Javier’s Bad Hair Day

I am talking about that Javier, the one who has just won his first Oscar for a best supporting role in No Country for Old Men, Yes, Senor Javier Bardem. Well, he is one of the reason I agreed watching that movie during JIFFEST week, last December. A friend recommended No Country as a must see. I reluctantly said yes, because I am no fans for the Coen Brothers, I mean, their famous quirk humor is cool but bloodshed movies simply scare me away, big time!

Well, at least I can always enjoy Tommy Lee Jones in it, I believe, this old soldier, Uncle Tommy Lee, does indeed never die! And of course there was my darling Javier Bardem in that movie. Well, I fell in love to Javier about three years ago, also in JIFFEST (Jakarta International Film Festival) where I watched The Sea Inside, Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film in 2005. A based on true story movie about a Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who fought a 30 year campaign in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die. Javier played convincingly as Ramon, and I can’t forget his gesture when saying, “When you constantly rely on everyone else, you learn to cry by smiling, you know?” Oooh…….it simply melted my heart in an instant!

So I went for watching No Country for Old Men. But, yikes, I hated it! This movie scared me to death, I closed my eyes several times. Uncle Tommy Lee with his deep soliloquy–about dreaming his daddy who went nowhere but dark cloud– can’t help me. I even can’t follow the gems that written between the lines in those haunted dreams as the theme that refers to the movie’s title. I was simply too scared to think of anything..

What kept me being entertained on the show, ironically, was Javier. Well, at first  I can’t recognize him at that time, his character as a cold blooded murderer Anton Chiqurh who wandered everywhere with a very strange weapon that IMDB said was “a captive bolt pistol, which is also known as a cattle gun. The tank itself is pressurized air. Releasing the air valve powers the bolt when triggered”, was the reason I desperately hold my breath. He was the monster of the show! But at the same time he kept me awaken because I simply can’t help to notice his funny wig.  I bet, this is one of that famous signature of the Coen’s odd taste of humor. Well, yes I know that hairdo was a hip for the 80’s, the time setting for No Country, but the way Javier coiffed his hair was, for me, like a representation of the endless violence shown in the movie, that something good turned out bad and that it didn’t feel right. Or maybe, that was actually what it is all about? Because violence doesn’t have to be translating as bloodshed everywhere, an evil cut in your hair can simply speak so. Right?

By the way, congrats, Javier!