"No Country for Old Men" is U.S film that was produced in the year 2007. It was written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film tells the story of Texas welder and Vietnam veteran. The greed and chance of these two deliver a fate that is neither denied nor wanted in the society. The themes of fate, circumstances and conscience are explained through the film. Furthermore, it talks about the value of particular generation in the society.
While on the trip for hunting, Josh Brolin who is a sportsman finds some dead men and a lot of money that had spilled over the place. The incident takes place in The West of Texas. This incident is attributed to a drug that has gone wrong and thus resulted in the killing of the men. Out of his greedy behavior, Josh takes the cash but later understands that the drug dealer has a way of tracking his money. This finds the hunter in the situation of being hunted, and therefore, the hunter becomes the hunted (King 22). On the other hand, a Texas sheriff by the name Eld Tom Bell is looking for both the drug dealer and Josh.
The film can be described as a study of Bell, who is considered as an honest lawmaker who is observant and wise. He is grounded in reality, and he is considered to have a well-developed brain. "No Country for Old Men" is a story that touches on the reality of the society. Even though it dwells majorly on the Texas, it reflects what is happening in most societies all over the world. It talks about the drug dealing menace that has become an issue in the society and affects majorly the young people. Even though Bell the Sherriff is fighting against the drug dealing issue, he does not know exactly how to deal with it since there is a clash of generations’ ideologies (McCarthy 67). The old generation is fighting against the drug dealing issue while the young generation is the one that majorly abuses the drugs. The drug war has crossed over from Mexico to Texas. Previously, the abuse of drugs was considered to be in Mexico alone but had reached and impacted the lives of young people in Texas.
The film is straight forward, simple and its themes can easily be understood. Even though the drug abuse in Texas was something new in the 1980's its impacts were so huge that many young people had been affected within one year since it came into Texas. This made Texas to be a hostile land that could not allow for effective settlement. The way the producer tells the story is simple and the transition from one scene to another signifies the change of events. The producer has taken a lot of time and procedure into consideration.
Even though silence dominates the film, the procedure of loading the gun and dressing the bloody wound are clearly seen and this depicts that the society is full of murder where it is ignited by the drug abuse issue. The murder cases take place between the young and old generation. As the old generation pursue the young people who are considered to be the drug dealers, they end up killing most of them instead of arresting and taking them to the court of law. The old people take the law into their hands, something that intensifies the war between the old and young generation to ensue.
The film was faithfully adapted from the McCarthy’s novel of the year 2005. Themes in the novel are also seen in the film. The characters are familiar with the territory of Texas country. Coen opens the film through the narration by Tommy Jones, who plays the part of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. He explains that the old people are mistreating the youth, and thus most of the young people are against the action of the old people towards them. This could be the reason why the director entitled the film No Country for old men because they felt that most the old men were mistreating the young people. Young people believe that even though some they are drug dealers law must be applied.
The No Country for Old Men is a film that depicts the generations found in Texas. Texas according to the producer is a place that consists of all the generations. The two generations that are antagonizing each other are the old and the young generations. These generations differ ideologically. The young generations are technologically updated, and thus, they carry out their tasks faster than the old generation.
Old generation, on the other hand, comprises of people who do not know how to use the technological devices. It is evident by the way they perform their tasks. The main character who finds himself in a crime scene takes a briefcase full of money. He could not even realize that the briefcase had a tracking device, and that is why he was tracked until he was found. A young person could easily recognize such a device and would have been difficult to be traced.
The old people representing the old generation view the young generation as self-centered and do not care about the old people. These old people thus see themselves as endangered specifies which according to the young people the claim is not valid. This makes the old people continuously kill the young people with the claim that they are dealing with the drug issue. A newspaper in Texas City, for example, reports that a 14th-year boy was mysteriously killed (Lyons & Alison 125). The old people in the city claim that his girlfriend killed the boy but the young people on the other hand claim that the drug hunters who are represented by the old generation killed him. The boy’s girlfriend also claims that she did not kill him and suspected the drug hunters for the murder.
The film is full of violence, and many newspapers in Texas reported the continuous violence in the region. The Los Angeles Times, for example, criticizes Kenneth Turan, the old man who is blamed to mastermind the killing of the young people in Texas City. The newspaper says "The Coen brothers dropped the mask” (Lyons & Alison 78). The televisions in the United States and outside the U.S broadcast the violence as they take place in Texas City.
The newspapers and television stations criticized the government of U.S for underestimating the intensity of violence in the Texas City and for not taking any action to stop the continuous killing of the young people. For example, as the film begins, the deputy commandant in chief of the Texas City is heard saying, he got control and moments later several youths are killed.
Conclusively, the No Country for Old Men is an important film in the contemporary society. The themes of the film are relevant in the current society, and there are many lessons learned. The antagonism between the old and young generation has brought many negative impacts in the Texas Society. Even though the drug abuse is bad and affects the society negatively, there should be a way of dealing with it. Instead of using violent means in handling the menace, the government through its authorities should device methods of ensuring the drug abuse is dealt with adequately. Thus, the No Country for Old Men depicts a society that consists of generations that antagonize each other based on their ideological differences.
Works Cited
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Cardullo, Bert. Film Analysis: A Casebook. N.p., 2014. Print.
King, Lynnea C, Rick Wallach, and James M. Welsh. No Country for Old Men: From Novel to Film. N.p., 2009. Print.
Lyons, Paddy, and Alison O'Malley-Younger. No Country for Old Men: Fresh Perspectives on Irish Literature. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Print.
Maguire, Gregory. A Lion Among Men. New York: William Morrow, 2008. Print.
McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. New York: Knopf, 2005. Print.
Rudin, Scott, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin, Mike Zoss, Tommy L. Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly MacDonald, and Cormac McCarthy. No Country for Old Men. Burbank N.p., n.d. Print.
Spurgeon, Sara L. Cormac Mccarthy: All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, the Road. London: Continuum, 2011. Print.
Vicaka, Inese. Mccarthy and the Coens: The Novel Versus the Film No Country for Old Men : the Moral Framework of the Novel and the Film. N.p., 2014. Print.
