No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name. A cat and mouse thriller starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin, it follows a Texas welder and Vietnam War veteran in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas.

Plot
After he finds $2 million in the desert where a drug deal has apparently gone wrong, working man Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds himself on the run. His pursuer is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), an unemotional killer with a unique murder weapon at his disposal. Throughout, soon to be retired Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) attempts to convince Moss, mostly through his wife Carla Jean, that he should turn the money over to the authorities or this could all end in tragedy.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The movie is disturbing realistic in many ways.
 * 2) * Gunshots are not something you can easily shrug off, even if you are a trained veteran or an unstoppable killing machine. Both Llewelyn and Chigurh have to carefully treat bullet wounds they get and the effects are felt for the rest of the film.
 * 3) * Llewelyn and Chigurh don't face off in an explosive showdown. Chigurh isn't the only person looking for Llewelyn's stolen money and unsurprisingly, some other hitmen get the drop on Llewelyn instead.
 * 4) Great acting especially from Javier Barden as Anton Chigurh.
 * 5) Anton Chigurh is a terrifying antagonist and is considered by psychologist to be the most realistic portrayal of a sociopath. From the way he speaks that makes him sound almost soulless to the joy in his face after taking or about to take a life.
 * 6) The movie has a number of intense moments due to their realism.
 * 7) * The face Anton makes when strangling the guard in the beginning of the movie. It is one of very few scenes where we see him express anything other than calculated indifference, and it is horrifying.
 * 8) * The infamous coin toss scene, where Anton decides whether or not to kill a local gas station clerk. Just the thought of having your fate decided by Heads or Tails? is unnerving.
 * 9) ** Keep in mind in regards to the scene: all the clerk did was start small talk, and Anton began to dissect everything about his life and his choices and deciding if he should live or die on a coin toss. The clerk's confused and downright terrified reaction is unsettling. Even when the clerk's choice lands him to live another day, Anton still has to frighten him about the coin being "special". Makes you wonder if Anton was gonna kill him anyway.
 * 10) ** There's also an exchange earlier in the scene, when Chigurh asks the clerk what time the store closes. The clerk replies that it closes around dark. Chigurh then asks what time he goes to bed. When he replies with 9:30, Chigurh responds, "I could come back then."
 * 11) Well-written dialogue.
 * 12) The film uses an almost exclusive diegetic soundtrack in some places and silence in others, which adds to the theme of the film.
 * 13) Awesome cinematography.
 * 14) Moss is a deconstruction of the action hero, especially the older tougher variety. He thinks of himself as tough, resourceful, and morally righteous. To the audience, he comes across as greedy, vain and stupid, never really thinking of the consequences of his actions, either to himself or those around him. Like Sheriff Bell, Moss is an archetype of an era that never existed when men never gave in to bad guys, the lines of black and white were clear, and the hero gets to ride off into the sunset when it's over. He doesn't seem to realize that the world is and has always been a much darker place where men like that have no place. Unlike Bell, he never realizes and pays the ultimate price for his arrogance.

Reception
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 280 critical responses and judged 93% of them to be positive, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bolstered by powerful lead performances from Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men finds the Coen brothers spinning cinematic gold out of Cormac McCarthy's grim, darkly funny novel." The film also holds a rating of 91/100 on Metacritic, based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".