The good, the bad and the ugly haircut (No Country for Old Men review)
MANILA, Philippines – If ever a man’s hair were indicative of a person’s character, then Anton Chigurgh, Javier Bardem’s character in Ethan and Joel Coen’s “No Country for Old Men,” would have to be pure evil.
Chigurgh is the cold, philosophizing and seemingly unstoppable bounty-hunter on the trail of Llewelyn Moss, a good-natured welder and Vietnam veteran who has chanced upon $2.4 million of drug money in a land teeming with dead bodies—the aftermath of a deal gone wrong—in the movie version of the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same title. (The movie won this year’s Oscar for Best Picture, as well as Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Bardem.)
Although described in the book as someone without a sense of humor , it’s hard not to chuckle every time Chigurgh engages his would-be victims in a discussion.
The combined effect of funny and fear only intensifies as the exchange goes on. The anticipation that Chigurgh could at any time use his weapon of choice (the captive bolt pistol) on his innocuous victims can be quite disturbing.
But in some form of twisted logic only he understands, Chigurgh offers salvation via a flip of a coin.
Call it right and Chigurgh grants you clemency. You get to go on with your life, having just had the most interesting and ridiculous conversation ever. And, of course, the lingering thought of what could have been if you had made the wrong call.
Moss, however, is not afforded the same privilege. After disposing off the same police officers who hired him to follow the trail of the cold cash, Chigurgh doesn’t take long to figure out that Moss has the money. Like one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Chigurgh sets out to hunt him.
Symbol of good
Closely behind the two is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). Already way past his prime, Bell represents all that was good—or remains to be good—in his town. It can probably be said that his point of view of how things have changed in his beloved side of West Texas is what the title of the story alludes to.
Somewhere along the way, Bell realizes that to act despondent and disillusioned in the constantly evolving face of crime would merely be an exercise in futility.
The Coens, who wrote and directed the film, chose Jones for the riveting and reflective character because they saw the actor as someone who would be able to understand Bell’s role as the soul of the movie.
That would make Moss, played by Josh Brolin, the heart. Living in a trailer with wife Carla Jean (Kelly McDonald), Moss portrays what most well-meaning husbands would do to provide for a better life.
Faced with a choice, he decides he could probably get away with the cash with very little consequence to think about.
But then Moss finds out soon enough how wrong he is, as Chigurgh, obviously the cerebral of the three, provides just the right dose of conflict like most great villains do. His hair style and the chill in his voice add to a very powerful unnerving presence.
One can’t help but wish Chigurgh was on the screen all the time as the story seems to move forward only when he does.
And while Bell and Moss are real people with a past, Chigurgh just seems to have appeared from out of nowhere, his story never revealed to add to the mystery of a man who leaves death and destruction wherever he goes.
“No Country for Old Men” is a stimulating reflection of how good and evil go hand in hand in an ever-changing landscape of violence bereft of all hope.
Maverick
At once a modern legend and a literary maverick, Cormac McCarthy was already renowned for his extraordinary stories set against the changing American West when he published “No Country for Old Men” in 2003. The book, featuring one of his most visceral, multi-layered and contemporary stories, was an instant success.
At the heart of the story lie some of McCarthy’s most evocative themes, which he has explored in 10 novels that have become classics: the fast-approaching end of an entire way of Western life; the last stand of honor and justice against a broken world; the ongoing human struggle against the sinister; the dark comedy and violence of modern times; the interplay of temptation, survival and sacrifice; and, added in the mix, a touch of sustaining love and a sliver of hope in the darkness.
Following the acclaim for “No Country for Old Men,” McCarthy did a turnabout for his most recent novel, turning to a setting even more stark and biblical than the New West—a post-apocalyptic world of ash and devastation in which a father and son struggle for survival.
The new novel is “The Road,” which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
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