Brilliant!!!

Rating: 9/10 (7 May 2008)

An excellent and thought provoking movie that is a world unto itself. It doesn't tell a story as much as it reveals the characters to us through the circumstances of the plot. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem's character) interests me to no end. It seems on the surface that he is just another crazed killer type character that kills because it brings him pleasure. To me this is a misinterpretation of who this character actually is, and a misreading such as this takes a lot out of the film. To me, the Chigurh character is an exercise in absolute adherence to an absolute set of principles. He is a person who, unlike anyone who you will probably ever meet, has drawn for himself a plan of action which he applies without exception to every situation he is thrust into. He places his success in his various endeavors, and survival above all, and does not hesitate to kill anyone who even has the possibility of inconveniencing him in the future. However, it appears to me that he adheres to this harsh course of action not because he believes himself or his cause to be above others, but because the unfaltering nature of his behavior is the only tangible thing he has to hold onto in this world. Although he accepts that he must hold himself up to this high standard of completely unchanging behavior regardless of situation for himself and possibly for others, he seems at the same time to resent this. When he kills, he does so in the most humane way available to him using, when it is an option, a cattle gun used to kill steer painlessly before processing their meat. He also, whenever possible, leaves the fate of people up to their call of a coin-toss, perhaps in his mind putting their lives in the hands of fate, releasing him from his obligation to kill them, or even cleansing him of the guilt of killing them when he does. Additionally, he doesn't kill people if they haven't seen him.
-All in all, this movie was an excellent watch, a real "must see." I do caution though that it should be watched with ones thinking cap on, lest some of the significance of this fine cinematic experience be missed.