by TheMadDreamer

Created on: July 14, 2008   Last Updated: September 15, 2008

More often than not the Academy Award for Best Picture isn't awarded to what is critically considered to have been the best film of that year. In fact the decision itself seems to be made independently of popular film criticism. Take for example; 'Chicago' and 'Million Dollar Baby'. Popular films? Yes! Good films? Yes! But did they transcend cinema in the ways that we would expect of a Best Picture winner? Not even. The fact is, is that the Best Picture Academy Award almost always goes to what is a). good, b). popular, and c). acceptable. Hence my shock at recent Best Picture winners, 'The Departed' and 'No Country For Old Men'. Past Best Picture winners have included violence, but almost never in a contemporary setting. When they were violent, it always historically important violence ('Gladiator' and 'Schindler's List' for example, the kind that people think they should watch because it will teach them something). And so it seems peculiar that the Academy would have bestowed such an award upon the violent and haunting 'No Country For Old Men'. Maybe they've finally started thinking about what is truly good, as opposed to what is truly popular.

Every good film needs good foundations and the Coen brothers found theirs in the 2005 Cormac McCarthy book; 'No Country For Old Men'. Set in 1980 the book tells the tale of the innocent welder Llewelyn Moss who, while out hunting, comes across a heroin deal that has turned nasty. Searching through the area littered with dead bodies, Moss salvages a bag containing two million dollars. After which he returns home to his wife and, after telling her to leave town, goes on the run with the money. In his wake is hitman; Anton Chigurh. A sociopath and fierce killer, who uses a pressurised air unit which shoots out a spike (known as a cattle gun) to kill his victims. Chigurh has been hired to retrieve the money and sets off after Moss. Following the exploits of both is local Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. An older and wiser man than both, he meditates on the world's problems without taking fierce action. What ensues is a cat and mouse chase with Chigurh ever gaining on Moss, with Bell left to pick up the pieces they leave in their wake.

Although only published in 2005 'No Country For Old Men' was quickly caught up in the contemporary literary pitfall of being adapting for the big screen. Luckily for McCarthy, it was the Coen brothers who wanted to adapt his work, and with them you can't go far wrong. The screen adaptation of 'No Country

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