最近在电影上面落后了，很多电影上映好久了，都没去看。于是今天决定一定要去看No Country for old men这个评价很高的电影。顿时觉得自己的欣赏能力下降了很多，很多没看懂没听懂的地方。尤其是一开始的开场白听得就不太懂，严重影响了后面的理解。当时的感觉就是很多镜头都很惊险，不知道下一步发生什么，拿这个跟生化危机3这种质量低的打架片一比较高下立刻就分明了。回来看了几篇review, 觉得主旨还是把握住了，虽然很多细节不明，呵呵。

 

值得一提的是拍这部电影的Minneapolis人，就是当年拍Fargo拿了好几项大奖的Coen Brothers。Fargo里面的所有城市景色都是在Minneapolis拍的。 

The film opens with a shot of desolate, wide-open country in Texas. In a voice over, the local Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) tells of the changing times: in the old days, some sheriffs never wore guns; in the modern day and age, however, Bell once sent an unrepentant, teenaged boy to the electric chair who had killed a girl simply because he wanted to kill someone, had been "fixin'" to do it for some time, and would do it again if he had the chance.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a man out hunting near the Rio Grande, comes across a drug deal gone sour—leaving behind a cache of heroin, two million dollars, several corpses and one dying Mexican who asks for water. Moss takes the money and leaves, but is later bothered by his conscience and returns with water for the Mexican when he is ambushed by gunmen and barely escapes with his life.

The next day Moss puts his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) on a bus to go stay at her mother's until the conflict is resolved. Meanwhile psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), hired by a businessman (Stephen Root) to recover the drug money, begins hunting Moss after finding his truck at the scene of the drug deal. Chigurh kills without remorse almost everyone he meets on his search: he does, however, spare a gas station owner who correctly calls a coin flip. Chigurh uses a variety of weapons in the film, including a cattle gun. Moss and Chigurh play a cat-and-mouse game as Moss attempts to lose him by changing towns and hotels, to no avail (unbeknownst to Moss, the satchel of money has a transponder in it that allows the money's location to be tracked when a receiver is within close range).

Soon, Sheriff Bell, always a step behind Moss and Chigurh, pieces together the crime scene and begins looking for Moss. The businessman hires Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), an ex-Colonel who's dealt with Chigurh before, to recover the money. He quickly tracks Moss to a hospital in Mexico (where Moss recovers from his encounters with Chigurh) and offers to protect him in exchange for the money. Wells explains that he is Moss's only hope, as Chigurh has a personal code of sorts, and will kill Moss no matter what. Wells returns to his hotel and is killed by Chigurh, who was lying in wait for him.

The phone rings in Wells' hotel room; it is Moss. Chigurh tells Moss that if he brings him the money, he will spare Moss's wife, but not him. Moss refuses, vows to make Chigurh a "special project" and hangs up.

Meanwhile Bell meets with Carla Jean (who is staying with her mother) and tries to find out where her husband is. He offers to protect them both if she talks. Llewelyn calls her not long after, and tells her to meet him in El Paso, where he will give her the money and put her on a plane while he goes after Chigurh. Carla Jean calls Sheriff Bell and tells him where Moss will meet her, she then leaves with her mother to the airport, unaware they are being trailed by a team of Mexicans also after the money (with Carla's mother exacerbating the situation by unwittingly giving one of the hitmen trailing her the exact time and place they were to meet with Moss).

Bell arrives in El Paso moments too late: Moss is dead (along with another hotel guest and Mexican hitmen), the money is gone, and there is no sign of Chigurh.

Some time later, Bell visits an old friend and fellow lawman, Ellis (Barry Corbin). Bell is planning on retiring in the face of changing times that he finds insurmountable. Ellis relates the story of another lawman who was murdered in 1909 on his own front porch. The men watched him die while his wife tried to save him. Ellis points out that what Bell has been facing is nothing new.

Meanwhile, Carla Jean returns home from her mother's funeral to find Chigurh waiting for her. She doesn't have the money, so he has no reason to kill her, she says. Chigurh counters that he offered her husband the chance to save her, and he turned him down. Carla Jean repeats that he doesn't have to kill her, and Chigurh offers her a chance to save her life by winning a flip of a coin. Carla Jean refuses to call it, saying that "the coin doesn't mean anything. It's just you." The scene cuts to the outside of the house. Chigurh walks out, checking the bottom of his boots first (implying that he killed Carla after all; despite the violent nature of his profession he doesn't like to have the blood of his victims on him). Chigurh drives away but is hit by a car, breaking his arm in a compound fracture. He pays a boy (Josh Blaylock) for his shirt to use as a sling, tells the boy "You never saw me," and limps off as the ambulance arrives.

The film closes on Bell, in an uneasy retirement at home. Sitting at the breakfast table, he relates two dreams he had, both involving his father, a fellow lawman who died twenty years ago. In the second dream, the two of them are riding horses in the snow, and his father, carrying fire in a horn, rides on ahead to prepare a camp for him.

 

 

目前最picky的reviewer James Berardinelli的review:

No Country for Old Men

A Film Review by James Berardinelli

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THRILLER
United States, 2007
U.S. Release Date: 11/9/07 (limited)
Running Length: 2:02
MPAA Classification: R (Violence, profanity)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper
Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen
Screenplay: Joel & Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy
Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Music: Carter Burwell
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films

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Expecting normalcy from a Coen Brothers production is a pointless endeavor, but anticipating brilliance isn't outlandish. Their latest feature, which has about zero box office potential, provides plenty of the latter and a little of the former. It抯 mostly an off-kilter road trip that accomplishes what the Coens do best - seamlessly merging drama, violence, and quirky humor into a whole. They also accomplish something many would have believed to be impossible: providing a coherent and reasonably faithful adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel. (Many would place McCarthy in the "unadaptable" category.) However, following their own nonstandard trail, Joel and Ethan - following McCarthy's lead - decide that just because a story is worth telling, it doesn抰 demand a clean ending. This is a decision that will infuriate some members of the audience. Done right, I have always believed open ended conclusions can be assets, and I think that's the case here. Nevertheless, those who openly hissed at John Sayles' Limbo or declared the finale of The Sopranos to be a tease will not be pleased by how No Country for Old Men elects to wrap up its diverse storylines.

The movie essentially follows three characters whose paths are destined to cross. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is a heartless killer who - as we see early in the proceedings - is dangerous even when handcuffed and under police guard. He wanders the plains of Texas, killing pretty much everyone he encounters except those lucky enough to win a coin toss in his presence. Moss (Josh Brolin channeling Nick Nolte) is an ex-welder who, while on a hunting trip, stumbles across a drug deal gone bad. There are a lot of bodies, a truck full of "Mexican brown," and a suitcase of cash. Moss takes the latter but eventually wishes he hadn't since the surviving owners want it back. Meanwhile, local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is drawn into all of this because Chigurh escapes from one of his deputies and the drug deal massacre happens in his territory.

The Coens know how a thing or two about pacing, and it's relentless here. The story is full of unexpected twists and switchbacks, and opportunities for the audience to gear down and take a breath are few and far between. Like Alfred Hitchcock with Psycho, the filmmakers don抰 want viewers to become too comfortable with any of the characters - they might not be around for long. This is not a comedy (at least not in the sense that Raising Arizona and Intolerable Cruelty are), but that doesn抰 keep the Coens from inserting little moments of dry, dark humor, many of which are the result of Tommy Lee Jones?laconic wit.

The leads all do tremendous jobs, working them into Oscar nomination territory. Javier Bardem is unforgettable with his shoulder length mane of dark hair, his remorseless expression, and his ever-present high-pressure air gun. Chigurh is the kind of guy you wouldn抰 want to meet in the middle of nowhere, let alone in a dark alley. He's probably the most compelling screen villain since Anthony Hopkins brought Hannibal Lecter to life in The Silence of the Lambs. Terms like "mercy" have no meaning for him - he neither asks for nor gives quarter. Tommy Lee Jones is his usual reliable self; it's hard to ask for someone to be more comfortable in these boots. Josh Brolin is unrecognizable as the beleaguered Moss. This fall has provided Brolin with a twin chance to re-invent himself and enhance his reputation; he also has a plumb role in the recently released American Gangster. He's a bad guy there, but a good guy here. Finally, Kelly Macdonald (as Moss' wife) and Woody Harrelson (a small but memorable part as a cock-sure bounty hunter) provide effective supporting turns.

If there's one thing that can always be said of a Coen Brothers film, it's that conventional rules and expectations can be jettisoned. That's certainly the case here, with a Western that's not a Western, a crime thriller that's not a crime thriller, and a comedy that's not a comedy. Like Fargo, the movie delights in making viewers scratch their scalps. And, while the ending may be a sore point for some, it will have others chuckling and nodding their heads appreciatively (albeit perhaps after a brief "WTF?" when the end credits begin to roll). That's what good cinema is expected to do, and the success in this area of No Country for Old Men puts it among 2007's motion picture elite.