Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: No Country for Old Men (2007) - Undigestible McCarthy adaptation lets you hang in midair

10/19/2021

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Undigestible McCarthy adaptation lets you hang in midair

♥♥♥♥

Javier Bardem's visage colored darkly hangs ominously over an escaping Josh Brolin on this poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's No Country for Old Men

A Texan hunter comes across a fortune from a drug deal gone bad and runs off with it. But following his trail is a mysterious hitman named Anton Chigurh.

No Country for Old Men is written and directed by Minnesotan master filmmaker brothers Ethan and Joel Coen (Blood Simple (1984)), adapting Cormac McCarthy's (Suttree (1979)) same-titled 2005 novel. It is their 12th feature.

It is a hell of a dark movie, so dark and grim in fact that I was surprised at its success back in 2007/08. The world must indeed be a dark place when No Country for Old Men is the film that appeals to just about everyone, - or so it felt at the time at least.

The film has terrific performances from Javier Bardem (Goya's Ghosts (2006)), Woody Harrelson (Management (2008)), Josh Brolin (American Gangster (2007)) and Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black (1997)), whose part has the humor that pulls up the experience some. Also good is Kelly Macdonald (In the Electric Mist (2009)). Roger Deakins' (Air America (1990)) photography is a star in itself here. The sound work is great.

Still although one must commend the craftsmanship and performances, No Country for Old Men is such an insufferably dark and disheartening death fest to me. I also dislike the title itself, a grievous summation of America.

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) or, The Man Who Wasn't Dylan
True Grit (2010) - The Coens' grand western present

Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
A Serious Man (2009) - One of the Coens' best; a philo-religious serio-comedy
Burn After Reading (2008) or, Idiocy 2008
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
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The Big Lebowski (1998) - The stoner comedy to reign over all

Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Fargo (1996) - The Coen brothers make movie magic with dark-humored crime thriller
Barton Fink (1991) or, The Writer's Hell

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 171.6 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 6.86 times its cost)

[No Country for Old Men premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 122 minutes. The Coens considered the film their first straight adaptation. Brolin was paid 100k $ for his performance. Shooting took place from May - August 2006 in New Mexico and Texas. The film opened #15 to a 1.2 mil. $ first weekend in 28 theaters, peaking 7 weekends later at #5, behind new releases I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks and holdover hits The Golden Compass and Enchanted, to a 3 mil. $ weekend, while it peaked in numbers of theaters much later in 2,037 venues, and eventually grossed 74.2 mil. $ (43.2 % of the total gross) in North America. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 14.1 mil. $ (8.2 %) and Spain with 10.7 mil. $ (6.2%). The film was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 4; for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Bardem). It lost Best Cinematography to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood, Editing to The Bourne Ultimatum, and Sound Mixing and Sound Editing also to The Bourne Ultimatum. It also won 3/9 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, a David di Donatello award, 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards and several other honors. IMDb users have rated the film in at #156 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Gold Rush (1925) and Dial M for Murder (1954). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Jones sued Paramount in 2008 for not paying him his due contractual salary, a case that was concluded with the company forced to pay him 17.5 mil. $ in 2010. Paramount then sued lawyers from the responsible film finance company and settled for 2.6 mil. $ over the error. Mysteriously IMDb still lists Jones' salary from the film at 10 mil. $. (Did he possibly settle for less money than the court rewarded him, maybe in exchange for something else?) The Coens returned with World Cinema (2007, short) and theatrically with Burn After Reading (2008). Jones returned in In the Valley of Elah (2007); Brolin in World Cinema (2007, short) and theatrically in In the Valley of Elah; and Bardem in Love in the Time of Cholera (2007). No Country for Old Men is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of No Country for Old Men?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

10/19/2021

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Undigestible McCarthy adaptation lets you hang in midair

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