The film "No Country for Old Men": meaning, script, directors, awards

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In less than two months, 2007's No Country for Old Men will turn twelve years old. And all this time, the thriller, filmed by the famous Coen brothers based on the novel of the same name by the writer C. McCarthy, in which the main roles were played by such movie stars as Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin, is rightfully considered the best in the genre, so far no one outclassed.

Film Achievements

One can argue endlessly about the merits and demerits of this unique film, and the opinions of both sides will certainly deserve attention, however, one way or another, the film "No Country for Old Men", the meaning of which became the subject of our discussion, a total of 76 nominations were received from various prestigious film festivals, from which 31 prizes were won. At the annual awards ceremony of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the picture was waiting for a real triumph,expressed in winning four Oscars at once in such significant nominations as Best Film, Best Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actor, which was deservedly received by the magnificent actor Javier Bardem, who became the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar.

Among other things, No Country for Old Men's awards include the main prizes of such a film festival as the Golden Globe, where he was awarded the award for best screenplay and best supporting actor, as well as the British Academy Awards, where he won Best Director, Supporting Actor and Cinematography. In the end, according to world critics, the film rightfully became one of the best films of the decade.

Coen Brothers

No Country for Old Men was written and directed by some of Hollywood's greatest authors, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. This creative duet, whose distinctive feature is invariably an intricate plot, surprise, originality, intelligence and black humor, is widely known to all connoisseurs of real, good cinema with a capital letter.

On the account of the brothers, who began their career back in 1984 with the release of the neo-noir low-budget thriller "Just Blood", today there are almost thirty films, among which the most memorable and marked by the love of viewers and film critics are such works,like "Raising Arizona", "Miller's Crossing", "Barton Fink", "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", "Oh Brother, Where Are You?", "The Man Who Wasn't There", "Unbearable Violence", " Bad Santa", "Gentlemen's Games", "Paris, I Love You", "Burn After Reading", "Serious Man", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Long live Caesar!" and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs".

In addition, the Coen brothers have collaborated with Hollywood celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney, writing scripts for such films as "Bridge of Spies", "Unbroken" and "Suburbicon".

Storyline

The 2007 film "No Country for Old Men" was set in western Texas, whose desert and wild landscapes perfectly reflected the dry June 1980, during which all the events of the film took place, which began with the unexpected discovery of a Vietnam veteran war, and now welder Llewellyn Moss, who, during a hunt near the Rio Grande, found a suitcase with two million dollars at the site of a bloody showdown of drug dealers.

Becoming the proud owner of this unexpected treasure, Llewellyn goes on the run to his death, pursued by Mexican bandits, ruthless killer Anton Chigurh and police sheriff Ed Bell.

Extremely rich plotNo Country for Old Men is hard to describe in a few words. During the entire action of the picture, the audience is presented with a bloody chase, filmed from the position of the fugitive Llewellyn himself, his main pursuer Chigurh, whose cold-blooded and some kind of unearthly image fascinates the witnesses of what is happening on the screen no worse than a python in relation to rabbits, and also conditionally removed from everyone events of Sheriff Bell.

Ultimately, the run of Llewellyn Moss is stopped by the bullets of the Mexican bandits. Anton Chigurh achieves his goal, gets into an accident, but survives and walks away with the money, and Sheriff Ed Bell leaves the service and in the final scene, the meaning of which we will talk about a little later, tells his wife and the audience about his dreams.

Script

As already mentioned, the film was based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, which attracted the Coen brothers, first of all, with its non-standard approach to what is happening, its deep meaning and a completely unconventional ending for the genre.

The film rights to McCarthy's work were purchased by producer Scot Rudin, who subsequently offered it to the Coens. The brothers adapted the novel to the script of the film "No Country for Old Men" and in 2005 agreed to Rudin to direct the future film.

The story told by McCarthy pleased the Coens so much that they refrained from their usual editing of the literary basis and invested in theirthe script is the very soul of the novel, and also left almost all the dialogues and monologues of the characters unchanged, the main of which was the final speech of the sheriff, which lifts the veil of the mystery of the meaning of the film "No Country for Old Men", repeating its literary source almost word for word.

Shooting

The picture was filmed from May 23 to August 16, 2006. Despite the fact that, according to the plot of the film, the events of the film took place in Texas, most of the filming was done in the neighboring state of New Mexico, as well as in the world's largest gambling center Las Vegas and its desert environs, and only the small town of Odessa, in which attempts hide wife Llewellyn Moss, really was located in Texas.

The very details of the filming of the film "No Country for Old Men" are marked by many interesting facts. In particular, the role of Llewellyn Moss was originally supposed to be played by the famous Paul Walker, who always dreamed of starring with the Coens. The actor even passed the casting, but later the authors of the picture decided to choose another, no less famous candidate, Heath Ledger, for this role. But Ledger chose to star in the biographical drama I'm Not There, dedicated to the life of the legendary musician Bob Dylan. So, the actor Josh Brolin became the performer of the image of Llewellyn Moss, and even then not on the first try.

Extremely remarkable was the fact that when the Coen brothers offered Javier Bardem to embody the image of the killer Anton Chigurh on the screen, the actorreacted unexpectedly, saying that he couldn't drive a car, didn't speak English well, and generally hated violence as such.

Ultimately, Javier Bardem played Chigurh so convincingly and frighteningly authentically that he won significantly more awards for this role than in his entire film career, becoming the first Spaniard in history to receive a gold Oscar figurine.

Heroes

Before discussing the meaning of No Country for Old Men, let's take a closer look at the characters in the film itself.

Formerly law-abiding Llewellyn Moss, a Vietnam War survivor who spends his free time hunting after finding a suitcase full of money, doesn't even try to think about his choice. He grabs his treasure and immediately turns from a hunter into a victim. At the same time, his act is understandable to the viewer, who, in the place of Moss, most likely would have acted in exactly the same way. As such, Llewellyn's character embodies everything down to earth, straightforward, and simple in the film.

The ruthless killer Anton Chigurh, despite the minority of his character, is almost the most iconic hero of the picture and the ideological component of the whole meaning of the film "No Country for Old Men". As a hero, he has two interpretations of his image at once. On the one hand, Chigurh is a killer, an inevitable fate, an inevitability and a fate that his victim cannot escape. On the other hand, he is death itself, tossing a coin todecide if her time has come.

Doing his bloody work, Anton Chigurh symbolizes time itself, endlessly striving forward and completely unconcerned about the past.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell has little to no involvement with the action most of the time. Basically, the viewer only hears his voice-over, reflecting on the events unfolding on the screen, about his life, and also, as if out of place, telling various stories.

This character occupies in the film, at first glance, some kind of clumsy place, the secret meaning of which can only be understood by looking at the whole picture to the end.

Meaning

The clue to revealing the meaning of the film "No Country for Old Men" lies in its very title, which is based on the first line of William Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium":

No, this land is not for the old…

Byzantium in this case is nothing more than a long-disappeared mysterious country of sages and legends. Nevertheless, this work is dedicated to the cycle of generations, consisting of the unshakable secrets of conception, birth and death.

Thus, the characters of the picture are a reflection of the past, present and future. At the same time, the very "old man" who has no place in the new world is Sheriff Bell. After all, it is he alone, representing the past, who has the most obvious understanding of the essence of good and evil, right and wrong, knows how to live, and does not understand the present.

Llewellyn Moss is a contemporary of the viewer, he is simple and clear. He is "today", he is present.

The third hero, the murderer Anton Chigurh, symbolizes the man of the future. He is devoid of any feelings, rules and principles. He is time itself, and Anton exists only where another goal looms ahead. In the present, it no longer exists.

Instead of afterword

After passing through the blood, the roar of shots and the incessant chase, the viewer is only destined to the final monologue of Sheriff Bell to understand the whole meaning of the film "No Country for Old Men" and answer for himself the question, what kind of old men, in fact, were they talking about:

I have always loved hearing stories about old people. Never missed such an opportunity. Like it or not, you start comparing yourself to them. Like it or not, but you think about how they would live in our time…

Not that I'm afraid of anyone. I knew that in this place one must always be ready for death. But I don't want to risk my life trying to overcome something I don't understand. So not for long and stain the soul. Wave your hand and say: “To hell with you, play, so according to your laws!”

Being practically on the sidelines most of the time and not even interfering with other main characters, Sheriff Bell eventually becomes like the author of all the events that may have been born in his head as a result of long reflections on his own life, heard by the audience throughout the film.

And all that the viewer saw was a kind of metaphor for an elderly person living in memories, but still clinging to the present in fear of imminently approaching death…