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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
Salesrank: 1263
Released: March 11, 2008 |
| Our Price: $4.99 |
| Used Price: $2.23 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
UPC:786936746754
DESCRIPTION: Acclaimed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen deliver their most gripping and ambitious film yet in this sizzling and supercharged action-thriller. When a man stumbles on a bloody crime scene, a pickup truck loaded with heroin, and two million dollars in irresistible cash, his decision to take the money sets off an unstoppable chain reaction of violence. Not even west Texas law can contain it. Based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, and featuring an acclaimed cast led by Tommy Lee Jones, this gritty game of cat and mouse will take you to the edge of your seat and beyond right up to its heart-stopping final act.
Description of No Country for Old Men:
The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Not that there aren't moments of intense violence, but No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with $2 million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he's going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he's being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh's weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way--or loses a coin toss (as far as he's concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II vet, is on Moss's trail, Chigurh's former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful--except Moss has a conscience, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, "a prophet of destruction"). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Old Men doesn't move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
No Country for Old Men Reviews:
An instant classic modern Western 
2009-11-09 - This top-notch action thriller's greatest strength is the pulse-pounding scenes where a psychopathic killer named Chigurh (impressively portrayed by a chillingly calm Javier Bardem) forces ordinary people to look death in the face. There's plenty of violence, but lots of suspense as well, and some subtle intrigue as well as a not-so-subtle moral message.
The plot revolves around Nam-Vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who finds a suitcase full of money at the site of a drug deal gone bad, and decides to risk taking it. Chigurh (a nasty little bug with a very troublesome bite) is trying to find him (and the money) and doesn't care who gets in his way. Meanwhile, a Texas lawman (Tommy Lee Jones) is trying to track down the source of all the bodies that are turning up. The story rambles here and there, and the directors seem uncertain where to finish the story, so the final minutes are totally unexpected and almost inexplicable, but this is clearly an instant classic of the modern West.
Much of the film is a series of chase sequences wherein the ingenious Moss tries to stay one step ahead of the relentless Chigurh, whose calm detachment makes him seem almost inhuman. Instead of a gun, Chigurh employs a device used to slaughter cattle - an indication of his true mindset. In an exchange with Moss' wife near the end of the film, he reveals an attachment to his own ideals which could almost be considered admirable. Unfortunately, his single-minded pursuit of those ideals leaves no room for compromise with the rest of the world, whose fate is of no concern to him.
After Moss' trusting mother-in-law unwittingly initiates a bloodbath, the somewhat cryptic ending takes us to Jones and a retired sheriff who discuss how much things have changed since their heyday, making the point that their beloved Texas is no country for old men like themselves. But given the amount of carnage that we're shown in the few minutes prior, it doesn't seem like it's much of a country for young men, either. Until all men start to see each other as human beings and not just cattle, the cycle of violence and despair can only continue.
This is not sublime art NOR even nouveau art 
2009-11-07 - Plenty of great acting .. but the story is a mess .. the way characters are able to travel and find each other without a hint of how in the heck they do .. is ridiculous .. And .. the resolution of each character is so anti-climatic .. (cue intellectuals to knee-jerk in approval .. ) all the character development is betrayed and the plot is left unresolved in gaping dead ends because it seemed like a great artsy idea .. because the film makers are too lazy and too lame to figure out a way for the characters and the story to proceed in any way that makes sense or even in an artistic, symbolic fashion .. I dont watch the Academy Awards any more because their award choices are so WRONG .. So I am not surprised it won Academy Awards because this picture is certainly stupid enough to win Academy Award votes from the current Academy .. This picture does deserve a Brilliant Acting WASTED Award ..
Didn't do it for us.
2009-11-02 - My family and peers believe that a story needs to be in a good movie. This action flick just didn't seem to be driving in that direction. It feels like one of those old 1960s films, a slice of "real" life. Yeah right...
It felt like it wanted to be Thelma & Louise. It wasn't. It seemed like it was running for a little Silence of The Lambs action, it missed. It's too bad the writers didn't take their script through a few more editorial sessions. Just not for us.
Classic! Bleak, gritty, and unforgettable.
2009-10-26 - Undeniably one of the Coen brothers' greatest films. They've usually been at their best when showing off their flair for updating film noir (as they did in "Blood Simple," "Fargo," and "The Man Who Wasn't There") and this time around, they mix in another genre for good measure: the modern western. Once this masterpiece gets rolling, it rarely lets up on suspense as it traces the steps of a man (Josh Brolin) who stumbles into a crime scene before the cops do and walks off with the loot, the hired gun (Javier Bardem) who relentlessly follows the money and lays waste to anyone who gets in his path or inconveniences him along the way, and the broken-down lawman (Tommy Lee Jones) who can't quite keep up with the action anymore and becomes increasingly distressed and disheartened by the escalating evil he finds himself up against. All three actors are in amazing form in their respective roles, especially Bardem (his performance is one for the ages and a richly deserved Oscar winner) and Brolin (an absolute revelation). By cutting out the wink-wink, nudge-nudge cheekiness of many of their efforts, the Coen brothers have established themselves once again as major filmmakers.
A film for the literate... all others please write your 1-star comments and move on with life
2009-10-18 - This movie is first and foremost NOT a Hollywood concoction as many reviewers here would have you believe. Apparently Cormac McCarthy is not required reading in most fields of education. No Country for Old Men is a gut-wrenching book and a stellar film. The adaption by the Coen brothers is nearly as faithful as one can get, leaving out mostly some narration which would not translate to the average modern-day filmgoer such as referring to another lawman as "N..... Jim." Another deviation is the Josh Brolin vs. dog scene which was not in the book. I admit, I preferred it left out. Other than that this is a faithful, almost word-for-word adaptation of a modern day classic in American literature. Is this a violent film? Yes. Is it gratuitous as most of the one-star reviewers would have you believe? No. Violence here is a vehicle. The story is a tale of crime coming head to head with west Texas law. Who wins out? You have to see the movie, read the book, and actually UNDERSTAND the ending to get it. I know there were no Scooby-Doo moments of the good guys coming to unmask the bad, but sometimes life is more complicated than that. Why shouldn't art reflect that? As for the slamming of Javier Bardem's Oscar winning performance, I don't know what you are looking for. This is the most ominous, soulless, chilling, and downright brutal characters brought to screen in modern film. The coin scenes build upon each other to a shattering conclusion. This is not a film for those who need every detail and motivation spelled out for them. This is a thinking person's thriller. Five stars. Oh, and a Best Picture winner.
