Customer Reviews

No Country for Old Men Steelbook (Steelbook Edition) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not an easy movie to watch - it is rife with tension and gore - but it is a thought-provoking one. With stark and bleak realism, it shows what can happen when criminals clash with other criminals, law-enforcers, crafty wild cards, and naive bystanders sucked into the criminal vortex. It shows what can happen when a relatively good man succumbs to the temptation to take an illegal route out of poverty, and, crafty though he is, finds himself up against a diabolically smart and ruthless sociopath - someone not likewise burdened by such distractions as a conscience or concern for loved ones. It shows how utterly cold a sociopath can be, and what a trail of destruction he can leave in his wake. Nothing is glossed here. The good guys are not better shots. Bodies do not conveniently disappear. Killings are not veiled or glorified or antiseptic, but graphic, tragic, and messy. Unlike so many action movies, this one does not lean on a punchy soundtrack or quick scene changes to heighten its impact. Rather, it moves in relative real time, and its quietness and its unblinking stare at events are quite dramatic enough. The ending is atypical, too - more of a whimper than a bang - and I think that to be disappointed by this is to miss the movie's point. In this movie, brutality is not depicted as rollicking entertainment, but as the messy, ugly, unfair, disgusting, and just plain depressing thing that it is.

The best avalaible edition of an all-time classic! One of favourite movie in a nice steelbook!
If you like this movie, you have to choose this version!

J'ai commandé 2 Steelbook de ce film pour moi et un cousin, malheureusement un de ceux-ci est arrivé avec la tranche supérieur au-dessus de bande bleu enfoncé.

Quel dommage

This movie is hard and so dark, I love it, right up to the end you don't know how it's going to finish.

Anton was a terrifying villain, in the little screen time he actually got. A lot of the violence is implied, and it causes a weird feeling in your stomach watching it. Chilling, but not what I was expecting.

We all know this is a great film with a...different kind of ending. Ill just talk about this steelbook - This is a really nice steelbook which looks much better than the normal amaray. This one has all the extras too which helps. If you like this film, get this steelbook providing its at a decent price.

Easily the best picture that year. Tremendous performance by Bardem as well as the other perfectly cast actors makes this film a top ten pick for the decade.

***Spoilers Within***

Oscar ceremonies are sometimes dominated by one or two films because the opposition is weak, but that definitely wasn't the case in 2008. Nominees included No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ratatouille, Once, The Bourne Ultimatum, Into the Wild, Atonement, Michael Clayton, Eastern Promises and American Gangster.

I was torn at the time because I couldn't decide whether I wanted There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men to win for Best Picture. In hindsight, my two favorite films from that year are Juno and No Country for Old Men. I think the Academy got it right for once by awarding No Country for Old Men the Best Picture Oscar and Daniel Day-Lewis Leading Actor.

So why do I think that No Country for Old Men deserved its win?

The film contains so many strong elements. It gave us three memorable characters and expertly combined their three viewpoints to give us a compelling story. Roger Deakins did another wonderful job showing us the bleak Texas landscape, while the direction and writing were both superb.

Llewelyn Moss (Brolin) makes a discovery while hunting for antelope. After tracking an injured animal, he finds what appears to be the result of a failed drug deal. Five trucks are surrounded by corpses and he deduces that the last man standing would have looked for shade. He eventually locates the final corpse and finds a case containing two million dollars. Moss lives in a trailer with his wife and the money represents a chance to completely change his life.

The most interesting character is Anton Chigurh (Bardem). We see him captured by police at the start of the film, but he escapes and kills a deputy in the process. He is extremely violent and his motives are unclear. At times he appears supernatural in the way he evades capture. Is he supposed to represent Death or the Devil? Bardem makes Chigurh one of the most memorable villains ever to appear on screen. There's a scene which rivals Tarantino's farmhouse scene in Inglourious Basterds in terms of tension. Chigurh has a conversation with a gas station owner and it ends with a coin flip. The scene is both absurd and chilling at the same time. We know what's at stake.

The other major character is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Jones). He's old, wise and extremely competent. Some of his choices show that he's more concerned with self-preservation than pursuing criminals, but he somehow gets the job done. One of his strengths is the ability to reconstruct crime scenes. He has a dry sense of humor and uncanny instincts.

The first part of the story focuses on Moss. He's an experienced tracker and a Vietnam veteran and we see him trying to evade pursuit. At first, he doesn't know who will be coming after him, but eventually learns that it's Chigurh. Instead of simply leaving the country, he decides to face Chigurh himself. That might seem to be a stupid choice, but Moss does have some intelligence and appears able to take care of himself.

Chigurh also seems highly competent and we get the sense that he's being doing what he does for a very long time. His pursuit is relentless. When he is injured, he's able to take care of his own wounds. He does bleed, but there's still the sense that he either is, or he at least represents, a supernatural force.

I won't reveal any more of the plot. I have heard two complaints about the film. One is the level of violence present and the other is the unusual ending. I think the ending is partly showing how unpredictable life can be, but I understand the complaints. I thought the ending was appropriate and my only regret was that I couldn't watch these characters for longer.

No Country for Old Men is many things. On the surface, it's the story of an extended chase. The Coen brothers said that it is a story of a good, evil and something between the two. Moss can be perceived as good or evil, but he's definitely committing a crime.

Some of the scenes require us to pay close attention to the events and contain very little dialogue. It reminds me of the opening sequence in There Will Be Blood in that way. It succeeds because of the writing and the tension that's present throughout the story. If you enjoy thrillers, this is one of the best I have seen.

The Blu-ray presentation is just about perfect. Every little sound comes across clearly and the Texas scenery looks breathtaking at times.

An unstoppable psychopath moves in a straight line through his personal list, flipping coins to determine the fate of his victims, while seeking a hidden fortune in this Coen Brothers film classic! It is up there with the best of them in the violent, fast-moving, suspense category. Woody Harrelson makes a surprise appearance as a smooth-talking Texan bounty-hunter hired to take down the infamous "Chigurh!"

Having read and enjoyed the book, I was looking forward to seeing the movie. After hearing all the critical praise let me tell you that it's all true. The acting is flawless with Javier Bardem being one of the most bone chilling villains in recent film history. A lot of this movie is unconventional but that's what makes it great.

Go see it!