The Coen Brothers have established themselves as one of Hollywood’s most original and creative duos through films like Fargo and The Big Lebowski over their 40+ years in the industry. However, many of their fans consider their finest film to be a 2007 thriller that proved the pair could not only take on the Western genre—they could redefine it.
Based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, No Country For Old Men bears a bleak narrative following an enigmatic hitman’s quest for $2 million. Widely hailed as one of the 2000s’ best thrillers, the neo-Western flipped the genre on its head through a plot that examines the nature of violence and the role of good vs. evil in the modern age.
No Country For Old Men Reinvented The Western Genre
The Film Invokes Nihilism And Questions The Tropes Of Good Vs. Evil
Set in early ’80s Texas, No Country For Old Men follows Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) as he fights to escape with $2 million from a drug deal gone wrong, all the while being pursued by the mysterious Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a ruthless, Grim Reaper-like hitman determined to retrieve the money at any human cost.
Though heroes might reasonably exist in this cold, unforgiving world—or, at least, have the capacity to exist—none are to be found in the film’s two-hour runtime—only villains and apathetic survivors.
What separates No Country For Old Men from other modern Westerns is the grim, violent landscape its characters roam throughout its breakneck narrative. Though heroes might reasonably exist in this cold, unforgiving world—or, at least, have the capacity to exist—none are to be found in the film’s two-hour runtime—only villains and their apathetic survivors.
There’s been no Western before or since No Country For Old Men bearing as formidable and ruthless an antagonist—and, truthfully, a personification of death—as Anton Chigurh, whose nihilistic view of fate and violence underscores the film’s chilling notion that evil is but a force of nature that’s wild, incomprehensible, and utterly uncontrollable by man.
How No Country For Old Men Changed 2000s Films
The Film Ushered In A Wave Of Dark Thrillers
The 2007 release of No Country for Old Men coincided with There Will Be Blood, a similarly nihilistic Western featuring renowned method actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Together, these two ushered in a dark wave of crime thrillers in Hollywood over the rest of the 2000s, marked by such hits as Zodiac, The Dark Knight, and fellow Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road.
Ultimately, the Coen Brothers’ meticulous, dark-humored style perfectly complemented the bleak, shifting world of No Country for Old Men, carving out a path for filmmakers to create grim, stylized narratives over the next resulting decade. Truthfully, their impact on cinema in the 2000s is near-immeasurable, and their iconic 2007 thriller has cemented them as filmmaking legends and secured their immortality.
