No Cineplex For Old Men

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2008)

When I read the negative reviews for this film I am reminded that there is a tsunami like generation of people that do not care to think anymore. The corporate pandering to the young masses, the placating to the mindless who are satisfied with mediocrity, who ask for no better, and who's lack of intellectual curiosity has brought us precisely to this place, this country, this NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
A simplified theme in this film is much like the old saying "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
SPOILER OF YOUR LIFE>>>- KUDOS TO THE BLOG THAT SAID "IT'S AN ALLEGORY', WHICH JUMP STARTED MY BRAIN. it is Javier Bardem in a pageboy shroud. It is the Seventh Seal.
Death is inevitable. You cannot cheat death. You will not know when or how it is coming. Especially if you are a willing participant on the battlefield, as Lewellyn becomes when he decides to follow the blood money and take it. He sets the game in motion. Maybe even the black bag of money is a pawn in a chess game. That is when he invited death into the game. He begins as the hunter and becomes the hunted. All our choices in life lead us to our destiny. Many paths to take, but in the end Death will be there. You might be able to evade it for awhile or put it off (as Lewellyn manages to do when he shoots Anton) ,but, it will eventually find you. Sometimes sooner than you think. The older we become the more that we realize that this really is our fate, we are mere mortals here on earth, and we must begin to embrace or envision another existence. We will not win this battle. Bell asked the old man (Ellis) about a death.when did it happen. And he answered 19zero9. But Bell meant "how long did the death take" Was it quick and painless? And Bell begins to understand that this is something he cannot control, nor could his father before him. This "mess", this "war" is life and before we can "continue", past our hopes and dreams, we still must face it. Death.
Bell infers that this bunch of outlaws are the worstit's the worst of times and it was easier "in the old days for the old timers" and Ellis (the old man) tells him that's vanity. It is vain to think we can conquer all the evil in the world because maybe the point of good and evil is to give man his free will. Ellis says he doesn't "got any of the cats. Some are wild and others are outlaws" Ellis has learned to live with them. He isn't curious anymore about why people do the things they do. It is part of human nature. It is not new.
Bell reads from paper about shocking crimeswhat it takes today to get people's attention.. Green hair/bones in the nose. Nothing has changed. After every horrible school massacre they always say what they will do "so this will never happen again" And of course we know it will.
The characters that come in contact with Chigurh, some live some die, some are "flirting with death", without knowing it, as we all tend to do. Chigurh carries the air gun like a scythe, he travels from vehicle to vehicle, but those whom he needs the "vehicle" from end up as most in his pathbut getting the "air gun" the painless hit,, not the shotgun These people weren't really on the battlefield. Others have chosen to be on the battlefield, or in the battle (think about references to Namfrom Woody, from Mexican border guard.) And death is not always obvious, we do not see it coming, as we did not "see" the death of Moss. It came when we weren't looking, by unexpected methods.
Moss bought a coat and a beer with the blood money, which the guys made sure they saw and had in their hands before they gave the coat to him, even though it wasn't worth $500. "Was he in a car accident?" the guy asks repeatedly.Moss lies, says yes, but they still offer no help. He eventually ends up in a Catholic hospital which, tends to his wounds, and clothes him, in a humble robe, seemingly without payment. Which is what Jesus would do.
Moss is given several warnings not to mess with Chighur but in the telephone conversation with Chigurh he has a chance to save himself(remember the religious icons before him?) yet, he turns it down. He crosses the border and purchases clothesstill with the blood money and this is the shirt he will die in.
Later one of the young boys on the bicycle wears the same shirt. Chigurh offers money (bloody) for it and has them tie the knot, which keeps Chigurh or Death on the move. They tell him he has a bone sticking out of his arm, but maybe they are too young to understand the impassionate manners of death. After all, Chigurh has yet to bloody his boots through all this mayhem. The boy doesn't want to take money for itbut he eventually does, even refusing to share it with his friend and ultimately promising not to say they've seen Chigurhdenying death. But maybe this is just a symbol of history repeating itself. A boy who will in the end become a man who will encounter his brushes with death. Maybe he will take the path of Moss and it will come sooner rather than later or maybe he will follow the path of Ellis and Bell, and become yet another older and wiser man, who following the righteous path and living with the noblest of intentions, learn only one truth in the end. Death is inevitable.