DVD Monthly

No Country For Old Men

Reviewer: Lee Griffiths
Issue 103 May 2008
(4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10)
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“It starts when you begin to overlook bad manners.”

The Lowdown: There’s trouble in Texas when a hunter, Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), stumbles across the aftermath of a botched drug deal and foolishly decides to make off with a bag full of leftover cash. Soon enough, Moss finds himself being pursued by lunatic assassin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), while the local sheriff follows the trail of dead bodies left in Anton’s bloody path.

Review: Many die-hard Coen aficionados will be quick to tell you that the Minnesota born siblings have yet to make a genuinely bad film, and they’d be wrong. It’s tough being at the top, and for such esteemed directors to enter uninspired remake territory with The Ladykillers and embark on underwhelming screwball yarns like Intolerable Cruelty, well, it’s unforgivable, isn’t it? It’s hard to stay mad at the Coens for long considering their (mostly) astonishing back-catalogue, and with the arrival of the Oscar juggernaut, No Country For Old Men, everything is pretty much forgiven.

Slow, stunning, violent, terrifying and profound, No Country For Old Men certainly sees the Coens back on form. With pitch perfect performances throughout, from a quiet and compelling Josh Brolin and his oblivious spouse, played by Kelly Macdonald, to a restrained turn from Tommy Lee Jones and a brief but brilliant sting from Woody Harrelson, the film is a veritable feast of fine acting. Javier Bardem, meanwhile, is a revelation. Complete with unsettling bowl-cut and coin-toss philosophy (one particular transaction with a trembling shopkeeper provides the film with one of its many inspired scenes), the actor remains the film’s trump card and provides one of the most unsettling bogeymen we’ve seen in a long time.

So how does No Country rate on the Coen grand scale? Well, despite the hype, the awards and the rave theatrical reviews, the film doesn’t boast the same enthralling consistency as, say, Fargo. While their 1996 homespun skewed thriller remains a funny, handsome and hugely enjoyable film from start to finish, No Country does seem to lapse ever so slightly toward the end, delivering what feels like a dawdling coda to a tale that should have perhaps ended with a bang. However, in terms of the thrills, No Country is up there with Blood Simple, equalling the Coens’ explosive debut with heart-stopping sequences and high-tension drama. Bringing to mind the climactic moments from Blood Simple, No Country’s knack for edge-of-the-seat direction is faultless, with one particular sequence involving Bardem’s pursuit of Brolin being an exceptionally well-executed piece of action and more than enough to re-ignite the faith of anyone who was starting to think the Coens were in fact beginning to loose their touch.

For a film of its stature, the DVD package seems rather feeble in terms of the special features. The 25-minute ‘The Making Of No Country For Old Men’ featurette doesn’t even begin to do the production justice and doesn’t really delve into the minds of the Coens or indeed the work of Cormac McCarthy. The two additional features profile the directors and discuss the characters from the film, but again, there’s barely enough time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Perhaps now that No Country has finished off its award-winning roll with some big wins at the Oscars, the UK release will see the film getting the two-disc set it truly deserves.

Part western, part revenge thriller and part mythical-like lament on old America, No Country For Old Men is for the most part a masterpiece in every sense, merging genuine thrills with a poetic beauty that certainly places the film high in the Coen rankings.

FILM: 8 EXTRAS: 5

DVD Info:
US Certificate: R
Starring: Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones
Directed By: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 2007
Distributor: Miramax
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 122 mins
Price: £17.99

Special Features:
‘Working With The Coens’ Featurette
‘The Making Of No Country For Old Men’ Featurette
‘Diary Of A Country Sheriff’ Featurette
Scene Selection