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No Country for Old Men – 2007 Coen
- The narrative grips you in a way few films in film history has. It’s unrelenting in its narrative propulsion.
- The coens and Javier bardem (along with Cormac McCarthy of course) have created one of the more memorable characters/villains in recent film history with the Anton Chigurh character
- Early on I love the scuffs on the floor while he chokes out the first patrolman- the level of detail is so admirable
- Meditation and exploration of fate- from the coin toss, to the wonderful scene back and forth with Bardem and the gas convenience store owner- it’s heavy- almost greek folklore like and this another reason why I love the car crash
- Especially with the Tommy Lee Jones character- we see the coen’s knack and love for extreme dialects come into play]
- It’s a major achievement for the entire cast- but specific ally Brolin, Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones
- Doesn’t have the jaw dropping visual style or set pieces of say a raiders or north by northwest– two other genius films that compare with the astounding narrative force
- I love the ending as well- which will test a lot of viewers who make enjoy much of the crime aspect and narrative genius
- Masterpiece
Drake2017-06-05T12:18:01-04:00
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I spent some time wondering, as a fun exercise, what would be the best movie in which an all-time great director (let’s say, for example, a director who’d sit comfortably in a Top 50) adapted an all-time novelist (let’s go again with top 50). It is definitely rare to see stories two distinct and legendary artists were able to express themselves succesfully; this is why Hitchcock preferred adapting non-stylish novelists.
No Country for Old Men (2007), with the Coens and McCarthy, was the first example I came up with, and then I thought about some more:
– One Battle After Another (2025) is one of the best movies of the past year, and is the second PTA’s adaptation of Pynchon’s work (who would on paper be one of the most difficult writers to adapt) after Inherent Vice (2014).
– Naked Lunch (1991) has been praised as a great movie precisely because of this.
– The Grapes of Wrath (1940, gotta love that time when you could adapt a masterpiece into a masterpiece in less than a year haha) is one of my favorite examples
– The Trial (1962), arguably the actual best, and I believe it might be the best according to @Drake’s rankings.
– Béla Tarr and Krasznahorkai are, in my opinion, too directly tied for this exercise. Their styles almost seem to be one and the same, just in two different artforms.
– Some failures as well! Terry Gilliam didn’t succeed with his decades-long quest for a great Don Quixote adaptation. The Idiot (1951), maybe the only movie of all time where a top 10 director adapts a top 10 novelist, somehow managed to not be that interesting. Lolita (1962) doesn’t show neither Kubrick’s nor Nabokov’s true prowess.
– Stalker (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) belong in this conversation too, but I’d argue neither Philip K. Dick nor the Strugatsky brothers are quite at that status. Those two novels are outstanding pieces of literature, though. If Philip K. Dick counts, then Spielberg enters the competition as well!
– I’m on the fence on whether Joseph Conrad is a top 50 novelist of all time. If he is, Apocalypse Now (1979) closes this topic immediately haha.
– Of course we can just expand this into broader literature, Kurosawa’s Shakespeare adaptations would give most of my picks here a run for their money.
– If short stories are allowed, Short Cuts (1993) is an interesting example.
I’m surely missing plenty, but this was amusing.
@Javi- Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s brilliant Despair (1978) was adapted from a Vladimir Nabokov novel. I guess some of the amusing vernacular came directly from the novel.
That’s a good pick, yes. It’s interesting, because considering how big those two are, Despair wouldn’t be neither one of Fassbinder’s most acclaimed movies nor one of Nabokov’s most acclaimed novels
@Javi- Despair is arguably Fassbinder’s best movie.
That’s an interesting claim. I’ll have to revisit it.
The introduction of Brolin as Moss setups his whole character arc. He sights up a deer at a distance where an ethical clean kill would be impossible, yet he thinks he can defy fate and takes the shot anyway, wounds in then instead runs off to try and have something else. Just like how he thinks he can defeat Chigurh with all the odds against him. I read the novel back to front yesterday, it gives the context that Moss was a sniper in Vietnam.
@Harry- Love this Harry- great share – thank you
[…] No Country for Old Men – Coen […]
I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel, No Country for Oldman, whose plot primarily consists of Anton Chigurh chasing Gary Oldman out of the country.
Haha just kidding.
Hahaha. This is great.
Did a recent watch and you’re right about the narrative/plot almost driving itself and really it’s the $2 million in cash that serves as a character in itself. I’m not really sure if the $2 million in cash should be considered a Macguffin (Hitchcock)? None the less the story flows so well without any contrived drama or any subplots as they would really serve no purpose in a film like this.
The gas station scene is truly an all time great scene, the way it builds tension up until the point where the poor attendant correctly (thankfully) wins the coin flip.
The Woody Harrelson scene in the hotel is probably the 2nd best scene in the film. Superb acting from Bardem and Harrelson. When Harrelson’s character offers to take him to an ATM and pay him $14 grand Chigurh just smiles/basically laughs in his face as says “an ATM” in such a menacing way, Harrelson’s character eyes drop and he knows it’s all over, he probably knew that the second he heard Chigurh but that moment of realization when he absolutely knows he can’t talk himself out of it, man it’s disheartening
Just watching it now on regular TV and your analysis of that scene is spot on. You can see the crazy in his (Chigurh’s) eyes and face and the fear in Carsons.
@John Henry Boscarino- thanks for visiting the site and the comment- such a great scene!
Deserved it’s Best Picture win and should have won The Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama and BAFTA award for best film but lost both to Atonement(which is good but not on No Country’s level).
@Randy–I have no problem with No Country winning. It is a brilliant film — one of the best best picture winners of all-time…but the critical consensus (and I) actually think There Will Be Blood was the best film of 2007