zhu' Movie Review: No Country for Old Men (2007), American Noe-western Crime Thriller Film About Human Nature

"No Country for Old Men" is directed by famous directors Ethan Cohen and Joel Cohen, and the crime drama film is starred by actors such as Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem. The film is a classic Cohen brother's work with its stylized shooting and deep social reflection behind the story. The film won four awards in the 80th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, and the story is about a desolate and quiet open space on the US-Mexico border in 1980. One day, a local Vietnam war veteran Moss came here to hunt. Inadvertently, he discovered the body of a group of criminals who had died due to the failure of the drug trade, as well as a large truck of drugs and a suitcase with two million cash. The greedy Moss took the suitcase with two million cash, but it brought him a murder.

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Chigurh as a perverted murderer was hired by someone else to track Moss and had to recover a lot of money. An old local police officer, in order to help Moss, he worked hard to find these two people. Regrettably, even if he tried his best to chase the cold-blooded killer, but ultimately failed to save Moss’s life and failed to kill the murderer. Returning to the case, leaving an endless sigh and grief. There are two clues in the narrative of the film. The main line is a story of chasing and fleeing, and the plot is intense and exciting, and the auxiliary line is an old police officer who is helpless in the face of social chaos. This clue seems to be free from the plot. In addition, the string of the entire film and the basic elements adjust the rhythm of the whole film. The main line of the crime scene arranged by the director has always attracted the attention of the audience, keeping the audience highly nervous. Then the director re-controlled the tense rhythm, and the film cleverly interspersed with the relatively slow-paced auxiliary line story. To adjust the mood of the audience, the two clue rhythms complement each other to form a harmonious and unified whole.

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At the same time, the director skillfully uses the two-line narrative structure to show the audience the different life situations and ways of action faced by the main line and the auxiliary line characters, in order to form a strong contrast and the promotion of the subject. On the one hand, in the extremely aggressive scenes and plots of the main story, the chaos, disorder and sin of a group of people symbolized by Chigurh are displayed, which is very vivid in the background of this impetuous era. The wildness and impulsiveness of the next person are vividly displayed. On the other hand, relying on the auxiliary line to portray the old police officer from the image, the style to the inner part of the whole, thoroughly reveals the temperament of the character and the time is not consistent with the times. The style expresses the true sympathy and compassion of the creators to the marginalized people of this generation. The two complement each other and form a strong contrast, which greatly enhances the revealing of the subject of the humanistic care of the film. It is worth noting that the photographer shows the different living environments of the two worlds through comparisons inside and outside the house. The strong outdoor symbolizes this era full of competition and fight. This world is full of human desires and executions. This is the world that the old police officer Bell can't adapt to and face. Therefore, his dilemma is just like the director's portrayed in the dimly lit hotel house, full of the desolate and helplessness that has fallen from the times. The film has almost no soundtrack from beginning to end. With those people, there is no beauty worthy of nostalgia. The use of more sports photography in this film plays a vital role in the formation of the overall style of the film. When Moss carefully searched for a live at the scene of the gun battle, the comprehensive use of the tilting lens made the plot full of crisis, and the audience couldn't help but worry that someone would suddenly attack Moss. In the scene of the fierce battle between the Moss in the hotel, the slightly swaying shots made the audience feel the tension of the atmosphere more and more. It can be said that the scene has raised the audience's mood to the highest point.

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At the same time, the director's alternate switching of lens movements shows the excitement and persistence of the old police officers when they are fully chasing the killers. It also shows the action and affection of the old police officers who feel powerless when they finally feel helpless about the incident through close-up shots. Through the lens, the film is in sharp contrast to the cold-blooded murder of the killer and the powerless feeling of the old police officer Bell. It further shows the different situations of the two characters in the same era. In addition, the film depicts the battle between Mexicans, drug dealers, private detectives, and the police through the depiction of life and death between Moss and Chigurh. This endless competition also implicitly conveys the whole. The metaphor behind a story in the film is that in the cultural model of American society, life is a competition for survival of the fittest. Whether it's the characters in the film or the real life of the Americans, everyone is such a competitive participant. Some people are turned away, an others are unimpeded, cruel and sympathetic. Throughout the film, the film continues the original care of the border people's living conditions and the tragic thinking about life forms, coupled with the director's simple and rich lens language, the relaxed narrative rhythm and the flexibility of black humor. The film successfully presented us with an allegorical picture on the border. On the basis of a good grasp of the overall artistic quality of the film, the Cohen brothers have deepened their discussion and reflection on social issues and destiny. It can be said that this film is an excellent one in both image and subject matter.

Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/6977-no-country-for-old-men?language=en-US
Critic: AAA