No Country For Old Men -- A Coen Brothers film.

trevelyan over at adsotrans just threw down the gauntlet, asking for redeeming qualities in ncfom. Here goes:

No Country For Old Men suffers from the zombie film affliction; the characters fall into tragedy by making clearly suboptimal choices ("Hey that looks dangerous; let's go there!", "Ok, you go that way; I'll go this way and we'll meet real soon"). Compare NCFOM's zombification to Atonement's spiteful malice, and I find the latter more believable (just make sure you leave when you see the girl floating, you'll only lose 5 minutes of statistically "improved" film). Granted, Atonement doesn't probe much, it's just about the wanton wealthy living in an easily upset world.

NCFOM on the other hand asks better questions. Extremely biased against modernity, the film begins with an idyllic life in unspoiled nature and goes downhill in cities' artificial temporary homes. The modern Organized Man is not inconsistent Llewelyn, at points quite crafty, at other points mindbogglingly dumb; rather he is the plodding nemesis Anton who uses an automated slaughter tool.

So if modern man is evil; what makes him evil? Do his methods corrupt him? Anton's task list must be completed and anything that prevents that is eliminated. Society? The only extra-family cooperation we see is between drug gangs and financiers. Or are we all evil despoilers of nature, chasing after bits of paper and poppies, and it's high satire to call Anton evil....