No Country for Old Men

Over the holiday break we caught the film No Country for Old Men, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and a newcomer I had never heard of, Javier Bardem. While the visual effects were very subdued and nondescript, Luma Pictures did a wonderful job. This Coen brothers film is in very much the same way as Fargo, violent and unpredictable. Unless you read the book of the same name, of course. After watching the movie I ended up hitting the library (they still have those!) and borrowing the book by Cormac McCarthy, to see what I might have missed. True be told, not much! The film is a direct copy of the book, almost down to the dialog, and in some cases, exactly like the dialog. As well, the way McCarthy writes doesn't leave much to the imagination, as his words are very direct and to the point.

The film (and book) follows the plot of a drug deal gone bad, where our main character, Llewelyn Moss, wanders upon the scene and takes off with a large sum of money. He's now being chased by three parties; a psychopathic and methodical killer, Anton Chigurh, a small town sheriff, Bell, and a Mexican outfit who wants their money back. The scenes with Chigurh (Javier Bardem) are wonderful and very telling of his character. You don't want to get on his bad side. The rest of the cast does wonderfully as well, portraying the Texas life to a T. As the films ends, I was struck by its abruptness, and I decided to get the book, instead of watching the movie again and listening to the Bell speak near the end of the movie. Because the book is almost exactly like the film, I was able to read it over again, and it does make more sense on the written page. The executions and murders by Chigurh are just shocking on the page as they are in the film, and Bardem does a great job.

As a film, 7 out of 10. As a book, 8.