It's grim, unforgiving and probably unforgettable -- in some ways you'll want to remember, and in others you may wish you couldn't.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:221
Fresh:208
Rotten:13
Average Rating:8.5/10
Consensus: Another triumph for the Coen Brothers, No Country has the perfect mixture of suspense, humor, and desperately compelling performances. The seemingly simple story hides a more complex narrative, and high tension is maintained throughout.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for strong graphic violence and some language.
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Drugs, Suspense, Thriller, Murder, Theatrical Release, Serial Killers, Money
Theatrical Release:18-01-2008
Synopsis: With NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the Coen Brothers have found a perfect match in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy. Their adaptation of McCarthy's praised novel is a staggering masterpiece.... With NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the Coen Brothers have found a perfect match in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy. Their adaptation of McCarthy's praised novel is a staggering masterpiece. In this almost impossibly faithful adaptation, the film takes place in a small Texas border town in 1980. Sheriff Bell (a never-been-better Tommy Lee Jones) has ruled the land for years without the use of a gun, but a new brand of reckless lawlessness has taken over his town. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is an innocent Everyman with a devoted wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), but when he stumbles across a drug deal gone deadly and finds two million dollars, he's determined to keep it for himself. There's only one problem. He's being pursued by one of the most amoral, evil psychopaths that the big screen has ever seen. Wearing an absurd haircut and brandishing a pressurized weapon that's used to murder cattle, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) creeps forward on his mission to track Moss down and return the money to its rightful owners to save his own skin. As the tension mounts, the body count begins to rise, confirming Sheriff Bell's inability to battle this new wave of modern brutality. The most striking thing about the Coen Brothers' thriller is their masterly use of silence to create an almost unbearable level of tension. Cinematographer Roger Deakins is once again at the top of his game, beautifully capturing this stark and lonely world. The well-rounded cast is clearly excited to be a part of such a stellar production--particularly Bardem, whose Chigurh is a freakishly mysterious monster, and is certain to haunt viewers long after the final credit has rolled. In a career filled with striking achievements, this might very well be the Coen Brothers' finest. It is filmmaking at its best. [More]
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly MacDonald
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly MacDonald, Woody Harrelson, Stephen Root
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenwriter: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Producer: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Scott Rudin
Composer: Carter Burwell
Studio: Miramax Films
Reviews for No Country for Old Men
Both perplexing and engrossing as it explores humanity's animal instincts. This being McCarthy and the Coens, nothing is spelled out. The seeds are there and they will flourish in a fertile mind.
There isn't a performance in this film that isn't exquisitely in key or a frame in this film that doesn't feel right. At times, the movie deliberately leaves us grasping to understand what we've seen.
The Coens are geniuses at creating tension through editing. No Country has craft and atmosphere aplenty.
As pure craftsmanship, No Country for Old Men is as good as we've ever gotten from Joel and Ethan Coen.
With stunning landscapes around the Tex-Mex border shot by Roger Deakins and the elements of pursuit and retribution, the saga draws from the Western tradition in which the characters become dwarfed by nature.
The Coens understand the stark immediacy of this tale, and they visualize it with brilliantly judged details.
An intense, nihilistic thriller as well as a model of implacable storytelling, this is a film you can't stop watching even though you very much wish you could.
The Coen brothers...shape the parched, timeless Tex-Mex borderland into a character itself, a place where good and evil alike swelter under the sun, and the prairie wind whistles by uncaring.
Most audiences will look at the film and see only the simple plot of a fugitive and his two pursuers, but is there more being said and more being asked within the wide open spaces of No Country for Old Men? Indisputably.
It's almost too good to be true that the Coen Brothers have adapted McCarthy's novel and brought it to the screen, though it is their bleakest work to date.
The tension of being around a psycho-killer like Anton keeps you on the edge of your seat, with the much-needed relief coming in the brand of humor that only the Coen brothers can deliver.
You may see films you like better in 2007, but you're unlikely to see one more memorable.
In almost seven years as a critic, I have never said this within a review, and here it is: This film is a masterpiece.
No Country for Old Men is as good a film as the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, have ever made, and they made Fargo.
An eerily quiet, bracingly bloody, and expertly laid-out adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel.
The simple saga of two tough hombres, a bag of money and everybody unlucky enough to get in their way blossoms into something far more delicate, contemplative and almost mythical.
It's a localized scenario, but what the movie skillfully does is increase its philosophical scale ever so slowly.
The Coens have left all their tricks and ironic jokery behind and the resulting film feels deeper and more personally felt than anything they have done before.
Latest News for No Country for Old Men
April 06, 2009:
RT on DVD: Bedtime Stories, Yes Man, Doubt Hit Shelves
This week's new releases include a few Hollywood takes on science fiction (Fox's remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still; the 1984 sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact on... More...
October 17, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: Is Burn After Reading A Coens Classic? Does Eagle Eye Have Enough Action, Man?
In this week's roster of UK cinema releases we have the latest addition to the Coen canon in the CIA comedy caper, Burn After Reading, Shia LeBeouf stakes a further claim to the... More...
September 08, 2008:
Tommy Lee Jones Sues Paramount ![]()
Tommy Lee Jones has filed a lawsuit against Paramount, alleging the studio has failed to pay him roughly $10 million in fees for "No Country for Old Men." More...
May 06, 2008:
2008 MTV Movie Award Nominations Announced
It's almost time to hand out some golden popcorn -- the nominations for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards have been announced! More...
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Sponsored Links
Around The Network
- No Country for Old Men at Rotten Tomatoes
- No Country for Old Men at IGN
- No Country for Old Men at AskMen
Fresh Links
Featured

Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.



Top Critic

