Review

“No Country For Old Men”

The Book: Written by Cormac McCarthy (2005)

If you get past the utter absence of quotation marks, Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy’s novel is an engaging piece of work. With astounding narration, this story of murder, mayhem and money in Southern Texas circa 1980 is perfectly paced for the most part.

We follow three central characters: a cold killer, a cunning cop and an Average Joe named Llewelyn Mosswho is on the run with a lot of money that doesn’t belong to him.

Long story short, Moss finds about $2 million in the aftermath of a drug deal gone to hell and flees with it, but he is pursued by the vicious hit man Anton Chigurh, who more or less kills anything that crosses his path.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is the individual investigating the killings and trying to find Moss before he becomes another statistic in Chigurh’s wild spree.

Preceding most of the chapters are narrative reflections provided by the sheriff, pondering the nature of havoc that he is witnessing and what it means to him and his perception of the world. This is the foundation of the novel’s true spirit, which is in many ways a commentary of the ever growing brutality of contemporary society.

The Movie: Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen (2007)

Considering the Coen brothers were blessed with such terrific material to work with, it’s no question that the film’s genius really rests within its performances. Every actor cast is a perfect match for his or her character in the book.

Of course, none is better than Javier Bardem as the murderous Anton Chigurh. He manages to breathe such life into a psychotic monster of a man that otherwise may have been just a forgettable antagonist confined within another book’s pages.

From the heart-stopping sound of his sinister weaponry to his goofy haircut, Bardem’s rendition of Chigurh embodies a menacing and very original demeanor that can only be truly effective when experienced visually.

Also, the style of direction and cinematography in the film is stunning, presenting us with an uncomfortably silent and cold-blooded Texas atmosphere.

As far as the plot is concerned, the Coens stick by the original material very closely, all the way down to the unconventional finale, proving their loyalty to the book.

And the winner is: The movie.

This is actually a rare instance in which a film outperforms the book from which it was originally adapted. Where the book begins to wane is exactly where the film transcends it.

The novelized violence that the Coens capture on screen is even more effectively haunting when seen on screen. In the book, the psyche of Chigurh is well-implied but not as fully realized as it is in the film.

As it approaches its end, the book seems to drag on a bit and the compact package of the movie easily solves that problem, containing no scene lacking in importance and excluding no scene that crucially serves the plot.

Comparisons aside, this is a story that can be thoroughly enjoyed through either medium. The book may pale in comparison to what the Coens and their cast have accomplished, but to the credit of the book and its cinematic translation, expect the film “No Country For Old Men” to win an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.