Directed by the acclaimed Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, and starring Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men, is a neo-Western crime thriller. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel, the movie is set in 1980s West Texas and explores themes of fate and conscience. One of the most successful movies by the Coen brothers, the film won the Oscars in the Best Picture category.
Here are some interesting facts about the movie, that fans might be unaware of:
1. The title of the movie is taken from a poem by William Butler Yeats, titled, 'Sailing to Byzantium,' where the first line has the phrase, “That is no country for old men.” In the movie, the narrative of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is about a man who sees the world around him transform as he waits for his death.
2. A group of psychiatrists decided to do a study that researched over 400 movies and chose 126 psychopathic characters. Out of all these, the portrayal of Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh was so compelling that it was declared as the most clinically accurate representation of a psychopath in a movie.
3. The unsettling bowl haircut shown in the movie, is part of the reason why Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) seems a terrifying villain. The story behind the hairdo is hilarious. The Coen Brothers found the 1979 picture of a sleazy customer in a brothel and used that as an inspiration. While Bardem was not too enthusiastic after the cut, the director-duo was more than happy.
4. When the Coen brothers requested Javier Bardem to play Chigurh, Bardem said to them that he couldn’t drive, he couldn’t speak good English, and he hated violence. The Coen brothers responded by saying that it is the very reason why they chose him. Bardem agreed because he had always wanted to be in a Coen brother’s movie.
5. Woody Harrelson plays Carson Wells, a former army colonel, who is brought in to find the missing $2 million cash. In McCarthy’s novel, Sheriff Bell mentions that dope dealers shot a Federal Judge in San Antonio. As the story is set in 1980, the sentence refers to Federal Judge John Howland Wood, who was shot in 1979. His killer was a freelance assassin, Charles Harrelson, who is Woody’s father.
6. This one is for the avid viewers of the Coen Brothers. In the movie, the main conflict is around a suitcase that carries $2 million cash of drug money and Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) tries to keep it away from Anton. Similarly, in the Coen brothers' movie Fargo, the plot revolves around a suitcase containing $1 million in cash. The directors used the same briefcase in both films. Both have the same shape and gold buckles.
7. The film's makeup department had to buy expensive fake blood at $800 a gallon. Coen brothers needed this because of the outdoor scenes in the movie where many bodies of the extras were lying in dust. Ordinary fake blood is made with sugar and that would cover the extras in bugs and insects. Therefore, the expensive version with no sugar was needed.
8. In McCarthy's novel and the screenplay, Anton’s shotgun silencer is described as large as a beer can. In reality, there is no sound suppressor, so, the Coen brothers decided to create one specifically for the movie. Further, the sound of Anton’s other weapon, a captive bold pistol, was made through a nail gun.
9. The movie was initially set in Las Vegas, New Mexico. But, on Tommy Lee Jones’ insistence, the Coen brothers agreed to shoot part of the film in West Texas. The movie began shooting in Marfa, Texas, where the filming of There Will Be Blood, was also going on nearby. The two sets were so near that the Coens had to stop shooting for a day due to smoke coming from the other movie’s set.
10. The character of Loretta Bell (played by Tess Harper), is one of the most genuine characters in the movie. The actress, Harper, decided to wear the same boots that she wore in Tender Mercies in 1983. Harper stated that she did this because she felt that her character as Loretta was an older version of her character Rosa Lee in her 1983 film.
11. Like many other films of the Coen brothers, No Country For Old Men also has many overt and covert references to the famous director Stanley Kubrick. The killing of Llewlyn Moss in room number 114, is a reference to Kubrick’s radio equipment CRM-114 in Dr. Strangelove, an escape pod in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a brainwashing serum in A Clockwork Orange, and a mortuary in Eyes Wide Shut.
12. Josh Brolin was extremely excited to fulfill his long-term dream of starring in a Coen brothers film. Unfortunately, the actor suffered a shoulder injury, just before the filming began. Brolin was nearly going to quit the film, but luckily, his character, Llewlyn Moss, also gets shot in the shoulder and Brolin decides to use his real-life injury as the pretext for his on-screen injury.
13. The character of Llewlyn Moss was initially going to Heath Ledger but Ledger declined and wanted some time off. Brolin found out about the vacancy during shooting for Grindhouse and asked director Robert Rodriguez to help him with his audition. The Coens were concerned about who lit the audition, but Brolin got the part anyway.
14. Tommy Lee Jones who plays Sheriff Bell, did an excellent job of portraying the character. But in 2008, he sued Paramount for withholding bonuses he didn't receive. In 2010, the deal was finally settled when Paramount agreed to award Jones with $17.5 million and acknowledged that the studio attorneys had misdrafted his deal. Paramount themselves got $2.6 million after suing the attorneys.
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15. While everyone knows that the film is a book adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name, the Coen brothers were working to adapt another book titled, To the White Sea by James Dickey. But producer Scott Rudin told them he had bought the film rights to McCarthy’s book and the Coens got onboard.
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