No Country For Old Men is a stunning piece of cinema, and fully merited its Best Picture and Best Director Oscar triumph for the Coen brothers. There are excellent performances from Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson, but it is Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh who steals the show and bosses every scene he is in. Set in 1980, Chigurh is a ruthless hitman asked to retrieve money from a drug deal gone wrong in Texas, and his relentless attempts to find the cash are truly chilling. Not even police officers and women are safe from his madness, as he goes about tracking down Brolin's character Llewelyn Moss. Guns and knives are normally the weapon of choice for most murderers, but not Chigurh; he prefers to kill people with a captive bolt pistol. It has to be one of the most unique murder weapons in the history of film. Bardem's performance is mesmerising, and rather than being too over the top like some movie villains, he speaks very little and does everything incredibly professionally. Whether it be his effortless murder of fellow hitman Carson Wells, chilling look at his shoes after dispatching of Carla Jean or that preposterous haircut, everything about him is just plain scary.
