Where To Stream No Country For Old Men
Legendary American writer Cormac McCarthy may no longer be with us, but his vast catalog of work will forever be part of literary history. Though he was most famous for novels like "Blood Meridian," "The Road," and "All the Pretty Horses," McCarthy also wrote a number of plays and screenplays, including the 2013 film "The Counselor." However, his most successful movies wound up being adaptations of his novels made by other writers.
McCarthy's brutal, Pulitzer Prize-winning apocalyptic novel "The Road" was famously turned into a film in 2009, with Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee playing the leading roles of father and son. But no McCarthy adaptation has garnered quite as much praise as the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men," adapted from the author's 2005 novel of the same name. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Add in three BAFTA wins and two Golden Globes, and you've got a film that still arguably stands as the crown jewel of the Coen brothers' prestigious filmography.
Unfortunately for anyone hoping to rewatch the film in the wake of McCarthy's death, or to see it for the very first time, "No Country for Old Men" isn't currently available on any subscription streaming services in the United States. However, it is widely available for digital rental and purchase from Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, and the other usual suspects for just a couple of bucks. U.K. fans can watch "No Country for Old Men" on Paramount+ and Sky Go, and Canadian viewers can catch it on Prime Video.
Cormac McCarthy originally wrote No Country for Old Men as a screenplay
It's interesting that "No Country for Old Men" was so successful as a movie because that's how Cormac McCarthy originally envisioned it. However, studios failed to recognize its cinematic potential, so McCarthy translated the story into a novel — his usual medium — and partnered with the Coens to allow them to work their magic on the big screen. "They said, 'That will never work,'" McCarthy told The Wall Street Journal in reference to how studios viewed his original script (via Deadline). It seems that the joke was on them, as the film adaptation went on to dominate pretty much every awards show.
Even McCarthy's novel didn't earn the same accolades as his previous work. Critics were split on the simplified prose that resulted from its origins as a screenplay. Famed literary critic Harold Bloom later called the book's moralizing story "a sort of falling away on McCarthy's part" in an interview with The A.V. Club.
Despite all that, "No Country for Old Men" still found its way into the cultural pantheon — just on a slightly different path than the one its original writer planned.