5/21/2023 0 Comments No country for old men book reviewHe has a goosebump-inducing opening voiceover about sending unrepentant young killers to the gas chamber, superimposed on prospects of the western terrain photographed by Roger Deakins it recalls the famous aria at the top of the Coens' first film, Blood Simple, in 1984. The twang and roll of Jones's voice is controlled with a musician's flair and the craggy folds of his hangdog face are a Texan landscape in themselves. Tommy Lee Jones plays Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, an intelligent and sympathetic lawman, from a proud family of lawmen, who is, however, preparing to quit, having become disenchanted by society's inability to contain the criminals' evolutionary leap to a new level of ruthlessness. The setting is 1980, though the period is not signalled with any of the traditional giveaways. And all of it hard and sharp as a diamond. The result is a dark, violent and deeply disquieting drama, leavened with brilliant noirish wisecracks, and boasting three leading male performances with all the spectacular virility of Texan steers. The Coens are back with a vengeance, showing their various imitators and detractors what great American film-making looks like, and they have supplied a corrective adjustment to the excesses of goofy-quirky comedy that damaged their recent work. It's their best since The Man Who Wasn't There in 2001 - and it's the best of their career so far. T he bleak and unforgiving borderlands of Texas by the Rio Grande are the setting for this triumphant new movie by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the western thriller by Cormac McCarthy.
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