Josh Brolin has recently gotten more invested in Western-style genre films, thanks to Denis Villeneuve's Dune, the Sicario films, and his new Amazon Prime series, Outer Range. Fifteen years ago, Brolin starred in the Coen brothers' dark Western thriller, No Country for Old Men, which won the best picture Oscar and further cemented Brolin as one of the best actors of his generation.
What made Brolin's performance in No Country for Old Men special is his role as a charismatic and vulnerable anti-hero who's constantly on the run and unable to escape from evil killers and greed. His role also contains some humor amidst all the drama and bloodshed that goes on in the film.
No Country For Old Men Transcends The Western Genre
While Sergio Leone's The Man With No Name trilogy starring Clint Eastwood inspired numerous spaghetti Westerns (as well as modern action films like the John Wick franchise), the Coen brothers directed a Western picture in which good doesn't defeat evil, and there are always consequences for one's actions. This film inspired other multi-genre Westerns like Logan in terms of bloody action, cruel villains, and older and wounded heroes who seek redemption but don't have enough time on their hands.
No Country for Old Men, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, is about a simple man named Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), an ex-soldier and welder who is hunting for deer one day and finds a bunch of dead bodies lying around the desert, along with a briefcase filled with money. Of course, without hesitation, Moss takes the money but soon realizes that the cash is drug money that other criminals and drug cartels want their hands on, including a deadly and dangerous assassin named Anton Chigurh (a villainous and darkly funny Javier Bardem). Also in the mix is an old and wise sheriff named Ed Tom Bell (a perfect Tommy Lee Jones), who understands what's going on and tries to find and help Moss, but knows that he is outmatched by the rise in crime in Texas.
While this Western may be slow-paced and quiet due to the absence of a soundtrack or score, this only makes the film more eerie and suspenseful because one might think that the story is predictable, but there are twists and turns that will shock viewers. Another interesting aspect is that all three protagonists never meet each other face-to-face, except for a couple of moments when it appears one character is about to kill another.
This Western Is An Homage To Action and Road Pictures
As Moss, Brolin delivers a calm and powerful performance as a desperate man who is confident that he will succeed in getting away with the money and kill any villain who gets in his way. However, his vulnerability ultimately catches up to him because he gets hurt and shot a few times, having to patch up wounds and move to various hotel rooms.
Brolin resembles the qualities of Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones (Brolin in fact convincingly played a younger version of Jones' Agent K in Men In Black 3), due to Moss's stern demeanor and tough-guy persona, while also having some humor and charm. Moss is also a skilled marksman who knows how to use various firearms, from shotguns to hunting rifles. He has a brief but intense shootout with Anton as each man tries to kill the other first, leaving them both heavily wounded.
A couple of funny moments include conversations with Moss and his wife, Carla Jean, and how he tells her not to worry so much about splitting up and leaving home. There's also a scene in which an elderly lady in charge of a motel asks Moss which room he wants based on bed size, even though he's traveling alone.
This film is slightly reminiscent of road films like Easy Rider and From Dusk Till Dawn based on Moss going on the run with money and trying to keep his distance from the police and other dangerous threats. However, unlike the noise in those features, this Western from the Coen brothers has the calm feel of a picture like Terrence Malick's Badlands due to the mixture of elegant scenery and the brutal nature of murder and mayhem.
Moss Is A Flawed And Tragic Hero
While Brolin's protagonist is considered a good man with intentions of riding off into the sunset, many would argue that Moss is a very flawed hero because he took money that did not belong to him, thus jeopardizing his life and the safety of his wife and her mother, along with any person Moss interacts with on his journey. Moss is also a tragic hero because he dies near the end of the film, signifying that his journey is meaningless, especially since Carla Jean and her mom are also killed. The scariest part is that none of these characters' deaths are explicitly shown, making the story even more dark and mysterious.
If Moss is the tragic and conflicted hero, Anton is the antagonist who personifies the devil, brutally murdering anyone involved with the money, and (like Harvey Two-Face) uses a coin toss to determine people's fate. The most dangerous part about Anton is that he is methodical and patient. No matter how long he takes to track people down, or if he gets hurt, he will complete his assignment one way or the other.
Brolin and Bardem both also starred in Dune (and will undoubtedly reprise their roles in the sequel). However, this is the Western that placed both actors on a new career-high, and thanks to this dark thriller, Brolin has gone on to play more tough and rugged characters (like shady CIA agent Matt Graver in Sicario). Similar to There Will Be Blood, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (all released in 2007), No Country for Old Men is a beautiful and gloomy Western that shows no mercy and displays the cruelty of human nature.