Great film-not because of loose end

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2007)

I love this movie, not because the ending was ambiguous but because of the great characters; Llewelyn's endearing resourcefulness, Sheriff Bell's growing pessimism, the killer's frightening, socio-pathic logic and finally Carla Jean's way of deflating the killer's grandiose logic. Yes, the killer wins in the end. And the final speech (Jones' dream about his father) is so poignant and touching and epic, that final speech makes the movie great. The glimmer of hope (fire waiting for us ahead in the coldness of a winter night)...then we all eventually wake up.
Another note: Chigurh is an extension of long line of Coen bros. 'monsters'. Beginning with Blood Simple's P.I., Raising Arizona's Killer biker (a film that is closest to No Country...in terms of plot and themes), Barton Fink's Charlie the salesman, Fargo's Gaear, a sociopath who is not as invisible as Chigurh. These characters all share a trait of being overly-grotesque, otherworldly, almost supernatural. Their grandiosity rises above mere human traits and move into metaphors of moral decay of civilization. In Raising Arizona, the movie suggests that H.I. has created this biker killer out of his nightmare and the killer even shares the same woodywoodpecker tattoo with H.I.
This movie is the Coen's most pessimist film but it is as if all the films before it had been working towards this masterpiece.