Movie adaptation - No Country for Old Men

Given that I recently read and reviewed No Country for Old Men, I decided to rent the DVD of the film adaptation.  Made by the Coen brothers, the movie is about as faithful a translation of a book as I've seen since for quite a while, with the exception of the ending.  In most scenes the dialogue is word for word from the book and the casting is pretty good.  I'm not sure though how much sense the movie would make to those watching it who had never read the book, as the narrative often lacked context, with scenes involving characters that hadn't been introduced or it clear why they were included.  The movie did fill in one gap missing in the book, but missed a chunk out from the book's ending.  I felt the novel had a relatively weak ending, but movie more so.  I'll try and write the next bit without giving spoilers, but will hopefully make sense to those who have read the book and watched the movie.  If it had stopped at the point where Chigurh walked out the house, that would have worked okay, but to stop where it did seemed to cut things off mid-section and makes little sense for anyone who hasn't read the book as it does not explain who was driving the car or why the accident occured.  Anyway, always interesting to see how a book is adapted for the big screen.  The book was better, but the movie was above average.  

Review of No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (Picador, 2005)

Llewelyn Moss, Vietnam veteran turned welder living with his young wife in a trailer park, discovers a grizzly scene whilst out hunting antelope near the Rio Grande – a drugs transaction gone badly wrong, all the participants dead bar one who is badly injured.  Ignoring the trailer load of heroin, Moss finds he can’t pass over the two million dollars in cash.  Taking it, he knows, will lead to a whole heap of trouble, leaving it defies logic.  Unable to live with his conscience of abandoning a dying man in the desert, Moss makes the mistake of heading back to the scene to help, and so begins a terrifying chase, as both the Mexican drug runners and the American buyers want the money.  But this is no simple chase, as the psychopathic Chigurh tracks Moss across Texas, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.  Sheriff Bell has a lifetime of experience, but in following Chigurh’s trail he comes to realise that America has changed and it’s no country for old men, with different values and comprehension of the world, to be practising law enforcement.

No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of greed and corruption, a lament to the American dream polluted by drugs and violence. McCarthy writes in a simple, no frills style that is deceptively rich and layered.  It is literary in its construction, but doesn’t resort to long words or complex styling.  Its power is in its voice.  It is storytelling as heard on the back porch or in the local bar by a seasoned raconteur using everyday language.  McCarthy captures the lyricism and cadence of speech and thought, no more so than when he swaps into the narrator’s voice of the increasingly disillusioned Sheriff Bell.  The characterisation is excellent and the plotting is captivating.  My only gripe is that the story becomes a little derailed towards the end, with one discordant jump in the story that lacked explanation, and a general trailing off in the narrative.  Overall, a compelling read that wasn’t quite sustained throughout.