Description
Feature Film
Title:
No Country For Old MenRelease Date:
2007Genre:
Drama
Director:
Ethan & Joel Coen
I recently had someone define evil for me as “that which ought not be.”
When it comes to evil, really what more can we say? Is it possible to fully explain what it is, why it is or even where it came from? Is there anything more to say than ‘it is’ and ‘it should not be’? Is evil something that can be understood? It can be resisted, but can it be stopped?
The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure.
No Country For Old Men is a perfectly crafted film that takes its viewers into the dark world of drugs and money near the Rio Grand. But don’t think Traffic . This is a Coen brother’s film, so it is more a sampling of circumstances than a grand political statement. This film is a story that asks questions, not an agenda offering answers.
No Country story is book ended by two monologues from one of its characters, Ed Tom Bell [Tommy Lee Jones]. Bell is a sheriff in the part of Texas where the story takes place. It seems that as he draws into retirement, the many years on the job have left him perplexed by the things he has seen. The film opens with him saying,
You can say it's my job to fight it but I don't know what it is anymore. More than that, I don't want to know. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He would have to say, OK, I'll be part of this world....
Without a wasted word in the entire film, No Country slowly walks through a world of greed leading to violence and shows it for what it is: evil. As stated earlier, this film makes no attempts at answering the questions that the presence of evil in this world gives rise to. But, thanks to its much loved and hated ending, it does leave you with a pile of questions.
Considering Bell’s opening words, here are two of mine…
Is evil something that can only be dealt with if you become a part of its world?
Is this reality part of what necessitated an incarnation of God?
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