The Oscar goes to...

The latest Cohen bros.' movie, "No country for old men", is exceedingly brilliant and it fully deserved the 4 academy awards it received last night. It is the movie of maturity for the two brothers since it eloquently combines features already seen in some of their previous works. As in the Big Lebowski, we are introduced to the local events of an American region (this time it's Texas), through the external narration of the local sheriff , Tom Bell (a superb Tommy Lee Jones). As in Fargo, a modest person and Vietnam veteran with a passion for hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), is trying to change his life forever, until his masterplan becomes too complicated for him to handle. Unlike in Fargo, this time the character is accidentally induced to a change in his life. He happens to find a suitcase full of money during a hunting session, which is the leftover of an unsuccessful drug deal involving some brutally killed mexicans (we are right on the border). As he finds the money, he announces to his wife that their life is gonna change. But then, he commits a mistake. Pulled by mercy for a wounded drug dealer he saw on the crime scene, he goes back there at night to bring him some water (remember the guy is a veteran from 'Nam). He is then almost caught by the criminals and from then on he himself becomes paradoxically the pitiful prey of some obnoxious criminals: not only the mexican drug-dealers, but also another, more dangerous person.

The movie then starts to be centred mainly on the complex personality of this serial killer hired to lead the big man-hunt: Anton Chigarh (Javier Bardem), whose name sounds like "sugar" with Texas accent, but who is everything but sweet. Like a modern Cerberus, he decides the destiny of his own victims, either by his own grand-scheme or, more sadically, by a simple toss of a coin. He brutalizes his victims with a sort of weird gun used to kill animals. But before doing that, he engages them in uncomfortable dialogues, which are supposed to find inconsistency in attitudes and motivations behind their lives' choices. For example, when facing another man-hunter , Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), just before finalizing his execution, he asks him the following question: "If the rule you followed brought you to this, what good is the rule?".

No country for old men explicitely adopts a violent filming language, but this is a necessity given the content of the movie. It anyhow soon departs from it, moving on a higher narrative record when it starts to give preponderance in the last part to the thoughts and actions of the Sheriff. He suddenly ceases to be the narrator, as he himself is a fundamental part of the tragedy which is happening. We come to know that he is frustrated by the increasing amount violence which is shaking his community, and thus he had planned to retire. The more violence happens, the more he tries to bring order into town, but what we see is just him constantly missing the targets of his investigation plans. Like an inescapable consequence of his decision, we come to understand why what we see is "No country for old men". The movie engages with an end which is appropriately metaphysical, but, intentionally, it does not leave any precise message, which I guess it's the reason why, although breath-taking but sometimes too harsh, the Cohen brothers' movies are so highly enjoyable! A must-see!!