Guy de Fraumeni's Hollywood In The Hamptons

No Country For Old Men

Most likely, I should not review No Country For Old Men since I am an unmitigated wimp when it comes to movies. How wimpy am I? Well, after the first 2 minutes of Gene Wilder's cutesy-tootsie pandering as Willy Wonka, I was about to fro-up. Having 5 children, I know children's movies and have a strong stomach but that was too much. There's cuteness and there's cuteness. The same with violence. There are violent movies and, there are ultra violent movies and, there's enough already! The highly talented makers of No Country for Old Men, the giggling Coen brothers Joel and Ethan, had everyone in stitches when they fed a body into a wood shredder in Fargo. Now, they have raised their kid-like cut-ups to a higher level, and have added a great deal of grim entertainment to their screen version of Cormac McCarthy's serious novel of the same name. For Cinemaniacs, No Country will be a thrilling and delightful display of movie making wizardry. For others who admire spiffy craftsmanship but find eye-winking perversity to be a stylistic negation of the film's integrity and a cold wet towel smack at the perception of the film's quality and, this film has a great many excellent qualities.

The brothers' clever, hyper-finicky pastiches have given in to an almost scene-by-scene adaptation of Mr. McCarthy's novel, following faithfully the descriptions of a bleak landscape dotted with bleak men. The characters are full, whole and real life individuals as opposed to the Coens' usual oddities served under glass. Luckily, the melding of the brothers' arty strengths with McCarthy's gripping heart pumping book, works well producing an unrelenting, frighteningly tense thriller. McCarthy's mature work helps to, at least, haze the "y" in the Coen brothers "arty" fancifulness.

The country described in No Country for Old Men is the 1980 contemporary American West, a time when drug trafficking was the work of the one time ornery cattle rustler of the past. The desiccated, vast empty spaces echo muffled complaints of the drying up of singular strength and honor. Three men will broil in the heat of a drug deal gone wrong. In a highly literate storyline, seasoned with a good deal of pulp and dark humor, the three leading men have the well-tuned actor chops to deliver authentic wit, even when doing the craziest things and those darndest things can get really darned! The players are Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem. The three are pictured separately, almost never on the screen at the same time however, they are entwined in a tag race chase all over the West Texas border, becoming more and more embroiled by fate into a dark destiny. Mr. Brolin, as Llewelyn Moss, an unqualified chump and welder who lives in a trailer, sets off the deep and swirling action. Out hunting one day, he stumbles over a huge cache of $2 million. He's just stumble-tumbleweed dumb enough to think he can keep it. Elsewhere, Mr. Bardem as Anton Chigurh, a psycho hit man, has gotten the job of getting the dough back. To call him simply psychotic is to say the Pacific Ocean is wet. He does have a sense of humor but I'd rather not give you any examples. After him, is Mr. Jones as Ed Tom Bell. His worn, vinegary-tart humor shows the warm decency of his third generation profession as Sheriff. His hound dog eyes glisten with stoic regret for the waning goodness and fast spreading evil, of which, Barden's Chigurh is a most virulent example. Tailman of the round-robin chase is Woody Harrelson as a bounty hunter who's a veteran Chigurh hunter. He knows him very well. Chigurh's kill can be decided by a coin toss.

The novel's hushed despair and emptiness is carried by the prairies wind into motels and across grit as Chigurh hunts Moss. It brushes past the Sheriff's hat as he drives in silence. The impending terror scuttles on the last gasps of the sandy gusts shuddering the brush. It is there when Brolin's dense Moss first sights the doomed drug deal through binoculars. It is a massacre leaving trucks, bodies and the stench of evil rotting in the sun. The scene's dried blood will be revitalized as Chigurh grotesquely takes life after life.

Joel and Ethan's production crew include their well-oiled, all-in-the-family crew and all are in peak form: Cinematographer Roger Denkins turns dirt and mesas into poetic watercolors. Composer Carter Burwell and sound editor Skip Lievsay make quietude musical. The Coens' favorite film editor (and one of the best) is Roderick Jaynes, a pseudonym used by the brother editing team. The Coens' smart aleck intellect has bloomed with their choice of Cormac McCarthy's book, and most importantly keeping the novelist's muscular speech, which propels the film with truth and insight. They kept the writer's integrity. Now, if they could just curb their enthusiasm a bit more. Enough, already!

Guy-Jean de Fraumeni is the producer, writer, and director of award-winning European Feature films. He has judged the major Film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, The Emmy's and various film festivals.

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