Something to watch tonight: Thursday 19 June
No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, 2007)
After yesterday’s recommendation of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, I got this comment from reader ML of Otago:
One of my favourite Peckinpah films, and hugely influential on a whole strand of modern crime and/or Western filmmaking (think of the Coens’ “No Country for Old Men”, or Tommy Lee Jones’s “The Three Burials”) and one of Roger Ebert’s favourite films, too….https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-bring-me-the-head-of-alfredo-garcia-1974
Then, by complete coincidence, No Country for Old Men landed on Netflix in Aotearoa New Zealand – a rare film for them because it is more than ten years old.
I wrote about No Country for the Capital Times when it was released here back in February 2008:
No Country for Old Men is essential cinema in two senses of the word. First and foremost you must see it, probably more than once. But it is also cinema reduced to its essence. Everything contributes: Cormac McCarthy’s respectfully adapted original novel; beautifully composed images superbly photographed by Roger Deakins (the only creative on the project not named Coen); editing that could be a film school in a box. The standard musical soundtrack is replaced by the music of the everyday: footsteps, coffee pots, car engines, gun fire.
A hunter (Josh Brolin) stumbles across a wilderness drug deal gone wrong: many corpses, a flatbed full of drugs and briefcase full of money. He takes the money hoping to start a new life away from the West Texas trailer park he inhabits with Trainspotting’s Kelly MacDonald. But instead of a winning lottery ticket he has unleashed the epitome of cinema badass-ery: Javier Bardem as an angel of vengeance determined to retrieve the cash by any means necessary.
All the performances are wonderful but the heart of the film is Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Ed Bell. Always (aggravatingly) a couple of steps behind he is a good man ill-at-ease with the sheer, inexplicable, evil he is confronted with. A masterpiece.
I also made it my film of the year for 2008.
Also in that February 2008 column: Auckland-shot but Alaska-set vampire thriller 30 Days of Night; George Clooney in Michael Clayton from Andor’s Tony Gilroy (which I described as “good not great” suggesting I need to pay another visit with some urgency); Leonardo DiCaprio’s environmental documentary The 11th Hour, which begs the question – where is the clock got to now, 17 years later?; and Don Cheadle starring as real-life radio star and Washington D.C. activist “Petey” Green in Talk to Me.
Tomorrow is a public holiday in Aotearoa so there’ll be no recommendation from me. Have a great long weekend, everyone.
Where to watch No Country for Old Men
Aotearoa: Streaming on Netflix
Australia: Streaming on Stan or Paramount+
Canada: Streaming on Netflix, Paramount+, Starz or Lionsgate+
Ireland & UK: Streaming on Prime Video or Paramount+
India: Streaming on Prime Video
USA: Streaming on Paramount+ or Kanopy
No Country For Old Men, you say?
Netflix, you say?
Weekend viewing sorted, I say.
Best film ever.
I use to have a rule about never watching a movie again. I’ve finally realized that’s such a dumb rule.