No Man's Land

Man isn't a noble savage, he's an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved — that about sums it up. I'm interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it's a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure. - Stanley Kubrick on the nature of Man


A Texas sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, (Tommy Lee Jones) on the verge of retiring, remembers the old days; he comes from a long line of sheriffs - his uncle, daddy, and his grandaddy before him, to a backdrop of the West Texas landscape of billowing grassland and two-lane highway. He reflects on some of the things he's seen over the course of his career; he's getting too old for this.

Llewelyn Moss, an everyman with the name of a Welsh prince, is an out-of-work welder and former Vietnam vet (played with lots of soft-spoken Texas country charm by Josh Brolin) and is out illegally hunting pronghorn antelope. He has an animal in his sights; shoots and doesn't make a clean hit. While tracking the animal, a wounded black dog crosses his path, a sign of what is to come - the brutal aftermath of a heroin deal gone bad, a shocking scene of total annihilation. Not a thing left alive, neither man nor beast.

This is Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country For Old Men, or for any man it would seem, this no man's land between Southwest Texas and Mexico. Everyone has been shot and killed, save for one, dying survivor who asks him for agua. Llewelyn has no water, but comes across a satchel of money and guns, and takes them home. Money like water for survival and what price greed? Obtaining this satchel of money will be the goal of most everyone in the film; getting it, finding it, skimming some off the top of it, bargaining with it, coveting it.

Not content to leave well enough alone, and with his conscience bothering him just a little bit too late, he wakes up in the middle of the night and tells his wife he's going out, taking with him a jug of water. When he reaches the site, the man has died. Llewelyn is discovered and pursued, but manages to escape. He returns home, sends his wife off to her mother's (played by Beth Grant) for her own protection, and goes on the run with the money.

A hired gun by the name of Anton Chigurh is sent to retrieve the money (pronounced like "sugar", but sweet he ain't) played with a frightening determination by Javier Bardem. He is at once compelling and repulsive, with the net effect of paralyzing you. One of his weapons is a compressed air bolt gun, a weapon normally used for slaughtering cattle, with which he busts through any barrier - door or human. He's picked up and arrested by the sheriff's deputy, who makes the fatal mistake of turning his back on him at the station. Chigurh comes up from behind and strangles the deputy with the handcuff links, and after a prolonged struggle on a bootscuffed floor, culminates in an almost orgasmic sigh from Chigurh as he finishes him. He is a psychopathic killer, all deadly sharp-toed cowboy boots and perverse Prince Valiant (or Prince Violent) haircut, who gets off on killing. He has his own whimsical principles and honor code, as likely to flip a coin to decide if someone lives as to kill them, toying with his prey first as a cat would with a mouse. This is a dangerous man who truly seems to feel a sense of disappointment in the futility of it all when his vicitims always try to reason with him by saying "you don't have to do this" - and he has to explain why he must.

When Anton hunts Llewelyn to the Mexican border, with Sheriff Bell looking for them both, Llewelyn decides that it's not worth it, and hurls the satchel of money over the border crossing bridge as he decides to head home. Woody Harrelson does a great turn as a swaggering rival hitman who's come after Anton, even tries to bargain with him, but finds he's no match for him.

Llewelyn may not always play by the rules, but is basically a decent man, who was tempted by a large sum of money, evidenced when at the hotel he's hiding out in and where he will soon meet his wife and her mother, a woman at the pool tempts him with the promise of booze and sex. He respectfully declines her kind offer, telling her he's married and "I know what drinkin' leads to." But by then, it's too late - for everyone.

As someone who loves language and culture, I saw that the Coens' affection for regionalisms is there as it was in Fargo, Blood Simple (which I havent seen in years - time for another looksee) and some of their other films, with colorful Texas expressions and humor, sometimes warm, sometimes dark. Some of the many examples:

Llewelyn's wife, Carla Jean: Where'd ya get the pistol?
Llewelyn, cryptically: At the gettin' place.

The exchange continues as they sit on the couch staring straight ahead, not addressing each other directly as they smirk and banter with each other, like a Coen Brothers version of Grant Wood's American Gothic painting:

Carlal Jean: Did you buy that gun?
Llewelyn: No. I found it.
Carla Jean: Llewelyn!
Llewelyn: What? Quit hollerin'.
Carla Jean: What'd you give for that thing? (If she only could see into the future.)
Llewelyn: You don't need to know everything, Carla Jean.
Carla Jean: I need to know that.
Llewelyn: You keep runnin' that mouth I'm gonna take ya in the back and screw ya.
Carla Jean: Big talk.
Llewelyn: Keep it up.
Carla Jean: Fine. I don't wanna know. I don't even wanna know where you been all day.
Llewelyn: That'll work. ;)

And another -
Carla Jean: I got a bad feelin', Llewelyn.
Llewelyn: Well, I got a good feelin', so that should even out.

Sheriff Bell's take on why society has descended into chaos:
It starts when you begin to overlook bad manners. Anytime you quit hearin' "sir" and "ma'am, the end is pretty much in sight.

Sheriff at the crime scene: Them's some bad petunias did this.

Gas station owner to Anton Chigurh: Y'all gettin' any rain up your way?
The hair-trigger temperamented Chigurh replies: What way would that be?
Gas station owner: I seen you was from Dallas.
Chigurh: What business is it of yours where I'm from, friendo?

Yikes. Time to paint your butt white and run with the antelopes! ;)

The film ends with a weary Sheriff Bell in retirement, telling his wife about two dreams he had the night before, one especially puzzling to him and very symbolic, of his deceased father riding off on horseback and carrying a light in a horn "the way they used to do", presumably to light the way for the Sheriff when he gets there too. Or maybe it means the end of an era as the Sheriff knows it.

This is a great, suspenseful film, with everything we love from the Coen Brothers, beautifully filmed and mood-setting landscapes, and a study in human motivations and values. It's a return to their noir style of filmmaking that they do so well. The biggest amazement for me was that there was no music, and as a soundtrack lover, I didn't even notice I was so engrossed in the story. I also want to read the book that I've heard it was faithfully adapted from of the same name, by Cormac McCarthy.