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Actors Actors of Greatness Coen Brothers Directors existentialism Film Javier Bardem photography Producers

No Country for Old Men {2007}.

No Country for Old Men, a 2007 existential noir western thriller by Joel and Ethan Coen, examines the dilemma of Llewelyn Moss {Josh Brolin}, who somewhat inadvertently ends up in the crosshairs of, among others, sociopathic assassin/operative Anton Chigurh {Javier Bardem}, a most singular character with a ruthless code and nihilism to spare. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell {Tommy Lee Jones} wants to help Moss, but, though plenty savvy and resourceful, he realizes with the likes of Chigurh, whom he wryly and despairingly describes as a ghost, he’s in over his head; he’s dealing with a new kind of human. New, yet as old and implacable as the unforgiving landscape.

It is the uncanny accomplishment of the Coens to have rendered an extraordinarily nuanced environment where everything means something, yet nothing means anything. The interface of chance and inevitability is front and center.

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Actors Barton Fink Coen Brothers Film photography

Barton Fink {1991}.

This film by the Coen Brothers follows the travails of a bespectacled, bedeviled, embattled writer in Los Angeles, who encounters some quite interesting individuals during his journey. These scenes feature Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub, Michael Lerner, John Goodman, and John Turturro.