This Film's Intense Like Sewing Your Own Stitches and Admitting Your Wounds Are Self-Inflicted

The work of two of my favorite living artists, Cormac McCarthy and the Coen Brothers, (yup, counting the Coens as one artist, because the work would not be the same without the collaboration) comes together beautifully (in a strange sense) in No Country for Old Men. There is not one moment in this film, about the tide of wickedness flooding the world, where the tension is diminished. The Coen's dry, witty humor does appear. But there is no comic relief. These instants only wind you tighter as you begin to care more about this character only to worry about what will become of them now that they've made you smile. And as you worry about these characters, you worry about this world, and this feeling is further intensified by Tommy Lee Jones' amazing performance, which puts your concern on the screen for you to see.

While I do not ultimately share the worldview of the Coens' or McCarthy, there is much truthfulness in their work. Especially this one. Our God is one who causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, and while this is the case, the world will never be easily divided into us and them, good and evil. The good will suffer at the hands of the evil and the evil will benefit from the work of the good - which is portrayed masterfully in the next to last scene in which a ruthless murderer is helped by a boy on a bike. The lines between good and evil cut right through each and every one of us, and the only thing that puts on on one side or the other is not chance, but the choices we make. Lets just hope that because of the love of Christ more people will be compelled to go on ahead "and make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold" than these artists think will.