Not a Place for Elderly People

    Back at it again with the Coen brothers! No Country for Old Men is one of the more recent Coen brother's films and I personally believe that it brings their filmography full circle and fully reflects one of their older works, Fargo, in an interesting way. No Country for Old Men tells the tale of multiple people who get intertwined into one story through corruption, money and violence. This film stars Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and Javier Bardem plays the ruthless killer Anton Chigurh. This film begins with Josh Brolin stumbling upon a drug deal that's gone bad in which he steals the money from the deal, and thus starts a wild goose chase where Bardem's character goes on a terminator-esque mission in order to retrieve the money back to it's original owners. The events that eventually unfold lead into an epic tale that all climaxes with who is going to end up getting the money.

     Throughout this film, there are many shots and scenes that remind me a lot of an earlier Coen brother's film, Fargo. What's intriguing about both No Country for Old Men and Fargo is that No Country for Old Men is basically the gritty, serious, and more brutal version of Fargo. The shot composition, containing wide angle shots of empty barren land throughout, the not-so-likely police officers who are put to crack a murder case, and a menacing villain who will stop at nothing to do his job. The only difference is this movie uses humour a lot less and seems to take itself much more seriously, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The contrast between this film and the more comedic sister film Fargo is interesting to look at and see the Coen brother's more serious progression in their films. No Country for Old Men is one of the best representations of modern western cinema and is my personal favorite Coen brother's films.