Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Movie - No Country for Old Men

The setting is the deep south of Texas. The landscape is the wilderness, the "wild west" in the modern context. A lone hunter stumbles across drug deal gone wrong, bodies strewn everywhere. Further investigation leads him to discover a caché of money at the feet of a dead body. He takes the money and the run for his life begins. The haul of drugs (still sitting at the scene) is large so the amount of money must be massive. There is a psycho killer on the loose who is put onto the scent of the missing drug money. Lucky lone hunter is crafty as a fox but not smart enough to shake of the psycho killer who is after him for the money.
There are crimes of passion and crimes of greed. This movie is all about greed. Money is the motive behind the action. The sheriff(Tommy Lee Jones) is at his wits end as he follows the clues to an escalating series of unrelated murders. His ineffectiveness is as a law enforcer is driven home to him in the course of the story. The psycho killer is relentless, his cunning is frightening and his penchant for cold hearted murder is limitless.
The movie is also a metaphor for the changing nature of America. The infiltration of it's borders by Mexican criminals who bring drugs, murder and mayhem of violence to the country. Hence the title of the movie.
Once every year there is a movie that is so awesome that it stands out from the crowd. This year it is No Country for Old Men.

3 comments:

none said...

It's on my pay per view list right now. I'll go check it out.

Lexcen said...

Hammer, I suppose the days when we Australians had to wait for months before we saw the latest movies from America are gone.

Anonymous said...

just saw no country for old men; it's unassumingly unconventional and yet (thankfully) never over the top. the Coen brothers deserve their oscars, well done indeed.

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