No Country For Old Men
April 2008
No Country for Old Men is a celebrated film, not least for the Oscars it garnered in 2008. But I believe the novel by Cormac McCarthy, from which it is taken, to be even more remarkable. It ought to be as celebrated, but isn't.
To explore this point more fully, I have written an essay comparing the book and the film. I argue that there is a religious dimension to the book, to do with the struggle between Good and Evil in a world from which God has been erased, a theme which McCarthy subtly hints at so that you have to grope for it to get it; the film misses this. However, the narrative virtues of the book as a thriller are superlatively realized in the film.
Amidst some more general points about novels and films from novels, I make a connection too between No Country for Old Men and Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest.
To read the full essay, it is available here in pdf format (7 pages).
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If, like me, you are unfamiliar with the geography of the US-Mexico border, McCarthy's novels make you long to go there. The nearest I get is by a good map. Some bright entrepreur could offer a 'No Country for Old Men' tour.