No Country for Old Men: Ruud's Review

So here it is, my review of the first film i have seen this year and you know when i was watching it I had a feeling that there would a race to get the first review of it up as, after all, it is the new Coen Brothers film which is titled above and it we are both big fans of the Coen chaps so hopefully i have stolen a march on the lad with his teeth in a shite (admittedly never seen it but proud) John Travolta film and got mine in first but im still intrigued to read his views.

As i say, Coen films are a shared interest for me and Red, many afternoons we spent walking to the train station in the pishing rain talking about the fact that The Big Lebowski was one of the funniest films ever made, Jesus Quitana was the bestest kiddy fiddler and, and, and, erm. Shut the fuck up Donny! yeah, that's it, best comeback for any comment ever.

But The Big Lebowski was years ago, in the time in between The Ladykillers remake was pretty mince though when I went to the cinema to see it it was in one of the silver screen old folk afternoon matinee type things and I was the only person who was in knots at the creative use of swear words on offer, so in truth the experience was a happy one and the films obvious failings fade in the memories. and though Intolerable Cruelty was alright, they really pale in comparison to the 90s stuff.

Which brings me back to No Country for Old Men, which if i was hackneyed i would describe as being a triumphant return to form or something else pretty lame, no, i will simply tell you that i thought that the film was great. Reasons for this appraisal start with the performance of Javier Bardem, the Spanish actor playing the bad guy Anton Chigurh; fantastically. Chigurh's choice of weapon are cracking too, a shotgun with a silencer (what the fuck?) and a compressed air cattle gun which is cool as fuck. Cool dialogue, Woody Harrelson is in it, a Ruud favourite. Josh Brolin is good, no great in it and how his character deals with a dog is masterful, it is hard to beleive that this guy who is ultra cool throughout in my opinion was the older brother with an old sock or something tied around his head in the Goonies however. And, it lasts around two hours, none of this 142 minutes or something mince.

Plotwise were talking Brolin's character finds a drug deal gone wrong with plenty of dead mexicans, he also finds 2million bucks which he takes. He returns to the scene after worrying about the barely alive Mexican he left begging him for water, he gets caught out and chased by bad guys with a dog, he gets away. Bardems bad guy comes to get his 2 million bucks and finds out its gone, and who has it.

At this point i need to explain the dog bit, as i have mentioned it twice and basically cant hold it in. He is chased to the river and so dives in and swims to safety, however the bad guys send the dog in after him, and a chase in the water ensues, and god is it exciting, Brolin gets out and the dog is hot on his heels, Brolin pops out the bullet casings and tries and tries to get the gun ready to shoot, as the dog exits the water and runs toward him. tension building he gets the gun fixed just as the pooch makes a jump for his face, bang the dog gets it, just in the nick of time. I love a bit of creative cinema! Man shoots dog in self defence in one of the tensest chase scenes in recent memory, priceless, no?

After Chigurh finds who has it, a cross Texas chase ensues as Brolin looks to keep the cash and Chigurh wants it, Tommy Lee Jones plays the disenfranchised Sheriff who is on the case trying to pull the clues together. And thats about it, some more characters come in (Harrelson for one) and some gruesome stuff happens in the middle but mainly its a kind of three way hunt for each other.

This is something of a novelty for me, seeing a film on th Oscar list for best picture before the ceremony, the last time that happened was probably LOTR but then every man and his dog saw that, so by default it is now my favourite to win, but i would like to qualify that by saying anything else in the catagory would have to go some to beat this and if they did then they must be very good films indeed. Also on the Oscars area, why is Bardem in the supporting actor catagory, he is the main character, bad guy or not, he is the main man, i dont understand why he doesnt squeeze into best actor, really dont, in this day of age everyone knows the antihero is best! back to the film now, No Country for Good Men passed all my criteria for great film, cool dialogue, good performances and the fact that you dont check the time when watching it, a wee thing to look out for when watching a film there, how many watch checks, less=great films, persistant checks=not that good, possible lulls in the action or something. Anyway as i was saying, hardly checked my watch so in the Ruud book its a cracker.

All in all, Coen Brothers, i salute you, welcome back, its been dull without you.

Over to you Big Red.

Ruud Kerouac.