh is mostly on the offensive as he holds the tracking device locater, the pneumatic gun and an enormous shot gun equipped with a silencer.

No Country is thrilling from start to finish with an Oscar-caliber screenplay that keenly utilizes regional accents (much like Fargo) and has outstanding pacing. Joel and Ethan Coen (both wrote and directed) effectively create tension leading up to the various violent confrontations and also give the audience a bit of a breather after each round of aggression.

Bardem is Oscar-worthy in portraying the most fearsome and sadistic villain since Anthony Hopkins played Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. Brolin, Macdonald, Jones, Harrelson and company are very good as well. The Coens have possibly the front-runner for the Best Picture Oscar and one that is on par with the superb Fargo (and one of the best films of the decade). There is no reason one should not see No Country.