No Country For Old Men

Under the shadow of cowboys lurks the hand of God.

So just what exactly is going on under the hood of the new Coen brothers film "No Country for Old Men"? Many people are walking out of the theater just as lost and confused as Tommy Lee Jones character is in the film. That's not too surprising really as he is the character set up for all of us to identify with anyway... the hero. Is he a hero though? Does he actually do anything? Just an observer? Who is Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Badem) and what is his relationship with Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (played by Jones)? In the film, Jones character says, "You'd think a man that had waited eighty some odd years on God to come into his life, well, you'd think he'd come" (quoted from the book, not the film so there may be a slight difference in text). The irony is, that in "No Country for Old Men", God does in fact come... only Jones' character is a bit too daft to see it that way.

In the film, Anton Chigurh is the only non-human element in the film. He's more or less a killing machine that has two purposes: kill anyone who crosses him and let chance decide the fate of everyone else around him. What is directly revealed though is that Anton IS fate. Despite some casual damage throughout the film his character does not, and most likely will not ever, die. There is only one moment in the film whereupon the "hero" Ed Tom crosses Anton. For reasons left unexplained Anton leaves and doesn't kill Ed Tom. The two don't even engage. Fate is cast aside. Why? God.

-Chvad SB
Chvad performs with the band "THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN" (www.outside-the-skin.com) and runs the online music community www.darksonus.com.