No Country for Old Men
April 2008 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

It became clearer to me, watching No Country for Old Men, why filmmaking is an art form and how DVD extras may have compromised the art of filmmaking. While it‘s nice to hear how much the cast enjoyed the gig and respected the Coen brothers, watching the DVD extras effectively crushed my suspension of disbelief. After watching the three short production featurettes (the only extras on this bare-bones release), I realized that knowing how the Coens and their impeccable cast pulled it off undermined my movie-watching experience. I didn’t want to believe that Javier Bardem’s chilling portrayal of Anton Chigurh was a trick of the acting trade, or that Kelly Macdonald’s perfectly spun Texas drawl was hiding a sweet and sexy Scottish brogue. Instead I wanted to immerse myself in the world the Coen brothers created and focus on the desperate look chiseled on Tommy Lee Jones’ face as Sheriff Bell confronted the heartbreaking fate of Josh Brolin’s Llewelyn Moss.

For over two hours this grisly tale of people trying to outsmart the bleak embodiment of their ultimate fates seized my attention. No Country for Old Men is not an average Hollywood redemption story or mindless exercise in horror. It is a human story told with the same thoughtful camerawork, flawlessly crafted dialogue and meticulous eye trademarked by Joel and Ethan Coen in their other movies. Many people say No Country for Old Men reminds them of Fargo. There are similarities. The Coens love highlighting the language and feel of a place and take pleasure in framing their images within beautiful vistas. I know of no other filmmakers who take such affectionate pause on the dichotomy of violence and beauty, of normalcy and the perverse. Whether it is the black streaks of shoe soles marking the aftermath of two men in a death struggle, the precise construction of a tool designed to kill in an instant, or the perfectly innocent haircut that dresses the head of an ice-cold killer, these are the images that give context to the Coens’ grotesque but stunning world.

Luckily the standard-definition DVD does a good job at capturing these gorgeous images. While there is obvious noise in this well-balanced video transfer, the blacks, colors, and details are solidly reproduced. Sound quality is less perfect. Carter Burwell’s minimalist score is perfectly matched to the narrative, but the Dolby Digital mix has difficulty reproducing the distinctive accents of this unique cast of characters. The surround channels are used to build tension with just the right amount of ambience. This made spatial cues such as the spastic movement of shoes and denim across the tiled floor of a police station fill the surround image in a way that made me shiver. I’m sure the high-definition Blu-ray version betters its lesser standard-definition cousin in overall image and sound quality. If this were another average Hollywood film, I could see where the added eye candy of a perfect image and DVD extras could compensate for lackluster storytelling. However it’s the subtle storytelling and beautiful visualizations that make No Country for Old Men so engaging.

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