10 scintillating thriller movies like ‘No Country for Old Men’
After enjoying one of its most fruitful years in 1999, cinema struggled to synthesise with the mounting expectations of audiences after the turn of the new millennium, with the movie industry being entirely inconsistent throughout this period. Yet, this changed considerably in 2007 when Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen brothers released two revolutionary westerns in the form of There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men.
While sharing the same genre, Anderson and the Coen brothers also shared a very similar filming location, with the former interrupting the shoot of No Country For Old Men while he was capturing his own epic. Similar in spirit, both films shoot for very different goals, with There Will Be Blood tackling the dogged pursuit of the ‘American Dream’ at the turn of the 20th century, while No Country for Old Men demonstrates just how much has changed from the days of the Wild West to the nihilism of modern-day violence.
Set in the summer of 1980’s West Texas, No Country for Old Men juxtaposes Javier Bardem’s psychopath Anton Chigurh with Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, a loyal man of the law whose sleepy afternoons on the job are rarely interrupted. The old myths of the Wild West, which used to run amok in the Texas country, certainly feel at odds with the sadistic onslaught of Chigurh, bringing a nihilistic evil to the land as he wages war in order to try and find amends for a drug deal gone wrong.
Lovers of No Country for Old Men will, no doubt, want to watch There Will Be Blood, and vice-versa, but this recommendation seems obvious, with a bounty of other movies in existence which share the tone, mood and themes of the Coen brothers’ classic, but have yet to have been embraced.
Thrillers like No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men isn’t a snappy thriller, it’s more of a slow-burn that focuses deeply on character and mood, not unlike David Cronenberg’s 2005 film A History of Violence. Though not strictly from the western genre, Cronenberg’s thriller contains many elements from the same source, telling the story of a man whose violent past catches up to him when he is forced to take action when criminals try to rob his diner. Such forces the protagonist, played by Viggo Mortensen, to reconsider his identity when one act of justice brings with it considerably more violence to come.
When it comes to botched robberies, lovers of No Country for Old Men would also be wise to watch Sidney Lumet’s 2007 film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, the tale of two brothers whose plan to rob their parent’s jewellery shop goes tragically wrong, causing irreparable familial riffs. Sly, disturbing and unmistakable American, the film shares many tonal similarities with the Coens’ work while also featuring a glittering cast that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney.
Elsewhere, in the realm of complex killers, Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and even David Fincher’s terrifying crime drama Zodiac share shades of the Coen brothers’ work. The former, which tells the story of an estranged assassin who finds himself coincidently protecting his family, is a violent piece of cinema that speaks to the desperation of murder, while Zodiac is a disquieting study into the real-life titular serial killer, where themes of obsession and nihilism grip hold of the viewer.
But it’s Sam Raimi who may have the best recommendation for any No Country for Old Men fan, with his 1998 film A Simple Plan sharing a considerable amount with the Coen’s ‘Best Picture’ winner. Featuring a stellar cast that includes Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton and Briget Fonda, the film follows three workers who serendipitously come into the fortune of millions of dollars in misplaced money. But deceit and lies are rife, and complications quickly arise, questioning the morality of the regular everyday people who are carrying out the crime.
Western movies like No Country for Old Men
If the neo-western aspect of No Country for Old Men is why you love the movie so much, a natural recommendation would be the revisionist classic The Searchers that John Ford put together back in 1956. Questioning the identity of its protagonist and asking whether he belongs to a different time and age entirely, Ford’s film tells the story of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran who sets out to save his niece from the capture of the Comanches. Shades of Edwards can, indeed, be seen in the way in which Ed Tom Bell is depicted in No Country for Old Men, with both films saying similar things about the nature of change in the Wild West.
The Coen brothers, just like many filmmakers, love to work with the same narrative styles and themes, with their 2007 film sharing similarities to their 1996 film Fargo, as well as 1984’s Blood Simple. Both pessimistic pieces of cinema are shrouded in nihilism, but Blood Simple is especially similar to No Country for Old Men, telling the story of the owner of a Texas bar who finds out one of his workers is sleeping with his wife, setting off a firestorm of violence and deceit that pervades the land.
Sticking with nihilism neo-noir westerns for just a moment, it would be a mistake not to mention both David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water or David Michôd’s The Rover. While both are excellent examples of contemporary western tales, it is The Rover which has never quite gotten the plaudits it deserves, telling a terrifying tale about life in Australia post-total-economic collapse where morals are barely maintained by the protagonist.
Finishing off the list is a trip across the Atlantic Ocean to the Wild West Midlands, where Shane Meadows created his revenge thriller Dead Man’s Shoes in 2004. Bleak, brutal and violent while speaking directly to the carnal nature that the human condition can be driven to, Meadows’ film tells the story of a soldier who returns to his hometown to seek justice against those who tormented his mentally challenged brother in the past.
10 movies like No Country for Old Men:
- Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Sidney Lumet, 2007)
- Blood Simple (the Coen brothers, 1984)
- Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2013)
- Dead Man’s Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004)
- Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)
- A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
- The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
- A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi, 1998)
- The Rover (David Michôd, 2014)
- Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)