No Country For Old Men
An american film releaced in 2007 about crime, drugs, money, and Texas
Just The Facts
- Based on a book
- Rated R
- It involves what seems to be a supressed shotgun and a air can that can kill called a "captive bolt pistol"
The Plot
West Texas in June of 1980 is wide-open country, and Ed Tom Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is, like his father before him, a sheriff. a badass Hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) strangles a sheriff's deputy, jail brakes (from fuckin texas) and steals a car by using a captive bolt pistol to kill the driver. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad:a collection of dead people, a wounded Mexican begging for water, and some $2 mill in a bag that he takes,and decides to hide under his trailer. Unable to sleep, Moss returns with water for the guy. When he goes back, he gets Spotted by a pair in a jeep, he's chased on foot into the river and loses his truck
Moss next hides the satchel in the air vent of a motel room retreat, but when a group of dealers set up an ambush, he's forced to rent a connecting room that shares the same vent. Chigurh, hired to retrieve the cash, traces it via a radio transponder concealed inside the satchel (smart drug dealers). He bursts in and slaughters the Mexicans. Searching for the money, Chigurh removes the vent cover with a dime and realizes Moss has already retrieved it. Tracking Moss to a border town hotel, Chigurh's pursuit climaxes in a firefight that spills onto the streets.
Both men are badly wounded. Moss flees across the border, without geting shoot at, and passed out from his injuries and waking up in a Mexican hospital. There Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), another hitman-type guy, offers to save his life for the money. After Chigurh brutally treats his own leg wounds with stolen medication, he gets the drop on Wells back at his hotel and kills him just as Moss calls the room. Picking up the phone and carefully avoiding the blood on the floor, Chigurh offers to spare Moss's wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), for the money.
Moss arranges a meet and greet with Carla Jean in El Paso to give her the money and send her out of harm's way. Everyone goes to El Paso, but Bell and Carla Jean do not arrive until after Moss is dead in a shootout. Bell returns that night to the scene and finds that the lock to Moss's motel room door has been blown out. Chigurh hides behind the door of a motel room, observing the light through an empty lock hole. Bell enters Moss' room and notices that the vent cover has been removed with a dime and the vent is empty.
Bell visits his Uncle Ellis (Barry Corbin), an ex-lawman. Bell plans to retire because he feels "overmatched," but Ellis points out that the region has always been violent. For Ellis, thinking it's "all waiting on you, that's vanity."
Carla Jean returns from her mother's funeral to find Chigurh lying in wait. He recalls the pledge he made to her husband that could have spared her, then offers her a coin toss for her life. She will not play, instead reminding him that the choice is his alone.As he drives away, Chigurh is injured in a car accident; his left arm is badly broken. He manages to leave the scene before the police arrive.
Now retired, Bell shares two dreams with his wife (Tess Harper), both involving his deceased father. In the first dream he lost "some money" that his father had given him; in the second dream, he and his father were riding horses through a snowy mountain pass. His father, who was carrying fire in a horn, quietly passed by Bell with his head down and was "going on ahead, and fixin' to make a fire" in the surrounding dark and cold. When Bell got there, he knew his father would be waiting. Then he woke up.
additional info.
Production: $25,000,000 USD
Gross revenue: $162,113,336 USD
Approx. running time: 122 min.
release date: US: November 9, 2007
UK: January 18, 2008
Australia: November 21, 2007
I loved this film, especially the brilliant opening. But after Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin)discovers the blinking device that enables them to track him, how do the Mexicans and Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) locate him manage to locate him in that motel where he is killed? But the biggest mystery is why that door knob popping killing machine has no recoil. On my planet every action has a reaction. Guns have a kick. Rockets have thrust etc.
ReplyActually if you watch the scene where he first uses it, Chigurh's arm twitches while trying to hold steady indicating that there is a recoil.
The only problem I find with this movie was that Moss died off-screen. The problem with that is that we earlier saw him fight off Chigurh so how did he manage to win this time?
Actually it is to be assumed that Anton Chigurgh did not in fact be the one to kill Llewelyn Moss. If you recall, the Mexicans were hired along with Carson Wells because the guy who hired Anton, did not trust him. Carla Jean's mother was the one who talked to the Mexican man and mentioned where they were going and got there before Carla Jean. If you remember Carla Jean and her mother were pulling in right as the jeep of Mexicans were speeding away. Anton came later after Llewelyn had died. It isn't quite clear who had gotten the money but it is safe to assume that Anton was the one who got it considering he pulled out a one hundred dollar bill to give to that boy for his shirt.