No Country for Old Men ****

"No Country for Old Men" is a very violent and exhausting film. I had put off seeing it until now because I do not enjoy violent movies, not just the gorno variety, like the "Saw" series or "Hostel," but any movie that employs the depiction of pain or murder as a shock device to keep the adrenaline pumping. But with so many nominations and awards, I felt I had to see it. Besides, this is the team that brought us "Fargo," one of the great films of the '90s. But if you have a similar aversion to screen violence, I suggest you stay away.

"NCFOM" is a very artfully done movie. I can find little to fault in the screenplay, the direction, the cinematography, the soundscape (wonderful use of silence and natural sounds rather than a score that telegraphs every shock), the acting (Brolin, Bardem, and Jones are all outstanding). But why spend two hours following a pathological killer chasing a hunter who happens upon $2 million in drug money cash and decides to keep it, realizing the huge risk he is taking?

It's interesting how the Coens depict the killings, or not. They show murders in gruesome detail, but only of characters we don't know. Early on, there's the deputy who fatefully turns his back after arresting Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), arrested for what we don't know. Anton's victims soon multiply, after he's put on the case of the missing money by the drug lords, all shown in shocking detail. There are innocent bystanders, or not-so-innocent participants in the violent Mexican/U.S. drug trade in West Texas in 1980. But once we know a character, even a little, the murder close-ups stop. We watch over the shoulder of a character that is on screen for just a few minutes before Anton blasts him. And for other characters, ones we know well and care about, we see only the aftermath, or not even that, perhaps, just a killer checking his boots to see if there's any blood as he departs the scene.

By the end of the movie, you realize that it's not just West Texas in 1980 that is inhospitable to old men, but that it's all old men who have no country. They can only see that other generations before them have had similar disconnects, and can only dream of riding into the cold and dark, and sitting at a campfire with a comforting ghostly presence.

Rated R. 122 minutes. Written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen from the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Produced by Ethan and Joel Coen and Scott Rudin. Distributed in the U.S. by Miramax Films. Principal actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, and Kelly Macdonald.