Reviewed by Kevin Tran. Viewed on DVD<\/p>\n
When the Coen Brothers adapts Pulitzer Prize winning author, Cormac McCarthy\u2019s story of moral decadence, No Country For Old Men, they create a film that\u2019s wickedly violent, that is pumping with suspense and thoroughly beautiful. The film garnered Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards and swept almost every guild award show for best picture. But what is it that attracts critics towards this incredibly dark tale of a drug deal that goes from bad to worst? <\/p>\n
In the southern plains of rural South Texas, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) discovers the remains of several dead, drug dealers who appeared to have violently murdered each other. Moss eventually finds two million dollars in a \u201csatchel\u201d that he claims for his own. This triggers Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a sadistic, brute of a headhunter, to follow close behind Moss\u2019 trail simply murdering every person that stand in his way. As for innocent bystanders \u2013 they only stand a fifty-fifty chance of living after seeing Chigurh ghostly face. The film also centers on Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who investigates Chigurh\u2019s bloodstained footsteps, trying to make sense of these crimes and of a world that he no longer understands. <\/p>\n
The performance by every cast member is mesmerizing, but in particular, Javier Bardem\u2019s (who won best supporting actor at every guild award and the Oscars) acting is simply sublime. His dark presence is felt even in scenes that he is not in. He is a character that is as complex and entertaining that rivals Hannible Lecter as America\u2019s favorite serial killer. While Tommy Lee Jones\u2019s role and voice is really the heart of the film, his long, drawn out monologues are lyrically beautiful as to match cinematographer, Roger Deakins\u2019 tranquil vision. <\/p>\n
The film stands out to be one of the greatest adaptation of a novel in the last few decades. The Coens perfectly captures the essence of McCarthy\u2019s novel. Even cutting out many of McCarthy\u2019s southern-twang dialogue; they cinematically present the novel\u2019s themes, tones and attitude to a stunning degree. The film\u2019s narrative is somewhat unconventional in that it shifts from one character to another, but it works to express certain feelings towards each character: Moss, Chigurh, and Bell. The plot takes sharp turns from serenity to violent bloodshed almost rhythmically and the suspense is that of a rollercoaster ride. <\/p>\n
The film is a stunning achievement worthy of every single praise and award it received in 2007. It will remain as one of the finest film coming out of Hollywood for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by Kevin Tran. Viewed on DVD When the Coen Brothers adapts Pulitzer Prize winning author, Cormac McCarthy\u2019s story of moral decadence, No Country For Old Men, they create a film that\u2019s wickedly violent, that is pumping with suspense and thoroughly beautiful. The film garnered Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}