Reflections
on “No Country for Old Men”
Written
and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen,
based
on the book by Cormac McCarthy
Starring
Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem
A video presentation of this material is available here.
“No Country for Old Men”
presents the story of a drug deal gone badly wrong, the opportunist theft of
two million dollars intended to be used to pay for the drugs, the pursuit of
that money and its thief by several interested parties, and the attempts to
make sense of the resultant conflicts and assaults and to save the life of our
opportunist thief by the local police.
In the course of the
film, we are invited to reflect on the diminishing role of values and morality
in modern society, the part that chance can play in our lives, and the
disconcerting effect of a perceived deterioration in standards and ethics on
ageing and experienced law enforcement officers who may represent traditional
values and outlooks.
It appears that
traditional societal values and order have been questioned and doubted to such
an extent that individuals now indulge their own world views and self-centred ambitions
in their desire to survive and thrive and, as traditional values decline, it is
increasingly a case of every man or woman for him or herself.
Llewelyn Moss, a
down-on-his-luck welder who lives a modest life in a trailer park with his wife Carla Jean, is hunting in the desert of West Texas. Quite by chance, he comes across
the aftermath of a deadly shoot-out between two groups involved in a high-volume
drug deal. Llewelyn cautiously investigates the crime scene and eventually
finds some two million dollars which he removes and stashes under his trailer
caravan.
We are given no
background about Llewelyn, or, indeed, any of the characters. We join them in
the action of the film and we are left to make our own deductions about their
character based on their actions, attitude and speech.
We learn that Llewelyn is
a man of no great consequence or means. He does what he can to survive and he provides
what he can for his wife and family. There is no suggestion of criminality and
he appears relatively open and honest. However, in a theme that is revisited at
various points in the film, it seems that money corrupts and he does not report
what he has seen in the desert to the police or hand in the money he has found,
but he does share some details with his wife and he makes plans to travel and
protect her as necessary. We see also that he cannot sleep as he recalls finding
a dying drug dealer who begged for water but he couldn’t help him at the time.
He sets off for the crime scene, carrying a container of water but he
encounters danger when he gets there and he must flee.
Llewelyn is a decent and
ordinary guy who retains a sense of responsibility and remains devoted to his
wife, but he sees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to better his life and so
casts aside the traditional “moral” approach to life to become an opportunist
thief, stealing from people he doubtless considers of little or no moral fibre
or worth. He understands the potential consequences of his actions but he is
willing to take his chances and do what he must to escape the poverty trap in
which he and his wife live. He may even be willing to kill those who will seek
to kill him as they pursue the money he has appropriated – legality and moral
niceties are dismissed as far as defending himself is concerned, though he will
not carry the fight to his opponents.
Hitman Chigurh, on the
other hand, is more than willing to hurt, damage or kill anyone who gets in his
way or whose death will advantage him in his pursuit for the stolen money. We
witness him killing, brutally and needlessly, a police officer and a passing motorist
who stops to help him out, but their deaths appear to be of no consequence to
him, indeed he seems to take pleasure in the act of murder. He is totally committed
to his mission of recovering the money procured by Llewelyn so it may be said
that he is a professional, but one who achieves his objective at any price and
with no consideration or respect for the lives of others.
Entirely amoral, Chigurh
survives by indulging his psychopathy, making a living by offering his deadly
services for a fee. He seems to hold nothing dear apart from the fulfilment of
his task but, amazingly, he is willing to recognise the role of chance in life
and he is ready to concede to the way chance (or fate) plays out, indeed he may
even have convinced himself that he acts in accordance with fate.
He spares the life of a
garage attendant based on the flip of a coin and takes the life of Llewelyn’s
wife Carla Jean on the same premise, though Carla Jean tries to reason with him and
suggests that ultimately, he must take responsibility for his own actions – no
matter how the coin-toss turns out. However, Chigurh takes the easy option and
does not doubt himself or his conviction that he must comply with fate.
Chance comes in to play
on numerous occasions in the film, including Chigurh’s car crash and the very
fact that Llewelyn comes across the scene of the drug deal and the money. In
every case, the result is decided by the action of the protagonist in response
to events, and not by the events themselves. Opportunities may be offered and
events may occur but responsibility for their consequences lie with the
individuals concerned and the actions they take, reflecting their character and
personal circumstances.
Carson Wells is another
hitman, but one open to reason and discussion. He may be amoral in that he is
willing to commit amoral acts in order to do his job, but he is no psychopath.
He is a survivor and a realist. He sees how things lie in society and he is
willing to do what he must in order to make his way but he is open to reason and
will take drastic action only as a last resort. He retains a certain humanity
and feeling for traditional values while Chigurh has taken his existential
interpretation of life one step farther than Carson. Chigurh has abandoned all
attachments to past values and will cold-heartedly kill Carson.
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is the
most conservative, traditional and human character on show. The two hitmen and
their employers show little or no regard for others and Llewelyn and his wife
show concern for one another and their immediate family, but Sheriff Tom is
concerned with the welfare of others and the standards of law, order and
humanity in society as a whole.
Reflecting a sensation
common to many as they get older, Tom is finding it increasingly difficult to
reconcile his present experiences of nihilistic amorality in society with his
formative years and early experiences in which values and principles were
widely recognised, if not always strictly adhered to.
Tom cannot fathom the
perceived existential deterioration in humanity. The film starts with him
lamenting the passing of the “old ways” and the clarity they lent to life, and
he ends the film in retirement and some bewilderment, the events of the story
having pushed him farther down the path of no longer belonging and feeling out
of sync with the way modern society is developing.
He even shares with us a
dream he had involving his father holding up a dim light in the pitch black
surrounding them. His highly respected father, representing rectitude and moral
certainty, offers no more than a glimmer of hope in the darkness which suggests
the moral malaise Tom perceives all around him.
It is suggested on
several occasions that money can lead to corruption and greed. At the Mexican
border, a badly hurt Llewelyn immediately offers a passer-by a substantial
amount of money for his jacket, perhaps reflecting his mercenary expectations
of society, and the passer-by demands to see the money before handing over his
jacket, apparently happy to make a fast and easy buck from another’s misfortune
rather than offer a charitable helping hand.
After his car crash, the
wounded Chigurh offers money for a shirt belonging to a young lad accompanied
by a friend. The young lad offers it to Chigurh for nothing but Chigurh insists
on paying him and this leads to an argument between the two friends on how to
split the proceeds of the sale….
Of course, the whole
premise of the film is that money is set above the value attached to any number
of lives, while morality is reduced to the keeping of one’s word and the
completion of a task, regardless of the potential amorality attached to the
consequence of keeping that word or completing the task. Modern morality has
become an entirely insular and independent concept as opposed to taking into
account the lives and feelings of others.
And so, we have a highly
effective thriller in which different takes on principle and duty vie with one
another to survive and prosper in a society which has analysed and argued its
way to a moral no-man’s-land and where chance can still throw everything into
disarray. For me, this is the most accessible and successful of the Coen
brothers’ films. The script is highly engaging, the direction brisk, exciting
but also thought-provoking, and the performances from all involved are beyond
reproach.
My thanks for taking the
time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.
Stuart Fernie
I can be contacted at stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk .
