Violence in the Heartland.

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2011)

At first, I saw this film as a straight story of violence and greed. However, it is so much more than just what's on the surface. The Coens take this interesting story of violence and turn it into one of the most shocking and intelligent studies of themes ranging from predestination versus the unpredictability of chance to American greed and consequences for violence.
Llewelyn Moss is our main protagonist for the majority of the film, but it's Ed Tom Bell who serves as our opener and closer and his approach to the whole state of the world in this is a fantastic way of not letting the audience disappear into this world of violence. Instead of just accepting that this is the world of the film, we always have Ed Tom to come in and explain to us that this violent existence is our existence as well and it's disgusting. I've always loved the approach of a character who looks back on life with regret and this is one of the best examples of that. Tommy Lee Jones was the perfect choice for this role, and he really hits that stoic manliness while also just being filled with guilt and borderline disgust over the state of the world. Except it's gotten to a point where it's not even disgust anymore, it's just depressed indifference. It's brilliant.
Our look at these characters ends with Ed Tom detailing one of his dreams to his wife. In the dream, him and his father were back in older times, traveling in this mountain pass. His father rides ahead with a fire and a blanket, not saying anything as he passes. The road is cold and dark and hard to get through, but Ed Tom knows that once he gets through it all and makes it to his father, he'll be warm and taken care of. Everything will be alright. Then comes the film's now-famous final line, "And then I woke up...", with him coming back into our world. It's kind of a chilling ending, again commenting on the rough and ruthless state of our current existence. Back in older times, no matter how hard things got, you would know that everything was going to be alright in the end. There would be a fire and light to keep you safe and warm. But now, that doesn't exist anymore. He woke up and now he's not so sure that everything is going to be alright when he gets through that rough terrain. There might just be more.
I feel like the film is two almost separate entities. There's the chase down with Anton and Llewelyn and the drug money, then there's Ed Tom almost acting as his own audience, coming in and just being marveled by the immense violence that these men run through during the film. In so many ways, this is a film that doesn't follow any conventional means, and in keeping with this it's one of the few films where we not only see the consequences of violence, we see the aftermath. It's not like a serial killer movie where the detective gratuitously goes through the blood and carnage to find a clue. Ed Tom rides in and just...experiences the cost of the violence that these men don't think twice about when they present it into the world.
One of the most interesting aspects of the film comes in the form of Anton Chigurh. Classified by most as a "villain", the character for the large part of the film represents so much more than that; anarchy, the cruel and unpredictable act of fate and, most importantly, consequence. A lot of people see Chigurh as just this unstoppable evil, but it should be noted that the character only acts out of a response to the violence of the world. He is only a part of this world because the world requires him to be. Someone like Chigurh coming into existence is nothing beyond the consequence for a world that has become so lost in it's belief that violence is the ultimate answer.
Although in certain scenes, particularly the now infamous gas station exchange, he simply represents the uncertainty of fate. All of your life you make decisions that lead you down certain paths, and making one wrong decision could lead you to an immediate and unexpected demise. Chigurh at times can be the ultimate example of this, with the simple choice of heads or tails standing between you and a grave. The scene near the end with him and Llewelyn's wife, Carla Jean is a great representation of this whole thing. She tells him that he can choose to leave, that it's up him and he responds simply by saying that it's out of his control. Fate isn't in anyone's control and whether you like it or not, sometimes there are choices you make that lead you down completely different paths and this story just happens to have that choice potentially leading to the ultimate path.
This is perhaps my favorite aspect of No Country for Old Men, the fact that the film isn't conventional in any way whatsoever. We have a "villain" with absolutely no backstory, there's no sign of hope or bright light at the end of the tunnel, the film doesn't end with a bang but with a whisper, major characters get killed off-screen, nothing is safe here and nothing is predictable. I think that the best films are the ones where you have no idea what's going to happen, but you know that whatever it is, it's going to be unique and incredible. You don't know what path you'll get taken down, but you trust the director(s) to take you down it.