No Country for Old Men

For a film this well known, one can assume everyone has seen it, which saves the bother of having to say much. It's my second view after three years. The first time I could not understand why it was so highly rated, and I may say the same now. The feeling is of having seen a gripping thriller, particularly well constructed and painted on a wide canvas depicting the current state-of-the-art wild west.

Chigurh, the lead character, is not exactly a serial killer or a psychotic. He is intelligent, literate and articulate. If one were to attempt a deconstruction of his personality, one could only say he's a person who desires money, and lives by letting the toss of a coin determine his path. He leaves a trail of bodies as he pursues the suitcase filled with money. 

It's a society dominated by money and drugs. Even children understand the meaning of money. Llewyn's wife refuses to bargain for life by tossing a coin. The policemen for a change are portrayed as good philosophers, uncomprehending the transformed society, of which they see the worst. In fact Chigurh seems the distilled logical end product of a society in which the traditional sources of values have dried up. Satan, after all, is known to be a crafty logician, and logic cannot produce values.

The efficient air-cylinder which he wields is an apt symbol for the weaponry which distances the killer from the victim. This is a film about the roulette wheel society and the coin-toss universe. The film is a chilling and exquisitely wrought portrayal of our times and Chigurh is more a prototype than bizarre.

All though the film is about a series of killings, it somehow does not take the extinction of life as lightly as many others.The ghastliness of the act of killing comes through sharply. Why is murder so foul? Life, so laboriously nursed and nurtured with pain and sacrifice, is a journey, an unwritten odyssey, a bundle of infinite possibility. To tear off the pages of the book of life mid way is a sad deed indeed.