“CALL
IT”
By
Raymond Benson
By
the mid-2000s, the Coen Brothers had established themselves as a
writing/directing team of considerable originality, edginess, and intelligence.
Their cinematic sensibilities covered a range of genres with varying degrees of
tonality. They had done crime thrillers (Blood Simple, Miller’s
Crossing), wacky comedies (Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski),
noir-ish melodramas (Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn’t There),
and something that might be called a musical (O Brother, Where Art Thou?).
Adapting
Cormac McCarthy’s neo-noir novel No Country for Old Men seemed
like a no-brainer for the siblings. They had been pitched the idea, read the
book, and agreed that it was “right up their alley.” McCarthy’s dialogue-filled
prose turned out not to be much of a challenge—they dispensed with most of it,
making their filmed adaptation more of a silent picture than one might expect.
There are extended sequences of nonverbal action: characters in seedy motel
rooms waiting and scheming, chases across the West Texas countryside, small
town urban street gunfighting, and the ever-picturesque tableaux of actors’
faces that reveal so much without a word spoken.
The
time is 1980. A Mexican cartel drug deal has gone badly out in the desert-like
landscape somewhere in Terrell County, Texas. Several men are dead. Llewelyn
Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the crime scene and makes off with a suitcase
full of cash. Unfortunately, due to a dumb-headed move on his part, the cartel
figures out who he is. Fixer/assassin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is sent
after Moss to retrieve the money and make sure no one lives to tell the tale.
Meanwhile, the county sheriff, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) begins to
investigate the incident and tails the players, except that he remains one step
behind the parties as Moss continues to stay one step ahead of Chigurh—while
the body count adds up.
No
Country is
one of the Coens’ more serious thrillers. Always known for injecting dark humor
into their crimes dramas, this one is practically devoid of laughs. Sure, there
are moments of very dark humor that can be only in a Coen Brothers film,
but for the most part this is a knuckle-biting, grim, no-holds-barred noir tale
in which there is a pervasive feeling of doom. We know nothing good is going to
come out of this.
Another
theme, illustrated by Chigurh’s penchant for a coin toss to determine the fate
of a character (“Call it,” he menacingly commands), is how nothing is
predetermined… one’s life can turn on a dime, or in this case, a quarter. The
point of McCarthy’s novel is that this is a world that has surpassed “old men”
like Sheriff Bell. He can’t understand the violence, the cruelty, and the fire
that drives these men who will kill with abandon—all for the sale of illicit
drugs.
It
should also be noted that the Coens’ movies tend to be about stupid people but
are made for smart audiences. So many of the brothers’ characters make
boneheaded mistakes that set the plots in motion. In this case, Moss makes the
mistake of his life, bringing about the hellfire that will affect him, his wife
(Kelly MacDonald), and innocent bystanders.
The
film was a big critical and financial success for the Coens. It won Oscars for
Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay (the brothers went
home with three statues each; it might have been four had the nomination for
Best Editing won for “Roderick Jaynes,” their pseudonym as editors), and Best
Supporting Actor for Bardem’s chilling performance.
The
Criterion Collection’s new 4K UHD and Blu-ray release is certainly up to the
label’s standards. The new 4K digital master, supervised and approved by
director of photography Roger Deakins, with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio
soundtrack, is packaged as a 2-disk edition with the UHD movie on one disk and
the Blu-ray and supplements on the second (a Blu-ray only edition is also
available). The picture quality is painterly gorgeous.
Supplements
include brand new interviews with the Coens conducted by the inimitable
award-winning crime author Megan Abbott, who seems to be Criterion’s go-to host
for the brothers as of late. Could a Coens-Abbott collaboration be a
possibility in the future? One can only hope! Abbott also interviews DP Deakins
and associate producer David Diliberto. Archival interviews with the cast
(Jones, Brolin, Bardem, and MacDonald) are included, plus a short behind-the-scenes
documentary made by Brolin. Port-overs from a previous Blu-ray release include
a vintage making-of documentary, more interviews with the cast, and a
documentary from the POV of Jones’ character. There are English subtitles for
the hard of hearing, plus an essay by author Francine Prose and a 2007 piece on
the film by Larry McMurtry in the accompanying booklet.
No
Country for Old Men is
highly recommended for fans of the Coen Brothers, the main actors involved, and
tense crime thrillers.
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