No Country for Old Men
Joel and Ethan Coen have always been among the most acclaimed American filmmakers , but they receive a young level of plaudit withNo Country for Old Men . The dark neo - westerly base on Cormac McCarthy ’s novel of the same name was the tale of a man who stumbles across a drug deal gone tough and finds a suitcase full of money . Now on the streamlet , he must evade legion party hound him , including an aging sheriff and a sadistic huffy human race .
The movie won the Coen Brothers their first Best Director Oscars as well as theirfirst Best Picture winnings . It has been hailed as one of the right films of the 21st century and created one of the most unsettling picture villains of all time . But even with all the acclaim , there are still aspects of the movie that have gone unnoticed . Here are some obscure detail fromNo Country for Old Menthat you missed .
1980
It ’s clear thatNo Country for Old Mentakes home somewhere in the recent past tense of American history but the time menstruum is never explicitly stated . By the fashion and several part mention their participation in the Vietnam War , we can take an educated supposition . However , viewers who are pay up attention sleep together the exact yr of the moving-picture show .
In the renowned scene in which Anton Chigurh ( Javier Bardem ) harasses the gas post proprietor , he give rise a coin . He says the day of the month on the coin is 1958 and that it has been traveling 22 to years to get where it is now . That makes the year 1980 .
Bardem’s Unexpected Casting
Javier Bardem was an acclaimed actor before being chuck as Anton Chigurh , but he was n’t well - known by American hearing . He mostly appeared in Spanish - speech films but this purpose catapulted him into superstardom and earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor .
Given how amazing Bardem is as Chigurh it ’s awing to believe he almost turned down the part for the simple reason that he feel he was wrong for the part . According to Bardem , he told the Coens that he hated violence , could n’t drive and could n’t speak English well , which were all major aspect of the character . The filmmakers insisted that an unexpected scene is precisely why they want him .
The Poem
The memorable name of the movie comes from the poem " Sailing to Byzantium " by William Butler Yeats . The passage in question reads , " That is no country for old men " . It seems like the verse form itself also holds a association to the themes of the picture , particularly as they pertain to Sheriff Bell .
The poem is about an elderly Isle of Man reaching the end of his living and thinking about the hereafter and what it has in store for him . This is somewhat mirrored in Bell ’s journeying as he realize throughout the film that his lawman ’s life has reached its end and he how must confront life beyond that intent .
Josh Brolin’s Audition
Though Josh Brolin is a immense superstar now , beforeNo Country for Old Men , he had fuss beget work in major plastic film . In fact , when casting was underway for this film , the Coen Brothers refuse to even forgather with Brolin for the part of Llewelyn Moss .
Brolin was filmingPlanet Terrorwith Robert Rodriguez at the time and decided to film an auditory modality . Using the high - quality camera from the film set , Rodriguez filmed the audition whileQuentin Tarantino directed . The stunt worked and Brolin jokes that the Coen Brothers were more impressed with how it was fool than the playing .
A Strange Connection
Sometimes fiction and genuine - life sentence bump up against each other in the most problematical ways . The novel ofNo Country for Old Menfeatures several passages of narration from Sheriff Ed Tom Bell ( spiel by Tommy Lee Jones in the motion picture ) . One of these passages bring in mention of a hitman who kill a justice in San Antonio .
The random mention does not appear in the movie , but it seems to be based on , or at least shares similarity to a real incident in San Antonio in 1979 when a contract bridge killer killed a evaluator . The man arrested and charge with the slaying was Charles Harrelson , Church Father of Woody Harrelson who plays Carson Wells in this picture .
Traveling Abroad
In that short sequence , Moss becomes the first character to leave the United States in any Coen Brothers film to date . The sidekick are known as some of the greatest American storytellers of our time and they seem to stick loyally to tell American news report .
There Will Be Blood
No Country For Old Menis often compared to Paul Thomas Anderson ’s masterpieceThere Will Be Blood . Both films are moth-eaten , crimson and dark films from auteur filmmakers that were released in the same yr and compete for Best Picture at the Oscars in the same year . They are also movies that rank high on many listing of proficient movies of the 21st Century .
funnily enough , these movies were shoot quite tight to each other at the same time . In fact , production forNo Country For Old Menhad to be shut down for a day because of the smoke that was seeable from take the famous vegetable oil fire scene inThere Will Be Blood .
Three Main Characters
The movie arrange up an acute cat - and - mouse chase between the three principal characters of the moving picture . Llewelyn Moss is on the run with the money . Anton Chigurh is give chase him murdering anyone who have in his way . Sheriff Bell is following the bloody path and attempt to intercept the fury .
While most motion-picture show of this kind would make to the inevitable face - off with these three characters , this film subverts first moment . In fact , none of these three independent fictitious character ever touch face to face in the film and Carla Jean ( Kelly MacDonald ) is the only one to meet all three .
Chigurh’s Shoes
One of the most unsettling picture in the film is when Chigurh yield a sojourn to Carla Jean . Even though the money has been retrieved and Llewelyn has been kill , he feels obligated to fulfill the promise he made to Llewelyn before . He decides he will give Carla Jean the hazard to preserve herself with the somersaulting of a coin .
We do n’t see the result of the coin toss but give what hail before we can generalize what go on . Throughout the moving picture , Chigurh is seen to obsess over keeping his feet clean from blood , presumptively to avoid leaving tracks . When he leave Carla Jean ’s house , he takes a moment to checker his feet , incriminate he killed her .
Bell’s Dream
The film does a wonderful line of work of setting up outlook and subverting them with the last bit . The narrative suddenly shifts to focus on Sheriff Bell and we fare to realize that the fib was really about him and his response to the wildness he total across .
The final scenein which Bell recounts his dream from the previous night has been debated since the plastic film ’s release . Some interpret the dream to be Bell realizing that even in a world of darkness , there is always light up onwards . However , some interpreted his closing line " Then I woke up " to be his realization that the whimsy is wishful thought process and the world does n’t work like that .
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