"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. 

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, the film is set in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film revisits the themes of fate, conscience, and circumstance that the Coen brothers had explored in the films Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), and Fargo (1996). The film follows three main characters: Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), a Vietnam War veteran and welder who stumbles upon a large sum of money in the desert; Anton Chigurh (Bardem), a hitman who is tasked with recovering the money; and Ed Tom Bell (Jones), a local sheriff investigating the crime. The film also stars Kelly Macdonald as Moss's wife Carla Jean, and Woody Harrelson as a bounty hunter seeking Moss and the return of the $2 million.

No Country for Old Men premiered in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on May 19. The film became a commercial success, grossing $171 million worldwide against the budget of $25 million. Critics praised the Coens' direction and screenplay and Bardem's performance, and the film won 76 awards from 109 nominations from multiple organizations; it won four awards at the 80th Academy Awards (including Best Picture), three British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), and two Golden Globes. The American Film Institute listed it as an AFI Movie of the Year, and the National Board of Review selected it as the best of 2007.

More critics included No Country for Old Men on their 2007 top ten lists than any other film, and many regard it as the Coen brothers' best film. As of December 2021, various sources had recognized it as one of the best films of its decade, and as one of the best films of the 21st century. The Guardian's John Patterson wrote: "the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors", and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said that it is "a new career peak for the Coen brothers" and "as entertaining as hell".

Plot

In 1980, hitman Anton Chigurh is arrested in Texas. In custody, he strangles a deputy sheriff and uses a captive bolt pistol to kill a man on the highway and escape in his car. He spares the life of a gas station owner who guesses the result of Chigurh's coin toss.

Hunting pronghorns in the desert, Llewelyn Moss comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. He finds several dead men and dogs, a wounded Mexican man begging for water, a stash of drugs in the vehicle, and two million dollars in a briefcase. He takes the money and returns home. Later, Moss returns with water but finds the man dead. Two men in a truck pursue him, but he escapes into a river. Reaching home, he sends his wife, Carla Jean, to stay with her mother, then drives to a motel in Del Rio, where he hides the briefcase in his room's air duct.

Chigurh, hired to recover the money, arrives to search Moss's home, where he uses his bolt pistol to blow the lock out of the door. Investigating the break-in, Terrell County Sheriff Ed Tom Bell observes the blown-out lock. Following a tracking device in the money, Chigurh goes to Moss's motel room and kills a group of Mexicans, waiting to ambush Moss, with his shotgun. Moss has rented a second room adjacent to the Mexicans' room with access to the duct where the money is hidden. He retrieves the briefcase before Chigurh opens the duct.

Moving to a motel in the border town of Eagle Pass, Moss discovers the tracking device, but Chigurh has already found him. Their gunfight spills onto the streets, killing a bystander and seriously wounding both. Moss flees across to Mexico, stashing the case of money along the Rio Grande. Finding Moss severely injured, a passing norteño band takes him to a hospital. Carson Wells, a bounty hunter, fails to persuade Moss to accept protection in return for the money. Chigurh stitches his own wounds with stolen supplies and sneaks up on Wells at his hotel. Unsuccessfully bartering for his life, Wells is killed by Chigurh. Moss telephones the room, and Chigurh vows to kill Carla Jean unless Moss returns the money.

Moss retrieves the case from the Rio Grande and arranges to meet Carla Jean at a motel in El Paso, where he plans to give her the money and hide her from danger. Carla Jean is approached by Sheriff Bell, who promises to protect Moss. Carla Jean's mother unwittingly reveals Moss's location to a group of Mexicans tailing them. Bell reaches the motel rendezvous at El Paso, only to hear gunshots and spot a pickup truck speeding from the motel. In the parking lot, Bell finds Moss dead, as does Carla Jean, who arrives later.

That night, Bell returns to the crime scene and observes the lock blown out. Chigurh hides behind the door after retrieving the money. Bell enters Moss's room and sees the vent removed. Later, Bell visits his uncle Ellis, an ex-lawman, and tells him he plans to retire because he feels "overmatched" by the recent violence. Ellis replies that the region has always been violent.

Weeks later, Carla Jean returns from her mother's funeral to find Chigurh waiting in her bedroom, per his threat to Moss. She refuses his offer of a coin toss for her life, stating that he cannot pass blame to luck: the choice is his. As he drives through the neighborhood, a car crashes into his at an intersection, breaking his arm. He bribes two young witnesses for their silence and flees on foot.

Now retired, Bell shares two dreams with his wife. In the first, he lost some money his father had given him. In the other, he and his father were riding through a snowy mountain pass; his father had gone ahead to make a fire in the darkness and wait for Bell.

Cast

• Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell
• Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh
• Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss
• Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells
• Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss
• Garret Dillahunt as Wendell
• Tess Harper as Loretta Bell
• Barry Corbin as Ellis
• Stephen Root as Man who hires Wells
• Rodger Boyce as El Paso Sheriff
• Beth Grant as Carla Jean's mother
• Ana Reeder as Poolside Woman
• Josh Blaylock and Caleb Jones as Boys on Bikes
• Gene Jones as Gas Station Proprietor

The role of Llewelyn Moss was originally offered to Heath Ledger, but he turned it down to spend time with his newborn daughter Matilda. Garret Dillahunt was also in the running for the role of Llewelyn Moss, auditioning five times for the role, but instead was offered the part of Wendell, Ed Tom Bell's deputy. Josh Brolin was not the Coens' first choice, and enlisted the help of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to make an audition reel. His agent eventually secured a meeting with the Coens and he was given the part.

Javier Bardem nearly withdrew from the role of Anton Chigurh due to issues with scheduling. English actor Mark Strong was put on standby to take over, but the scheduling issues were resolved and Bardem took on the role.