No Country For Old Men

I love the shock factor of the opening 10 minutes. When you’ve no idea what a film is going to be about, nobody ever expects such brutality. There is hardly any music (if any at all?) and very little dialogue. What little conversing there is seems real and is straight to the point, yet subtly contemplative. The landscape is beautiful, and every scene of violence is extremely vivid and gritty. Despite the subject, it is oddly believable. Like many good movies, the story is not obvious from the very beginning.

The best part is definitely the assassin. His voice, his unwavering posture and occasional hints of humanity. He is basically more like a robotic killing machine and as a viewer, you can feel the fear that the characters might – the nearly mythic, indestructible, cold nature of the man. His interactions with victims prior to their savage murders is priceless! He is beyond dark and ghostly.

I think it looses its way a bit in the final quarter. However, the end, where The Sheriff is pondering his life and relays a random dream to his wife before saying “and then I woke up” is masterful!

There are deeper meanings here but I will have to watch again.