Nitpicking "No Country for Old Men"

So why do this review now? Because the film has been out a couple of years and everyone who is going to see it has done so.

I'll just break it down into several West Texas nits and a few points:

• First off, it was a great movie. Finding problems with it is just a form of entertainment.
• The opening speech by Tommie Lee Jones refers to how his Daddy was proud that he was sheriff of Terrell County at the same time his Daddy was sheriff in Plano. Problem: Terrell County and Plano are eight or nine northeastern states away from each other. I don't really see the political connections working out there. And Plano isn't even a county. Now, I realized while I was writing the last sentence that Jones could have referred to LLano County. In which case, no problem.
• Jones goes on to talk about the sheriff "up in" Comanche County. That should have been "over in." Small thing, but if you're just pulling these names off a map, how hard is it to actually look at the map?
• The Coen bros. show a great deal of love for the West Texas landscape, and let the wind provide the primary soundtrack. I like that.
• I don't buy Josh Brolin's hair cut. Or really, for that matter, his character. His actions make for a good story, only they don't make any sense. There's no evidence of any internal struggle happening when he makes the decision to take the money and endanger his family and every motel clerk within a 500-mile radius.
• The women working the clerk jobs look like the women working the clerk jobs in those far West Texas towns -- polyster flower shirts, obesity.
• I have honestly seen maybe two men in my life dressed in a gray suit with a cowboy hat and boots. How did this get to be our uniform?
• My favorite line comes from Tommie Lee Jones: "My Daddy said, 'Once you stop hearing "sir" and "ma'am", the rest is soon to foller.'" I think the line was meant to show the sheriff's naivete and his inability to deal with a world that seems bent on cruelty. I personally think he's got something there.
• I hope that Barry Corbin gets his own movie someday.
• I heard a lot of complaints about the ending, so I wasn't disappointed by it. If you see the movie as a story about the Sheriff and the killer and their missions, it makes sense.
• I'm definitely old. I watched the movie wondering if the graphic violence was really necessary. I just recently saw "The Third Man," an Orson Welles black and white movie. They were able to effectively convey the horror of an injured infant simply by showing a man looking into a crib, without showing you what was inside.