No Country for Old Men
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Produced by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen Scott Rudin
Written by	Screenplay: Joel Coen Ethan Coen Novel: Cormac McCarthy
Starring	Tommy Lee Jones Josh Brolin Javier Bardem
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Editing by	Roderick Jaynes
Distributed by	Miramax Films (US) Paramount Vantage (non-US)
Release date(s)	United States: November 9, 2007 (limited) November 21, 2007 (wide) Australia: 26 December 2007 United Kingdom: 18 January 2008
Running time	123 min.
Country	United States
Language	English, Spanish
Budget	US$25 million
Gross revenue	$160,132,665
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 crime thriller film adapted for the screen and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name,^[1][2] No Country for Old Men tells the story of a drug deal gone bad and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance the Coen brothers have previously explored in Blood Simple and Fargo. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 407 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (800 × 1178 pixels, file size: 673 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) // The publicly released theatrical poster for No Country for Old Men (2007). ... Joel and Ethan Coen, known as The Coen Brothers, are Oscar-winning American filmmakers. ... Joel and Ethan Coen, known as The Coen Brothers, are Oscar-winning American filmmakers. ... Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American motion picture producer and theatre producer known for his award-winning films and Broadway plays and also for his legendary temper. ... Joel and Ethan Coen, commonly called The Coen Brothers in the film business, are United States directors best known for their quirky comedies like Fargo and Raising Arizona; the brothers write their own scripts and alternate top billing for the screenplay. ... Joel and Ethan Coen, commonly called The Coen Brothers in the film business, are United States directors best known for their quirky comedies like Fargo and Raising Arizona; the brothers write their own scripts and alternate top billing for the screenplay. ... For the musician, see Cormac McCarthy (musician). ... Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... Josh Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. ... Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is an Academy Award-, four-time Goya Award-, BAFTA-, two-time European Film Award-, two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-, two-time Coppa Volpi- and Golden Globe-winning Spanish actor. ... Carter Burwell (born November 18, 1955, in New York) is a composer of film soundtracks. ... Roger Deakins (born May 24, 1949 in Torquay, Devon, England) has established himself as a successful cinematographer in America and Britain. ... Joel and Ethan Coen at Cannes 2001 Joel and Ethan Coen, commonly known as The Coen Brothers have written and directed numerous successful films, such as comedies O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, as well as darker film noir dramas such as Fargo, Millers... Miramax Films is a film production and distribution brand that was a Big Ten film motion picture distribution and production company headquartered in New York City before being bought out by The Walt Disney Company. ... Paramount Classics logo Paramount Vantage (originally Paramount Classics) is the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures (which in turn is owned by Viacom), charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally those with a more art house feel than films made and distributed by its parent company. ... is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... USD redirects here. ... 2007 has been referred to, by film and media critics, as the year of the threequels, a nickname referring to both the 2004 summer movie season and several film franchises which premiered or had installments released in 2004, which appear again this year: Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Ocean... The thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television. ... Joel and Ethan Coen, known as The Coen Brothers, are Oscar-winning American filmmakers. ... Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... Josh Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. ... Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is an Academy Award-, four-time Goya Award-, BAFTA-, two-time European Film Award-, two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-, two-time Coppa Volpi- and Golden Globe-winning Spanish actor. ... Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. ... For the musician, see Cormac McCarthy (musician). ... No Country for Old Men is a 2005 novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. ... A drama film is a film that depends mostly on in-depth character development, interaction, and highly emotional themes. ... West Texas is a region in Texas that has more in common geographically with the Southwestern United States than it does with the rest of the state. ... Blood Simple is a neo-noir film, the debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, writers and directors of Fargo, The Man Who Wasnt There, and Raising Arizona, among others. ... Fargo is a 1996 American crime-comedy-drama film written, directed and produced by the Coen Brothers. ...

No Country for Old Men has been highly praised by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as good a film as the Coen brothers…have ever made."^[3] Guardian journalist John Patterson said the film proved "that the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors."^[4] The film was honored with numerous awards, garnering three British Academy of Film awards, two Golden Globes, and four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Anthony Mann (June 30, 1906 - April 29, 1967), was an American actor and film director. ... David Samuel Sam Peckinpah (February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director who achieved iconic status following the release of his 1969 Western epic The Wild Bunch. ... BAFTA Award The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, childrens film and television, and interactive media. ... The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... ©A.M.P.A.S.® The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to artists working in the motion picture industry. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. ...

Plot

The film opens with shots of desolate, wide-open country in West Texas in June 1980 as the antagonist, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), is apprehended by a sheriff's deputy while in possession of a captive bolt pistol he uses as a weapon. In a voiceover, the local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) tells of the changing times as the region becomes increasingly violent. Chigurh strangles the sheriff's deputy while handcuffed, escapes custody, steals a patrol car, pulls over a driver while in possession of the cruiser, and steals another car by using the bolt pistol to kill the driver. Meanwhile, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), hunting pronghorn near the Rio Grande, comes across a group of corpses, abandoned pickup trucks, and one dying Mexican: the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry. He also finds two million dollars in a satchel a short distance from the massacre. Initially taking the money and leaving the Mexican to die, Moss suffers a pang of conscience later that night and returns with water for the dying man. Discovered by returning Mexican gangsters, Moss barely escapes, and is forced to abandon his truck at the site of the failed drug deal. The Mexican gangsters, Chigurh, and Bell all use the truck's registration number to identify Moss, setting off a pursuit that will continue for the rest of the film. West Texas is a region in Texas that has more in common geographically with the Southwestern United States than it does with the rest of the state. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is an Academy Award-, four-time Goya Award-, BAFTA-, two-time European Film Award-, two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-, two-time Coppa Volpi- and Golden Globe-winning Spanish actor. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... VoiceOver is a feature built into Apple Computers Mac OS X v10. ... Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... Josh Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. ... Binomial name Antilocapra americana Ord, 1815 Subspecies The Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae, and the fastest mammal in North America running at speeds of 58 mph (90 km/h). ... “Río Bravo” redirects here. ... Panamanian motor vessel Gatun during the largest cocaine bust in United States Coast Guard history (20 tons), off the coast of Panama. ... A satchel is a bag used by many people to carry books, and other objects in. ... For other uses, see Gangster (disambiguation). ...

On returning to his trailer, Moss places his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), on a bus to her mother's home in Odessa, Texas, and then leaves town himself. Shortly afterward, Chigurh, a professional hitman who has been hired to retrieve the satchel of money, arrives at Moss's trailer, but finds it abandoned. Chigurh then uses a radio receiver to track Moss to a motel in Del Rio, Texas where Moss has hidden the satchel inside an air vent. Moss has also been followed there by three Mexican gangsters, who wait inside his motel room to ambush him. Moss, however, sees their car, rents an adjacent room, and retrieves the satchel through the common vent. As he is retrieving the satchel, Chigurh bursts into Moss's original room and slaughters the Mexicans. Searching for the satchel, Chigurh sees the vent cover, unscrews it from the wall using a dime, and looks inside where he sees tell-tale scuff marks inside the vent. He realizes that Moss has escaped with the money. Using the receiver again, Chigurh tracks Moss to a border town hotel. In his hotel room, Moss discovers a radio transponder hidden in the satchel of money. Moments later, Chigurh arrives, and the two engage in a firefight that spills onto the streets. During the fight Chigurh takes a shotgun blast to his leg; this leaves him with a noticeable limp for the remainder of the film. Kelly Macdonald (born February 23, 1976) is a Scottish actress, born in Glasgow, Scotland. ... A hitman is a hired assassin paid to assassinate a target via contract killing. ... Del Rio is the county seat of Val Verde CountyGR6,United States. ... For other uses, see Dime. ...

Narrowly escaping death by crossing the border, the wounded Moss wakes up after being transported to a Mexican hospital where he meets Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), another operative hired by the drug buyer (who is killed by Chigurh in his office). After Moss rejects Wells's offer to save his life, Wells returns to his hotel where he is killed by Chigurh just as Moss calls his room. Picking up the phone, Chigurh offers to spare Carla Jean if Moss forfeits the money, although Moss himself would still be killed. It is an offer that Moss angrily rejects. While speaking with Moss, Chigurh lifts his boots to avoid the pool of Wells's blood that is spreading across the carpet. Woodrow Woody Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated actor. ...

Moss arranges a rendezvous with Carla Jean in El Paso to give her the money and send her out of harm’s way. The characters all converge on a seedy hotel in El Paso, but not simultaneously: Sheriff Bell arrives just after the Mexicans have found and killed Moss in a shootout; Carla Jean arrives some time later and discovers what has happened. El Paso redirects here. ...

Sheriff Bell returns that night to the now-quiet motel and finds that the lock to Moss's hotel room door has been blown out. Chigurh is shown hiding behind the door of a motel room as he observes Bell in the reflection of the empty lock hole. His gun drawn, Bell enters the room where Moss was killed and notices the vent cover, which is rectangular but covers a round hole about 10 inches in diameter, has been removed with a dime. Bell eventually leaves without encountering Chigurh.

Some time later Bell visits his Uncle Ellis (Barry Corbin), an ex-lawman. Bell is planning to retire due to his weariness of the changing times, but Ellis points out that the region has always been violent. He accuses Bell of "vanity" in thinking that he could personally make a difference. Leonard Barrie Barry Corbin (born October 16, 1940) is an American character actor with over 100 credits in film and television and several in computer games. ...

Chigurh, in the meantime, has located the widowed Carla Jean and waits for her at her recently deceased mother's home. Telling her that although he "gave Llewelyn his word" that she would die if Moss did not hand over the money, Chigurh reconsiders and offers Carla Jean the same "coin flip" opportunity previously given to an innocent bystander. Carla Jean, however, refuses to call heads or tails, instead saying that the choice is ultimately up to him.

The audience next sees Chigurh leave the front door of the house and check the soles of his boots. As Chigurh drives away he is seriously injured in a car accident in which his left arm is badly broken; he manages, however, to leave the scene before the police arrive.

The film shows Bell at home, in retirement, reflecting on his life choices. Bell relates to his wife (Tess Harper) two dreams he had, both involving his deceased father who was also a lawman. Bell reveals that in the first dream he lost "some money" that his father had given him; in the second dream, he and his father were riding horses through a snowy mountain pass. His father, who was carrying fire in a horn, quietly passed by Bell with his head down and was "going on ahead, and fixin' to make a fire" in the surrounding dark and cold. When Bell got there, his father would be waiting. Bell closes the dream with, "And then I woke up." Tessie Jean Washam (born August 15, 1950), better known as Tess Harper, is an American actress. ...

Themes and style

While No Country for Old Men is a "doggedly faithful" adaptation of McCarthy's 2005 novel and its themes, the film also revisits themes which the Coens had explored in their earlier movies Blood Simple and Fargo.^[5] The novel's motifs of chance, free-will, and predestination are familiar territory for the Coen brothers, who presented similar threads and tapestries of "fate [and] circumstance" in earlier works including Raising Arizona featuring another seemingly un-killable maniacal hitman albeit less nihlistic in tone.^[6][7] Numerous critics cited the importance of chance to both the novel and the film, focusing on Chigurh's fate-deciding coin flipping,^[8] but noted that the nature of the film medium made it difficult to include the "self-reflective qualities of McCarthy’s novel."^[9] For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... Blood Simple is a neo-noir film, the debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, writers and directors of Fargo, The Man Who Wasnt There, and Raising Arizona, among others. ... Fargo is a 1996 American crime-comedy-drama film written, directed and produced by the Coen Brothers. ... Raising Arizona is a 1987 Coen Brothers comedy film starring Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, William Forsythe, John Goodman, Frances McDormand, and Randall Tex Cobb. ...

In The Village Voice, Scott Foundas writes that "Like McCarthy, the Coens are markedly less interested in who (if anyone) gets away with the loot than in the primal forces that urge the characters forward… In the end, everyone in No Country for Old Men is both hunter and hunted, members of some endangered species trying to forestall their extinction."^[10] Roger Ebert writes that "the movie demonstrates how pitiful ordinary human feelings are in the face of implacable injustice."^[11] This article is about a New York newspaper. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

New York Times critic A.O. Scott points out that Chigurh, Moss, and Bell each "occupy the screen one at a time, almost never appearing in the frame together, even as their fates become ever more intimately entwined."^[12] The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Variety critic Todd McCarthy describes Chigurh's modus operandi: Variety (linguistics) is a concept that includes for instance dialects, standard language and jargon. ... Modus operandi (often used in the abbreviated form MO) is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as mode of operation. ...

Production

Producer Scott Rudin bought the book rights to McCarthy's novel and suggested a film adaptation to the Coen Brothers, who at the time were attempting to adapt the novel To the White Sea by James Dickey.^[14] By August 2005, the Coen Brothers agreed to write and direct a film adaptation of No Country for Old Men, having identified with how the novel provided a sense of place and also how it played with genre conventions. Joel Coen said of the unconventional approach, "That was familiar, congenial to us; we're naturally attracted to subverting genre. We liked the fact that the bad guys never really meet the good guys, that McCarthy did not follow through on formula expectations."^[14][15] The Coens also identified the appeal of the novel to be its "pitiless quality". Ethan Coen explained, "That's a hallmark of the book, which has an unforgiving landscape and characters but is also about finding some kind of beauty without being sentimental." The adaptation was to be the second of McCarthy's work, following the 2000 film All the Pretty Horses.^[16] Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American motion picture producer and theatre producer known for his award-winning films and Broadway plays and also for his legendary temper. ... James Dickey (February 2, 1923 – January 19, 1997) was a popular United States poet and novelist. ... All the Pretty Horses is a 2000 film, directed by Billy Bob Thornton and based on the novel of the same title by American author Cormac McCarthy. ...

Writing

The brothers kept the script faithful to the book, only pruning the story where necessary.^[14] The script was so faithful to the novel that Ethan described the screenwriting process by saying, "[O]ne of us types into the computer while the other holds the spine of the book open flat."^[4] A teenage runaway who appeared late in the book and the backstory related to Bell were both removed.^[17] Also changed from the source material was Carla Jean Moss' reaction when finally faced with the imposing figure of Chigurh. As Kelly MacDonald explained to CanMag: "The ending of the book is different. She reacts more in the way I react. She kind of falls apart. In the film she's been through so much and she can't lose any more. It's just she's got this quiet acceptance of it."^[18] In narratology, a back-story (also back story or backstory) is the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. ...

The writing is also notable for its minimal use of dialogue, relying mostly on cinematography and editing to create the film's dramatic tension. Josh Brolin discussed his initial nervousness with having so little dialogue to work with:

I mean it was a fear, for sure, because dialogue that’s what you kind of rest upon as an actor, you know? […] Drama and all the stuff is all dialogue motivated. You have to figure out different ways to convey ideas. You don’t want to over-compensate because the fear is that you’re going to be boring if nothing’s going on. You start doing this and this and taking off your hat and putting it on again or some bullshit that doesn’t need to be there. So yeah, I was a little afraid of that in the beginning.^[19]

Casting

Actors Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones entered talks to join the cast in February 2006.^[20] Jones was the first actor to be officially cast in No Country for Old Men. The Coen Brothers felt that Jones fit the role since they wanted to avoid sentimentality and not have the audiences perceive the character to be a Charley Weaver.^[14] Praising Tommy Lee Jones' credentials, the Coen brothers said, "He's from San Saba, Texas, not far from where the movie takes place. He's the real thing regarding that region." Joel Coen further outlined the directors' reasons for hiring Tommy Lee Jones in interview with Emanuel Levy: Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is an Academy Award-, four-time Goya Award-, BAFTA-, two-time European Film Award-, two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-, two-time Coppa Volpi- and Golden Globe-winning Spanish actor. ... Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... Clifford Arquette (December 28, 1905–September 23, 1974) was an actor and comedian, famous for his role as Charley Weaver. ... San Saba is a town located in San Saba County, Texas. ...

There are just very, very few people who can carry a role like this one […] Sheriff Bell is the soul of the movie and also, in a fundamental way, the region is so much a part of Sheriff Bell, so we needed someone who understood it […] It’s a role that also requires a kind of subtlety that only a really, really great actor can bring to it. Again, the list of these is pretty short, so when you put those two criteria together, you come up with Tommy Lee Jones. Being a Texan, the region is a part of his core.^[21]

Josh Brolin joined the cast shortly after in April, prior to the start of production.^[22] Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino filmed Brolin's first audition for the movie on a $1 million Genesis camera during lunch while filming Grindhouse; however, Brolin was initially overlooked for the role of Llewelyn. According to Brolin, the Coens's only response to the audition tape was, "Who lit it?"^[23] Brolin said it was only due to his agents' persistence that he eventually got a callback: Josh Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. ... For the American composer born 1946, see Robert Xavier Rodriguez. ... Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an Academy Award- and Palme dOr-winning American film director, screenwriter and actor. ... Grindhouse is a 2007 anthology film co-written, produced and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. ...

What I found out now was their last casting session, they were focused on a couple of actors. They called me the night before and they said, basically, no harm, no foul. ‘Leave us alone, have him come down.’ I studied a few scenes and I came down and I met them, and there was really no reaction in the meeting. I walked out thinking, ‘It was great meeting the Coens. I’m a big fan. That’s cool.’ And by the time I got home I found out they wanted me to do it.^[19]

Brolin broke his collarbone in a motorcycle accident a few days before filming was due to begin; however he and his doctor lied about the extent of his injury to the Coens and they let him continue in the role.^[24] ...

The Coens later wrote a short tongue-in-cheek piece for Esquire magazine called "Josh Brolin, the Casting Mistake of the Year," in which they claimed to have believed that they had cast James Brolin in the role of the aging Vietnam vet, and upon realizing their mistake were forced to reset the movie in the year 1980, and attempted, unsuccessfully, to recast Tommy Lee Jones' role with Shia LaBeouf.^[25] August 2005 issue of Esquire Esquire is a mens magazine by the Hearst Corporation. ... James Brolin (born July 18, 1940) is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning and Emmy Award-winning American television, film, character actor, producer, and director. ... Shia Saide LaBeouf[1] (pronounced SHY-uh luh-BUFF, IPA: [2]; born June 11, 1986) is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning[3] American actor and comedian. ...

Shooting

The project was a co-production between Miramax Films and Paramount's classics-based division in a 50/50 partnership, and production was scheduled for May 2006 in New Mexico and Texas. With a total budget of $25 million, production was slated to take place in the cities of Las Vegas and Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as in the state of Texas. Filmmakers estimated spending between $12 and $17 million of the budget in New Mexico.^[26] A movie set of a border checkpoint was built at the intersection of Interstate 25 and New Mexico State Highway 65.^[27] The bulk of the film was shot in New Mexico, and primarily there in Las Vegas, which doubled as the border towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas. The U.S.-Mexico border crossing bridge was actually a freeway overpass in Las Vegas. Other scenes were filmed around Marfa and Sanderson in West Texas, and the scene in the town square was filmed in Piedras Negras, Coahuila in Mexico.^[28] Miramax Films is a film production and distribution brand that was a Big Ten film motion picture distribution and production company headquartered in New York City before being bought out by The Walt Disney Company. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Paramount Classics logo Paramount Vantage (originally Paramount Classics) is the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures (which in turn is owned by Viacom), charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally those with a more art house feel than films made and distributed by its parent company. ... For other uses, see New Mexico (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... A border checkpoint is, as its name suggests, a place between borders where the identities of the ongoers or their cargo are evaluated. ... For other uses, see New Mexico (disambiguation). ... The Plaza Hotel, built in 1881, on the Plaza of West Las Vegas. ... Map of the city 1887 Eagle Pass is a city in Maverick County, Texas, United States. ... Del Rio is the county seat of Val Verde CountyGR6,United States. ... Marfa is a city located in Presidio County, Texas. ... Sanderson can be: Sanderson, Texas Sanderson High School This human name article is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that might otherwise share the same title, which is a persons or persons name. ... West Texas is a region in Texas that has more in common geographically with the Southwestern United States than it does with the rest of the state. ... Coordinates: , Country Mexico State Municipality Piedras Negras Founded June 15, 1850 Government  - Mayor Jesus Mario Flores Garza Elevation 250 m (820 ft) Population (2005)  - Total 143,915  - Demonym Nigropetense Time zone CST (UTC-6) Postal code Area code(s) 878 Website: www. ...

Cinematographer Roger Deakins, collaborating with the Coen Brothers for the ninth time, spoke of his approach to the film's look: "The big challenge on No Country for Old Men is making it very realistic, to match the story. It's early days, but I'm imagining doing it very edgy and dark, and quite sparse. Not so stylized."^[29] Roger Deakins (born May 24, 1949 in Torquay, Devon, England) has established himself as a successful cinematographer in America and Britain. ...

Directing

One of the Coen brothers' influences was the works of director Sam Peckinpah. In an interview for The Guardian, they said "Hard men in the south-west shooting each other - that's definitely Sam Peckinpah's thing. We were aware of those similarities, certainly."^[4] David Samuel Sam Peckinpah (February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director who achieved iconic status following the release of his 1969 Western epic The Wild Bunch. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ...

In an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Coens discussed choreographing and directing the film's violent scenes: ...

'That stuff is such fun to do,' the brothers chime in at the mention of their penchant for blood-letting. 'Even Javier would come in by the end of the movie, rub his hands together and say, "OK, who am I killing today?"' adds Joel. 'It's fun to figure out,' says Ethan. 'It's fun working out how to choreograph it, how to shoot it, how to engage audiences watching it.'^[30]

Josh Brolin discussed the brothers' directing style in interview, saying that the Coens

only really say what needs to be said. They don’t sit there as directors and manipulate you and go into page after page to try to get you to a certain place. They may come in and say one word or two words, so that was nice to be around in order to feed the other thing. ‘What should I do right now? I’ll just watch Ethan go humming to himself and pacing. Maybe that’s what I should do, too.’^[19]

Musical score and Sound

Unusual for a thriller, the Coens worked against Hollywood convention and minimized the score used in the film, leaving large sections devoid of music. The concept was Ethan's who persuaded a skeptical Joel to go with that idea. There is some music in the movie, scored by the Coens' longtime composer, Carter Burwell, but even that eschews conventional instrumentation using singing bowls and Buddhist standing metal bells that produces the minimalist sounds required for the score. The movie contains only 16 minutes of music in total with several of those in the end credits, though unusually, the film ends and cuts immediately to credits without music playing over the credits for several seconds. Sound editing and effects were provided by another longtime Coens collaborator, Skip Lievsay, who used a mixture of emphatic sounds (gun shots) and ambient noise (engine noise, prairie winds) in the mix. The cattle gun used by Chigurh was in fact voiced by a pneumatic nail gun.^[31] Carter Burwell (born November 18, 1955, in New York) is a composer of film soundtracks. ... A new Nepalese singing bowl Rin gong at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto Singing bowls, also known as Himalayan bowls, cup gongs or (in Japan) rin gongs, are a musical instrument used in Buddhist meditation, dating back many centuries. ... Buddhism, a Dharmic faith, is usually considered one of the worlds major religions, with between 230 to 500 million followers. ... A bell is a simple sound-making device. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Cast and characters

Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell

A laconic, soon-to-retire small-town sheriff.

Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss

A welder and Vietnam veteran who flees with $2 million in drug money.

Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh

A sociopathic assassin hired to recover the drug money. The character was a recurrence of the "Unstoppable Evil" archetype found in the Coen Brothers' work, though the brothers wanted to avoid one-dimensionality, particularly a comparison to The Terminator.^[17] The Coen Brothers sought to cast someone "who could have come from Mars" to avoid a sense of identification. The brothers introduced the character in the beginning of the film in a manner similar to the opening of the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth.^[14] Chigurh has been perceived as a "modern equivalent of Death from Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal".^[32] Chigurh's distinctive look was derived from a 1979 photo from a book supplied by Tommy Lee Jones which featured photos of brothel patrons on the Texas-Mexico border.^[33] Describing his "extraordinary moptop haircut," he said, "You don't have to act the haircut. The haircut acts by itself." Bardem signed on because he had been a Coens fan ever since he saw their debut, Blood Simple.^[34]

Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss

Llewelyn Moss' wife. Despite having severe misgivings about her husband's plans to keep the money, she still supports him. Macdonald said that what attracted her to the character of Moss was that she "wasn't obvious. She wasn't your typical trailer trash kind of character. At first you think she's one thing and by the end of the film, you realize that she's not quite as naïve as she might come across"^[18]

Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells

A cocky bounty hunter and retired colonel hired to intercept Chigurh and recover the drug money.

Tess Harper as Loretta Bell

Bell's wife, provides reassurance in his darker moods.

Barry Corbin as Ellis

A retired sheriff shot in the line of duty and now wheelchair-bound. He acts as a straight-talking sounding board to his nephew, Bell.

Beth Grant as Agnes

Carla Jean's mother and the mother-in-law of Moss. She provides a little comic relief despite the fact that she is dying from "the cancer".

Stephen Root as Man who hires Wells

A mysterious figure who apparently was involved in the financing of the drug deal and the search for the money. He hired Wells, Chigurh and the Mexicans.

Dan Fleury as Thomas Thayer

Elderly rural gas station clerk with good fortune as his call on Anton's coin flip saves his life.

Garret Dillahunt as Wendell

Bell's inexperienced deputy sheriff, Wendell assists in the investigation and provides comic relief.

Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. ... Josh Brolin (born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. ... Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is an Academy Award-, four-time Goya Award-, BAFTA-, two-time European Film Award-, two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-, two-time Coppa Volpi- and Golden Globe-winning Spanish actor. ... Antisocial personality disorder (APD) is a personality disorder which is often characterised by antisocial and impulsive behaviour. ... Information Portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger Created by James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd The Terminator is a fictional character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger -- a cyborg[1], initially portrayed as a programmable assassin and military infiltration unit. ... This article is about the planet. ... The Man Who Fell to Earth is a 1976 science fiction film directed by Nicolas Roeg about an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought. ...   (IPA: in Swedish; usually IPA: in English) (July 14, 1918 – July 30, 2007) was a Swedish film, stage, and opera director. ... The Seventh Seal (Swedish: Det sjunde inseglet) is an existential 1957 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman about the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) across a plague-ridden landscape. ... The moptop hairstyle is defined by a shaggy bowlcut (straight cut with a straight fringe), usually hanging over the ears. ... Blood Simple is a neo-noir film, the debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, writers and directors of Fargo, The Man Who Wasnt There, and Raising Arizona, among others. ... Kelly Macdonald (born February 23, 1976) is a Scottish actress, born in Glasgow, Scotland. ... Woodrow Woody Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated actor. ... Tessie Jean Washam (born August 15, 1950), better known as Tess Harper, is an American actress. ... Leonard Barrie Barry Corbin (born October 16, 1940) is an American character actor with over 100 credits in film and television and several in computer games. ... Beth Grant (born September 18, 1949, in Gadsden, Alabama) is an American actress. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951 in Sarasota, Florida) is an American actor. ... Garret Dillahunt as Jack McCall Garret Dillahunt (born November 24, 1964 in Alameda, California) is an American actor who began his career on Broadway but later began pursuing film and television roles. ... Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Release

Theatrical run

No Country for Old Men premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2007.^[35] The film commercially opened in limited release in 28 theaters in the United States on November 9, 2007, grossing $1,226,333 over the opening weekend. The film expanded to a wide release in 860 theaters in the United States on November 21, 2007, grossing $7,776,773 over the first weekend. The film subsequently increased the number of theaters to 2,037.^[36] The film opened in Australia on December 26, 2007, and in the United Kingdom (limited release) and Ireland on January 18, 2008.^[37] As of March 9, 2008, the film has grossed $72,659,000 domestically (United States).^[36] The Cannes Film Festival (French: le Festival de Cannes), founded in 1939, is one of the worlds oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals. ... is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country (typically in cities such as New York and Los Angeles). ... is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

Home media

Buena Vista Home Entertainment released the movie on DVD and in the high definition Blu-ray format on March 11, 2008 in the US. The only extras are three behind–the–scenes featurettes.^[38] Blu-ray Disc (also known as Blu-ray or BD) is an optical disc storage media format. ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Region 2 DVD (courtesy of Paramount) was released on June 2. If purchased from Play.com the DVD comes with a set of limited edition art cards. HMV is selling the DVD in an exclusive Steelbook case. It has been announced that the film will be released on Blu-Ray Disc in the UK on 8th September, 2008. is the 153rd day of the year (154th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Play. ... This article is about the trademark. ... Blu-ray discs Blu-ray Disc is a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by a group of leading consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu_ray Disc Association (BDA), which succeeds the Blu_ray Disc Founders (BDF). ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

Reception

As of March 19, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes recorded that 94 percent of 189 critics gave the film positive reviews,^[39] while another review aggregator, Metacritic, records an average score of 91%, based on 37 reviews.^[40] The film was widely discussed as a possible candidate for several Oscars,^[41][42][43] before going on to receive eight nominations, eventually winning four Academy Awards in 2008. Javier Bardem, in particular, has received considerable praise for his performance in the film. Roger Ebert gave the movie a four star review saying that it was "a masterful evocation of time, place, character, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and fate."^[44] Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central also praised the film as an effective adaptation of the source novel, declaring "...the Coens have distilled the essence of McCarthy's gash-deep nostalgia for the illusory, ephemeral past... and packaged it in the very best moments of their own well of extraordinary visions".^[45] Two minority, dissenting voices were Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader) and Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Stephen Hunter (The Washington Post). Rosenbaum, while admiring the film's aesthetics, questioned its moral culpability: for him, the Coens expend great energy on depicting horror, while encouraging us to "hypocritically shake our heads at the sadness of it all".^[46] Hunter also acknowledged the Coens's film craft, but "just [didn't] like it very much": "Nobody goes to the movies for the irony. They go for the satisfaction."^[47] is the 78th day of the year (79th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini/Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Metacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs and books. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... Jonathan Rosenbaum is a prominent American film critic. ... The Chicago Reader is an alternative newsweekly in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 1971[2] by a group of friends who attended Carleton College. ... The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... Stephen Hunter (born March 25, 1946) is an American novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C.. It is also one of the citys oldest papers, having been founded in 1877. ...

David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz both gave the film five stars. Stratton remarked "this magnificent film represents the best work the Coen Brothers have done since Fargo. Like that movie classic, this is a cold-blooded thriller with a darkly humorous edge" and "Hitchcock wouldn’t have done the suspense better." Pomeranz said "it resonates within me. It's got such a sense of place and language."^[48] Time magazine's Richard Corliss named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #1. Corliss praised Bardem’s performance as “mesmerizing” and “astonishing”, and the film as “dry, funny, beautifully acted, thrillingly cinematic.”^[49] Corliss’ fellow Time writer Richard Schickel ranked the film #2 on his own Top 10 list, saying that the film returned the Coen brothers “to their best emotional territory of Fargo and Miller's Crossing, a place where comic innocence and unmediated violence explosively coexist. You don't know whether to laugh or cry, but you cannot avert your eyes from the resulting chaos.”^[50] David Stratton (born 1939 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England ) is an Australian film critic and television personality. ... Margaret Pomeranz is an Australian film critic and television personality. ... Fargo is a 1996 American crime-comedy-drama film written, directed and produced by the Coen Brothers. ... Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 â€“ April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ... TIME redirects here. ... Richard Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports, and has distinguished himself for his clever way with words. ... Richard Warren Schickel (b. ... For the Stargate Atlantis episode, see Millers Crossing (Stargate Atlantis). ...

Reviews

• All Movie Guide link
• Empire link
• Filmcritic.com link
• Roger Ebert link
• Rolling Stone link
• Premiere link

All Movie Guide is a commercial database of information about movie stars, movies and television shows. ... Image File history File links 4. ... Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Emap Consumer Media since July 1989. ... Image File history File links 5_stars. ... Christopher Null is a columnist and blogger for Yahoo! Tech, and is the founder and editor in chief of Filmcritic. ... Image File history File links 4_stars. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... Image File history File links Stars440. ... This article is about the magazine. ... Image File history File links Stars440. ... Premiere is an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias, beginning publication in 1987. ... Image File history File links Stars440. ...

Top ten lists

The film appeared on more critics' top ten lists (354) than any other film of 2007, and was more critics' #1 film (90) than any other.^[51] Some of the notable critics' placement of No Country for Old Men are:^[52]

The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Globe and Mail is a Canadian English-language nationally distributed newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. ... The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. ... Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... This article is about the magazine. ... The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company. ... TIME redirects here. ... The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. ... The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. ... The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts and New England. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C.. It is also one of the citys oldest papers, having been founded in 1877. ... Premiere is an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias, beginning publication in 1987. ... James Berardinelli (born September 1967, New Brunswick, New Jersey) is an online film critic. ... The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. ... Richard Roeper (born October 17, 1959)[1] is a columnist/film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and, since September of 2000, has co-hosted the television series At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper with fellow film critic Roger Ebert. ... The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago. ... Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated EW) is a magazine published by Time Inc. ... The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. ... TIME redirects here. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago. ... The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts and New England. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and the oldest to have been published continually as a daily. ... October 2, 2004 edition. ... October 2, 2004 edition. ... The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a daily newspaper published in Little Rock, Arkansas. ... This just IN !!!:paris hiltons new dog. ... The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. ... Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... L.A. Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized newspaper (a so-called alternative weekly) in Los Angeles, California. ... The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a 2007 Western drama film adapted from Ron Hansens 1983 novel of the same name. ...