Based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men takes place in West Texas in the year 1980, where welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart.

Producer Scott Rudin bought the film rights to McCarthy's novel and suggested an adaptation to the Coen Brothers, who at the time were attempting to adapt the novel To the White Sea by James Dickey. By August of 2005, the Coens agreed to write and direct the film, having identified with how it provided a sense of place and also how it played with genre conventions. Joel Coen said that the book's unconventional approach "was familiar, congenial to us; we're naturally attracted to subverting genre. We liked the fact that the bad guys never really meet the good guys, that McCarthy did not follow through on formula expectations." Ethan Coen explained that the "pitiless quality" was a "hallmark of the book, which has an unforgiving landscape and characters but is also about finding some kind of beauty without being sentimental." The role of Llewelyn Moss was originally offered to Heath Ledger, but he turned it down to spend time with his newborn daughter at the time, Matilda. Garret Dillahunt was also in the running for Llewelyn Moss, he even auditioned for the role five times, but was instead offered the part of Ed Tom Bell’s deputy, Wendell. Josh Brolin was not the Coen Brothers' first choice, so he enlisted the help of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to make an audition reel. His agent eventually secured a meeting with the Coens and he was given the part. Javier Bardem nearly withdrew from the role of Anton Chigurh due to issues with scheduling. Mark Strong was put on standby to take over, but the scheduling issues were resolved and Bardem was able to take on the role.

​After having had its world premiere at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, No Country for Old Men was released in theaters nationwide on November 9th, 2007. On February 24th, 2008, the film ended up winning 4 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel & Ethan Coen; who became the second directing team to have won this award following Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins for 1961's West Side Story), Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Joel & Ethan Coen).

For a more in-depth discussion, feel free to listen to this podcast episode with me and Josh Parham of Next Best Picture.