No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Javier Bardem. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men tells the story of a drug deal gone wrong and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film melds the themes of fate and circumstance the Coens have previously used in Blood Simple and Fargo with the novel's motifs of chance, free-will, and determinism.
No Country for Old Men has been highly praised by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as good a film as the Coen brothers…have ever made." A Guardian journalist said the film proved "that the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors." The film was honored with numerous awards, garnering four Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay), three British Academy of Film awards, and two Golden Globes.
Heath Ledger had been in talks to play Llewelyn Moss, but withdrew to take "some time off" instead.
"No Country for Old Men", the title of the novel the film is based on is taken from W.B. Yeats' poem, "Sailing to Byzantium".
For mostly budgetary reasons, the film was shot mostly in New Mexico and Las Vegas. Tommy Lee Jones convinced the Coen Brothers to film some scenes on location in West Texas.
The Coen Brothers used a photo of a brothel patron taken in 1979 as a model for Anton Chigurh's hair style. Looking at its weirdness after getting the hair cut, Javier Bardem said "Oh no, now I won't get laid for the next two months".
Contrary to most successful films made from books, much of the film's action is taken word for word from Cormac McCarthy's novel and to boot occurs in the same order of events. Bell's final speech in the film, for instance, can be read on the final page of the book.
The drugstore that Chigurh enters after blowing up the car is called the Mike Zoss Pharmacy. This is a reference to Mike Zoss Drugs, a pharmacy in Minneapolis where the Coen Brothers enjoyed spending time in their youth. The Coen Brothers also named their production company Mike Zoss Productions.
The Coen brothers purchased specially made fake blood that they shipped from London to their location for 800 dollars a gallon. This was done so the extras that were lying in the sand for hours wouldn't be attacked by bugs and animals that might otherwise be attracted to the sugar.
