After Cormac McCarthy beautifully subverted the familiar conventions of western stories with his bleak novel No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers followed suit with their equally bleak film adaptation. It’s arguably the duo’s finest film, or at least awards voters seem to think so, as the movie won 76 awards out of 109 nominations.
One of the movie’s greatest assets is its acting. In fact, the 76 trophies awarded to the film included the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem’s chilling portrayal of Anton Chigurh. So, here are all the major performances from No Country for Old Men, ranked.
8 Garret Dillahunt As Wendell
Deputy Wendell, played by Deadwood star Garret Dillahunt, is characterized mainly as a foil to Sheriff Bell. In stark contrast with Bell’s nihilistic view of the world, Wendell is naively optimistic.
Dillahunt does a fine job in the role. The main problem with his performance is that being a foil to Bell meant that he was overshadowed by Tommy Lee Jones in almost all of his scenes.
7 Tess Harper As Loretta Bell
Much like Garret Dillahunt as Wendell, Tess Harper’s portrayal of Sheriff Bell’s wife Loretta is mainly there to serve Tommy Lee Jones as Bell. For example, in the film’s final scene, a retired Bell tells his wife about two dreams.
Harper is only there to facilitate Jones’ monologue. But as far as complementary performances go, she gives a staggering turn.
6 Woody Harrelson As Carson Wells
Carson Wells is a hitman who has worked with Anton Chigurh before, so he has the distinction of being the only character who actually understands Chigurh to some extent.
Woody Harrelson’s cool line delivery makes Wells a fascinating inverse version of Chigurh. As a gifted dramatic actor who cut his teeth on a sitcom, Harrelson was the perfect man to bring Wells’ quippy dialogue to life.
5 Barry Corbin As Ellis
Having played Cam’s dad in Modern Family and Mr. Acker in Better Call Saul, Barry Corbin has quietly made himself a recognizable star in the past few years. Before either of those roles, he played Ellis in No Country for Old Men. As Sheriff Bell’s uncle and a retired sheriff himself, Ellis made for a fascinating counterpoint to Bell.
And to top it off, Corbin made for a brilliant scene partner for Tommy Lee Jones. In his poignant reflections on the inexplicable violence you see as an agent of the law, Corbin single-handedly hammers home the thematic point of the movie.
4 Josh Brolin As Llewelyn Moss
There are no heroes in No Country for Old Men, but Llewelyn Moss is the closest thing that the movie has to offer. He’s not a particularly bad person; he just does what anyone might do if they found an unaccounted-for bounty of cash at the site of a drug deal gone horribly wrong — he takes it and tries to get away with it.
For most of the movie, he’s on his own as he goes on the lam with the cash, so a lot of Moss’ characterization relied on Josh Brolin’s acting. In one of the finest performances of his career, Brolin brought a brooding intensity to Moss.
3 Kelly Macdonald As Carla Jean Moss
A lot of the Coens’ changes to the source material concerned Carla Jean Moss, and particularly how she reacts to her chilling confrontation with Anton Chigurh. Kelly Macdonald has said in interviews that, while the book ends with Carla Jean crumbling in the face of Chigurh, in the film, she has more of a “quiet acceptance.”
It’s hard for actors who aren’t from Texas to pull off a Texan accent, and being from Scotland, Macdonald’s native dialect is vastly different from her character’s — but she still nailed it.
2 Tommy Lee Jones As Ed Tom Bell
Although Moss is the protagonist and Chigurh is the antagonist, the main character in No Country for Old Men is arguably Ed Tom Bell, the sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones. He’s the character whose perspective the audience can most identify with, as he’s mostly a spectator to the film’s grisly displays of violence. At the movie’s ambiguous conclusion, Bell is left with just as much confusion and misery as the audience.
Jones played every scene as Bell spectacularly. He conveys a lot of the character’s emotions non-verbally, in silent stares and troubled looks. Moviegoers have come to expect terrific performances from Jones, but acting this nuanced should never be taken for granted.
1 Javier Bardem As Anton Chigurh
Without a doubt, the most memorable performance in No Country for Old Men is Javier Bardem’s genuinely unsettling portrayal of the villain, Anton Chigurh. When Chigurh speaks, there’s an alarming casualness in his voice. When he kills people, there isn’t a hint of emotion on his face.
Much like The Dark Knight’s Joker, but with far less dialogue, Chigurh is a living embodiment of pure evil. There’s nothing more terrifying in a villain — especially a villain in a visual medium like film — than a complete lack of humanity, and Chigurh is the pinnacle of that kind of bad guy.
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