No Country For Old Men

What can I say about this movie that someone else hasn't already said and probably more eloquently than me? I saw this movie the day before Thanksgiving (and again on Thanksgiving) and only shear self restraint has limited me from seeing it again. So what can explain why a movie I loved so much has left me utterly without mediocre words to describe it? I did briefly right a half rate review that I had up for roughly one day before I removed it due to my own dissatisfaction with it. Why after three weeks have I been unable to commit to type something to say about this movie. Its not as if I haven't talked about it, extolled its brilliance and listened with apt eagerness to other viewers points of view. I know I loved this film. I know it falls into a list of "Great" cinematic viewing experiences.

I saw it on its wide release opening night, a Wednesday. It was at the Carolina Theater, a locally operated indie movie house with two real theaters and a third which is really a stage theater for concerts and plays but is used frequently for movie showings. The seats are a tad on the uncomfortable side. You can't really sink into them like you can a real good movie theater seat. The backs don't give much leeway. You can't prop your feat up on the backs of the seats in front of you (well I suppose you could but it would be unpleasant I think). To be fair, I like the Carolina and I like that they are indie and on occasion I have been allowed to see some old favorites reshown on the big screen, such as Monster Squad and Aliens. You can't imagine how great and happy I was to see Aliens on a full screen. And there other two theaters are much more suited to movie viewing.

And yet here I am still not talking about No Country For Old Men. Ultimately this is a cinematic experience. Yeah experience is about right. One you either need to see alone or with someone who respects enough not to start talking about the film the minute the screen goes black and the credits roll. Sit through those credits, all of them and just let what you saw wash over you. Then maybe a couple days later you talk about it. There are any number of avenues I could take when approaching a discussion of this movie from its use (or lack of use of music) to its cinematography to the minute details of character. I could rant about its beginning, its middle, its end (dear sweet maria, its end!). Although will be wholly inadequate I suspect especially since I will do my damnedest not to reveal anything that should not be revealed. Maybe its best in the end though to say "stop reading now, if you haven't seen it and only read on once you have"

I'm serious. Because try as I might, I fear something may slip out. So I'm going to blather on for one more paragraph before I start talking about the movie. I read a lot of the reviews after I saw this. Anthony Lane of the New Yorker was not as impressed in fact it was quite a brutal review at times. Ebert and A.O. Scott were both more positive. All interesting reviews and worth reading if you like numerous viewpoints. Rottentomatoes.com has a 96% fresh rating based on 160 reviews (impressive if you think statistics are meaningful.) Okay, enough stalling, I hope those appropriate have stopped reading for now.

"I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five. Hard to believe. Grandfather was a lawman. Father too. Me and him was sheriff at the same time, him in Plano and me here. I think he was pretty proud of that. I know I was.

Some of the old-time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lot of folks find that hard to believe.... You can't help but compare yourself against the old timers. Can't help but wonder how they would've operated these times...."
-- Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones)

This is how the film begins with a voice over from Jones as we see shots of the Texas countryside. Quite beautiful shots actually. I love good dialog but as a general rule I'm not so impressed with voice over. But this I buy and this I like. It speaks to character, it speaks to what the film is about. Jones' cadence and intonation are perfect with an sad nostalgia dropped in. The kind of scene that when the DVD comes out I will probably just pop it in the ol player and listen and watch this scene two or three times.

It has a resonance in me that some of the scenes in Thin Red Line have. There is another film I fully confess I am inadequate to the task of discussing. But one among many fantastic scenes in that film is one in which Sgt. Welsh (Sean Penn) is talking to Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel) on a grassy hillside after the combat has concluded.

Welsh: I feel sorry for you kid. Witt: Yeah? Welsh: Yeah a little. This army's going to kill you. If you were smart, you'd take care of yourself, there's nothing you can do for anyone else. Just running into a burning house where nobody can be saved.

Welsh: What difference do you think you can make? One single man in all this madness. If you die its going to be for nothing. There's not some other world out there where everything's going to be okay. There's just this one, just this rock.

Now me just quoting can't show you the way its played, the pauses, the reaction shots of Witt. The reaction shots from Caviezel are just perfect. He doesn't share the view point but he listens respectfully. Penn's ticks are perfect from starring over the horizon to spitting out loose tobacco from his rolled cigarette. And the score that creeps in mid-scene is an instrumentalized version of an early Polynesian song. Soft at times barely audible yet so beautiful. To me its a perfect scene.

Apologies for the digression but the opening of No Country For Old Men equally ranks in my mind as a perfectly conceived scene. In a way ultimately this is Tom Bell's story even if much of the narrative revolves around Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin). Brolin is brilliant by the way. I love early on when he says "I'm fixin' to do something dumber than hell, but I'm going anyways." And does he do something dumber than hell? You bet he does but whereas in another film I might be critical here I buy it. I buy that his conscience started to weigh on him and so he does go do something stupid and he acknowledges that.

I'm coming back to Tom Bell, how could I not but it is unjust to have a discussion of this movie and not mention Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh. Variously his character has been described as death walking, a monster and equally unsatisfying limiting descriptors. He's been compared to Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. Also a bit unsatisfying because I actually prefer Brian Cox's portrayl of Lecter in Manhunter to Hopkins' over the top performance in the more popular film.

Bardem is incredibly scary. He does everything so consciously. His intonations are so plain. The way he takes meticulous care of his boots, ensuring blood is not spilled on them. The way he casually murders or casually pardons. He is instantly memorable, immediate and makes you glad you have never come face to face with someone like him.

No really good movie can rely just on one or two performances and the supporting roles here are as memorable as the main characters. Kelly Macdonald, Barry Corbin and Woody Harrelson all have memorable rolls and scenes. Macdonald is amazing in her scene with Bardem. Just amazing. Corbin's scene at the end, like his scene with Jones in In The Valley of Elah is equally memorable as two old men discuss the hell that is the world and adds wonderful perspective and thought for Jones' character.

Which brings us back to Tom Bell. In a film that has so much and so many memorable performances, Jones's role just resonates with me most. I feel like I know this smart, wearied grandfatherly figure from scenes with his wife to the investigation of the botched drug deal. When he talks to Moss's wife and mid conversation gets caught up in verbal digression practically forgetting her, it was just so perfect.

And now I think I just need to end it. And I suspect it will be deeply unsatisfying. Its a bit odd because I love a good ending. I absolutely love a good ending. A good ending doesn't have to have resolution or anything. It just has to know this is it, this is how we end. The Long Good Friday has such an end. I have ranted extensively about it to friends and even on this site. Its another movie that I have been known to pop in the player and just watch that final 5 minutes with special emphasis for the last minute and a half. Easily one of the top ten, hell top five endings of all time.

So I am so delighted with the ending of No Country For Old Men. The more so because it involves Tom Bell. Tom newly retired sits at breakfast with his wife and mentions a dream he had.

"Both had my father. It's peculiar. I'm older now'n he ever was by twenty years. So in a sense he's the younger man. Anyway, first one I don't remember so well but it was about money and I think I lost it.

The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin through the mountains of a night, goin through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and snowin, hard ridin. Hard country. He rode past me and kept on goin. Never said nothin goin by. He just rode on past and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down, and when he rode past I seen he was carryin fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. About the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. Out there up ahead.

And then I woke up."

Bam. Black. Done. Yes. Yes. Yes. Opens with Bell sad, nostalgic, wearied and unsure and ends sad, nostalgic, wearied and unsure. I'm glad I had a few minutes in the dark as the credits rolled. I'm not sure I would have had the strength to get up with an end like that. Not right away. Made me want to go enjoy a beer and I did.