Coen Brothers Thriller ‘No Country for Old Men’ Sets Streaming Release

No Country for Old Men, the neo-western thriller directed by the Coen brothers, is arriving in the streaming wasteland on December 1. Starring Javier Bardem in one of his finest performances, the bleak film offers the perfect counterbalance to the joy of the holiday season – unless you have Christmas decorations with Anton Chigurh’s face on them, in which case the film is already on your holiday watchlist.

No Country for Old Men hits Paramount+ the first day of December, and while it isn’t the only thriller arriving on the platform next month, it is certainly one of the best. Joel and Ethan Coen’s gritty neo-western is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Pulitzer prize-winner Cormac McCarthy. The $25 million production was a box office success, making over $171 million worldwide and proved the Coen brothers could be just as successful at the box office as they were with critics – including the late Roger Ebert, who gave the Coens’ thriller a perfect four-star review.

Javier Bardem’s Best Performances, Ranked

Javier Bardem is an Oscar-winning actor who has delivered several memorable roles. Let’s take a look at his best performances, ranked.

In No Country for Old Men, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a war veteran hunting animals on the border between Mexico and the United States when he finds a whole lot of cash in a briefcase – and a dying man beside it. He takes the money, but he’s not the only one following the trail. An unpredictable assassin-for-hire named Anton Chigurh (Bardem) is trying to find the briefcase and whoever took it in order to serve some justice.

Nominated for eight Academy Awards, No Country for Old Men was the big winner at the Oscars in 2008. The Coen brothers won three of the major awards: Best Picture (along with Scott Rudin), Best Director(s), and Best Adapted Screenplay. However, if there was a sure bet that you could place that year, it was Bardem taking the award for Best Supporting Actor. We may dig around looking for multiple reasons why No Country for Old Men is the perfect film to stream, but none would be more effective than saying Bardem’s representation of pure evil is both his best performance in modern times, and one of the greatest villains in cinema history.

Javier Bardem’s Villain in ‘No Country for Old Men’ is One of the Best in Recent Cinema History

Bardem’s Anton Chigurh isn’t just an example of a great performance. His random acts of violence and occasional kindness make the character an unpredictable monster whose range is eerily wide. He’s not driven by hate or agendas. Chigurh is driven by an objective, and the nihilism of his acts proves he actually enjoys doing things like viciously killing people with a bolt pistol used in slaughterhouses for stunning cattle. While you would think such a weapon isn’t always effective for a killshot, Chigurh guarantees his menacing face is the last thing you’ll see in this realm.

Villains don’t always have a strong presence. Sometimes they depend on snarky dialogue, a good score, or even a signature weapon of choice. Bardem’s villain in No Country for Old Men depends solely on the actor perfectly wearing the costume of the unreasonably monstrous man who’s fascinated by the act of taking lives.