No Country has been one of my all-time favourite films since my first viewing in 2008. I was 17 and my wisdom teeth had just been removed. The doctors had given me T3s and sent me home. My parents asked if I wanted to rent anything from Blockbuster, and in the glow of its Best Picture win, I asked for No Country for Old Men.
I recall the feeling of an expanding worldview. First, having seen The Godfather for the first time only a few months earlier, my cinematic vocabulary was expanding at an incredible rate. Seeing No Country was like getting a simultaneous education on westerns and noirs. But second, McCarthy’s worldview (“you can’t stop what’s coming. That’s vanity”) was something I had never considered in my young life. A world where good and evil would clash, and the winner was ambiguous — or perhaps undecided — was a more realistic view of the world than one I had ever conjured.
The things you can learn from celluloid.
When the credits rolled, I hit the Menu button on the DVD player and immediately watched it again. I joke that it was because I was high on T3s, but I know it’s because I was processing something that has forever impact me: “a man would have to put his soul at hazard. He’d have to say, okay. I’ll be part of this world.”
Nearly twenty years later (an observation I find shocking), this film still astounds, impresses, and horrifies me in equal measure. It remains an all-time favourite.
Tonight I got to see this film in 4K for the first time. The Blu-ray, released early 2008, very much showed its age. To be frank, it was difficult to watch in our home theatre. It is with great personal satisfaction and joy that I share that the Criterion release of the film in 4K is a wild success, and far and away the best the film has ever looked or sounded. I have seen No Country at least two dozen times, and never have I seen it look or sound as good as this. My commendations to the folks who worked on this release.