“No Country for Old Men”

Movie Review

Based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The movie, which stars Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones, takes place in the 1980s and is set in the West Texas desert. Three primary protagonists are followed throughout the movie: Ed Tom Bell, portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, a local sheriff who is looking into the crime, Anton Chigurth, played by Javier Bardem, a hitman entrusted with collecting the money, and Vietnam War veteran and welder Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin. In addition, the movie features Woody Harrelson as a bounty hunter looking for Moss and the $2 million, and Kelly Macdonald as Moss's wife Carla Jean.

The movie was a box office hit, and critics praised the Coen brothers' direction, screenplay, and Javier Bardem's performance. It received 109 nominations from various organizations and ended up winning 76 awards, including four Oscars at the 80th Academy Awards, three British Film Awards, and two Golden Globes. It was chosen as an AFI Movie of the Year by the American Film Institute, and the National Board of Reviews named it the greatest film of 2007.

No Country for Old Men was the movie that appeared on more critics' top ten lists in 2007 and is widely regarded as the Coen brothers' finest work. It was acknowledged by a number of outlets as one of the top movies of the 2000s and the 21st century as of December 2021. Few living directors can equal the Coens' technical prowess and passion for a landscape-based Western classicism, according to John Patterson of The Guardian. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it "a fresh career zenith for the Coen brothers" and "as entertaining as hell."

The 1980s Texas setting of the movie features three intertwining plotlines with the hitman Anton Chigurh, the sheriff Ed Tom Bell, and the hunter Llewelyn Moss. It begins with a soliloquy by Bell lamenting the passing of time and how violence has increased compared to his father's era. Chigurh, who was just detained in a tiny town, enters the picture. While being held, he chokes a deputy sheriff, kills a stranger on the highway with an air-powered captive bolt pistol, and then drives away in his automobile. A gas station owner who correctly predicts the outcome of Chigurh's coin flip is spared from death by him.

As Llewelyn Moss goes pronghorn hunting in the desert, he stumbles upon the remains of a botched drug transaction. He discovers a number of dead people and animals, a Mexican man who is hurt and is pleading for water, drugs inside the car, and two million dollars in a briefcase. He accepts the cash and goes back home. Moss returns with water out of guilt only to see the man dead. He is pursued by two men in a vehicle, but manages to flee into a river. He sends his wife, Carla Jean, to her mother's house after returning home, then takes a taxi to a motel in Del Rio where he conceals the briefcase in the air duct of his room. Bell and his deputy Wendell are currently looking into how Chigurh killed the motorist and the deputy by strangling them both.

When Bell and Wendell reach at the scene of the drug deal from which Moss stole the money, they discover Moss's truck and the burned-out vehicle belonging to the driver Chigurh had slain. When Chigurh, the man hired to retrieve the money, gets to Moss' house to search it, he uses his bolt-action pistol to blow the lock off the door. Shortly after Chigurh has left, Bell and Wendell arrive at Moss's house and observe the blown-out lock. Chigurh enters Moss' motel room after finding a tracking device in the money and murders a gang of Mexicans who were planning to attack Moss. In order to gain access to the duct where the money is concealed, Moss has rented a second room next to the Mexicans' space. Before Chigurh opens the duct, he gets the briefcase back.

Moss finds the tracking device after checking into a hotel in Eagle Pass, Texas, but Chigurh has already located him. A bystander is killed and both of them are injured when their firefight spills out onto the streets. By crossing into Mexico, Moss escapes while hiding the money case beside the Rio Grande. A passing norteno band finds Moss badly hurt and transports him to the hospital. Another recruited operator, Carson Wells, is unable to convince Moss to accept protection in exchange for the money. In order to gain access to the duct where the money is concealed, Moss has rented a second room next to the Mexicans' space. Before Chigurh opens the duct, he gets the briefcase back.

Chigurh creeps up on Wells at his hotel and cleans and mends his own wounds using stolen supplies. Chigurh murders Wells after an unsuccessful attempt to barter for his life. Moss calls the room in an attempt to negotiate with Wells, but Chigurh answers and threatens to kill Carla Jean if Moss doesn't hand up the money.

In order to give Carla Jean the money and protect her from harm, Moss retrieves the case from the River Grande and makes plans to meet her in a motel in El Paso. Sheriff Bell approaches Carla Jean and assures her that he will look out for Moss. Unknowingly providing Moss' whereabouts to a group of Mexicans after them is Carla Jean's mother. Bell hears gunshots as she approaches the motel meeting place in El Paso and sees a pickup truck driving away from the motel. Bell discovers Moss dead in his hotel room and informs a distraught Carla Jean.

Bell visits the crime scene again that evening and notices the lock has been destroyed. When Bell cautiously enters the room, he discovers it empty and the vent cover removed, despite the fact that Chigurh looks to be hiding behind the door. Later, Bell tells his former law enforcement uncle Ellis that he plans to retire since the increasing violence has left him feeling "overmatched." Bell is told the tale of a lawman who was murdered on his own porch by Ellis, who also claims that the area has a violent history.

Carla Jean arrives from the burial of her mother a few weeks later to discover Chigurh waiting in her bedroom. She declines his offer to flip a coin for her life, saying that he cannot put the decision on chance. As Chigurh leaves the house, he inspects his boots. He suffers injuries in an automobile accident that occurs at an intersection as he travels through the neighborhood. He buys the silence of two young witnesses and then runs away.

Bell, who is now retired, talks to his wife about two aspirations. He initially lost some cash that his father had given him. On the other hand, he was riding with his father across a cold mountain pass while his father had gone ahead to build a fire and wait for Bell.

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