End of No Country For Old Men (SPOILER ALERT!)
- Thread starter rixtyseven
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It's mostly Tommy Lee Jones talking about how helpless and useless he feels. He's outlived his father, he's done nothing to stop "evil"
a lot of the misunderstanding from the film comes from the fact that Bell's World War II past isn't touched on. the book he's trying to redeem himself and sees saving Moss as the way to do that.
a lot of the misunderstanding from the film comes from the fact that Bell's World War II past isn't touched on. the book he's trying to redeem himself and sees saving Moss as the way to do that.
I really enjoyed the ending for basically the same reason that Tony (M. Weinachten) said. Part of it for me is that my Grandaddy was a police officer in south Alabama for about 20 years. His main job was tromping through the woods and busting up moonshine stills. He also was stopping people who were driving liquor from other states into Alabama (in Alabama liquor is only sold at state run stores, so stopping revenuers (sp?) is very important to the state's bottom line).
Around the mid 70s, the moonshine problem had dwindled and the real problem was with drugs. So Grandaddy got a bunch of DEA training and his job started transitioning to be more about busting drug dealers than moonshiners. And that is when he retired. He said that the moonshine guys knew him. When he came to bust up a still, they didn't put up a fuss or put a gun to his face or anything. They said "Howdy Mr. Roy. How's Miss Vivian?". The drug dealers did not do that. They would shoot you just as soon as look at you and he was like "Fuck this. I'm done". It made no sense to him what was going on and therefore he didn't want to be a part of it anymore.
So for me, it all made perfect sense. The world changed in a way that TLJ couldn't wrap his head around. I think he had some inner conflict with that (the dream), feeling like he wasn't as good a man as his daddy. But at the end of the day I think he didn't want to be a part of a fight that made no sense to him, so he quit. Kind of like my Grandaddy.
Around the mid 70s, the moonshine problem had dwindled and the real problem was with drugs. So Grandaddy got a bunch of DEA training and his job started transitioning to be more about busting drug dealers than moonshiners. And that is when he retired. He said that the moonshine guys knew him. When he came to bust up a still, they didn't put up a fuss or put a gun to his face or anything. They said "Howdy Mr. Roy. How's Miss Vivian?". The drug dealers did not do that. They would shoot you just as soon as look at you and he was like "Fuck this. I'm done". It made no sense to him what was going on and therefore he didn't want to be a part of it anymore.
So for me, it all made perfect sense. The world changed in a way that TLJ couldn't wrap his head around. I think he had some inner conflict with that (the dream), feeling like he wasn't as good a man as his daddy. But at the end of the day I think he didn't want to be a part of a fight that made no sense to him, so he quit. Kind of like my Grandaddy.
I've only seen it once, and that time I felt like, huh? They skipped the climax and went right to the epilogue (which was awesome). But does there need to be SOME kind of climax? Does Jaws work if they're never face to face with the shark?
Was when he killed the wife the climax? Actually when he got hit by a car, I assumed he was dead and that was the ending and thought it was brilliant - the very methodical murderer got taken out by random death.
I am hoping to see it at least once more to see if it bothers me.
Was when he killed the wife the climax? Actually when he got hit by a car, I assumed he was dead and that was the ending and thought it was brilliant - the very methodical murderer got taken out by random death.
I am hoping to see it at least once more to see if it bothers me.
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I think the climax was the hotel scene where Bell very reluctantly attempts a face off with Chigurgh. Bell didn't want to go into that hotel room, I don't think he ever really wanted to have to face Chigurgh, and you can see the relief he feels when he realizes that Chigurgh got away. What's interesting to me is that Chigurgh chose to escape from Bell through the air shaft instead of just blowing him away. I think he knew Bell posed absolutely no real long term threat to him whatsoever, and chose to make it easy on both of them by fleeing through the air vent. If I'm right about that, it might've been the sole act of rational humanity shown by Chigurgh.
I didn't read the book, btw. This is an interpration of the movie. If there's a conversation in the book that's all like, "Hey friendo I'm gonna flip a coin and if you win I'll leave through the airshaft and give you ten bucks for the porn I watched while I waited for you," I'm not aware of it.
John.
I didn't read the book, btw. This is an interpration of the movie. If there's a conversation in the book that's all like, "Hey friendo I'm gonna flip a coin and if you win I'll leave through the airshaft and give you ten bucks for the porn I watched while I waited for you," I'm not aware of it.
John.
I loved the ending a few days after seeing the movie.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it couldn't have ended any other way. What was Bell going to do against Chigurgh? What could stop Chigurgh for a moment beyond the randomness of a careless stranger blowing through a stop sign?
Bell, in the end, does the only thing he can do if he wants to live...he resigns to life. He resigns to being unable to stop evil. Sometimes you have to keep your head down.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it couldn't have ended any other way. What was Bell going to do against Chigurgh? What could stop Chigurgh for a moment beyond the randomness of a careless stranger blowing through a stop sign?
Bell, in the end, does the only thing he can do if he wants to live...he resigns to life. He resigns to being unable to stop evil. Sometimes you have to keep your head down.
Let me drop some interpretation on you haters.
No Country mirrors Heart of Darkness in its arch-theme, although unlike Kurtz, Sheriff Bell doesn't travel into the heart of darkness so much as just watch helplessly as the darkness travels into his own town. No Country is his story, even if the scattered storyline and jumping plot points pull your attention toward Moss and Chigurh.
In this context, Chigurh is not a person so much as he is a symbol of 1) fate and 2) the fundamental violence and malevolence of human nature, which has existed since the dawn of man and continues to lurk beneath our modern "civilized" skins.
I'll keep the "fate" part short: as the symbol of "fate," Chigurh is practically Greek. Through Chigurh, Moss pays the price for his crime and his hubris, and, as it usually goes with classic fatalism, the innocents around him suffer for his sins as well. But innocents NOT connected to Moss are spared. Chigurh does not kill the sassy trailer lady, nor does he kill the gas station owner or the man standing next to him when he murders the man who hired him. They did not anger fate, nor were they standing between fate and its target. This theme is manifested most obviously in the coin toss. The gas station owner was not just "lucky" that the coin toss spared his life - it was predetermined. As Chigurh says, the coin and the owner traveled twenty years to meet at that one moment - there was no random chance here. The same goes for Moss's wife. When she pleads with Chigurh to let her live, she tries to argue that it is Chigurh who has the power to kill her or spare her, not the coin. Chigurh corrects her: "the force that brought the coin here also brought me." That is to say, Chigurh is an instrument of fate, not a free-willed agent.
More relevant to the ending, though, is the theme of Chigurh as representative of the evil in humanity, as the low roar of violence that has been the hallmark of all societies since civilization began. As a lawman, Bell is the representative of humanity's attempt to quiet that roar. "Bell vs. Chigurh" is really about "Human Law and Civiliation vs. Human Nature," and the movie is clear about what force wins in this scenario.
The scene that drives this home is when Bell visits his uncle, the old ex-sheriff, near the end of the movie. Up to that point, if you'll remember, Bell basically spends the entire movie pondering and discussing with others how modern society has gotten to the point where violence is so casual and evil is so pervasive. The uncle responds by telling him about a local man back in 1909 who was shot and killed on his own porch for no real reason. Essentially, the uncle tells Bell not to be stupid - the world has always been this way. Bell would like to believe that civilization is the norm and the criminals are the outlier, and that the recent violence is abnormal, but in reality the opposite is true. The darkness is the norm, and the thin blue line Sheriff Bell represents is an ineffectual and unnatural force we've created to try and keep it at bay.
You get hints of it in the beginning, too, during Bell's awesome introductory monologue, where he says that "the crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, okay, I'll be part of this world." Bell does not mind fighting crimes - what terrifies him is the horrible but fundamental element of humanity underlying these crimes. Confronting its truth - acknowledging its eternal grip on humanity - would put his soul in jeopardy. What would it do to a man, after all, to fully admit that the human soul is ultimately and irredeemably savage? The abyss also stares into you, so to speak.
This all leads up to the ending monologue, where No Country gives us a profoundly depressing metaphor for humanity. Bell recounts his dream of his father walking through the vast and cold darkness with a weak torch, hoping to build a fire somewhere, and Bell knows he will join him there. These are the two policemen, the representatives of order and peace, trying to find some crevice in the dark and murky realm of human nature upon which we can build a civilization. We are all there with Bell and his dad, huddling near it for warmth, staring into it, trying to convince ourselves that this insignificant speck of light is the natural state of our souls, desperately ignoring the infinite darkness beyond.
No Country mirrors Heart of Darkness in its arch-theme, although unlike Kurtz, Sheriff Bell doesn't travel into the heart of darkness so much as just watch helplessly as the darkness travels into his own town. No Country is his story, even if the scattered storyline and jumping plot points pull your attention toward Moss and Chigurh.
In this context, Chigurh is not a person so much as he is a symbol of 1) fate and 2) the fundamental violence and malevolence of human nature, which has existed since the dawn of man and continues to lurk beneath our modern "civilized" skins.
I'll keep the "fate" part short: as the symbol of "fate," Chigurh is practically Greek. Through Chigurh, Moss pays the price for his crime and his hubris, and, as it usually goes with classic fatalism, the innocents around him suffer for his sins as well. But innocents NOT connected to Moss are spared. Chigurh does not kill the sassy trailer lady, nor does he kill the gas station owner or the man standing next to him when he murders the man who hired him. They did not anger fate, nor were they standing between fate and its target. This theme is manifested most obviously in the coin toss. The gas station owner was not just "lucky" that the coin toss spared his life - it was predetermined. As Chigurh says, the coin and the owner traveled twenty years to meet at that one moment - there was no random chance here. The same goes for Moss's wife. When she pleads with Chigurh to let her live, she tries to argue that it is Chigurh who has the power to kill her or spare her, not the coin. Chigurh corrects her: "the force that brought the coin here also brought me." That is to say, Chigurh is an instrument of fate, not a free-willed agent.
More relevant to the ending, though, is the theme of Chigurh as representative of the evil in humanity, as the low roar of violence that has been the hallmark of all societies since civilization began. As a lawman, Bell is the representative of humanity's attempt to quiet that roar. "Bell vs. Chigurh" is really about "Human Law and Civiliation vs. Human Nature," and the movie is clear about what force wins in this scenario.
The scene that drives this home is when Bell visits his uncle, the old ex-sheriff, near the end of the movie. Up to that point, if you'll remember, Bell basically spends the entire movie pondering and discussing with others how modern society has gotten to the point where violence is so casual and evil is so pervasive. The uncle responds by telling him about a local man back in 1909 who was shot and killed on his own porch for no real reason. Essentially, the uncle tells Bell not to be stupid - the world has always been this way. Bell would like to believe that civilization is the norm and the criminals are the outlier, and that the recent violence is abnormal, but in reality the opposite is true. The darkness is the norm, and the thin blue line Sheriff Bell represents is an ineffectual and unnatural force we've created to try and keep it at bay.
You get hints of it in the beginning, too, during Bell's awesome introductory monologue, where he says that "the crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, okay, I'll be part of this world." Bell does not mind fighting crimes - what terrifies him is the horrible but fundamental element of humanity underlying these crimes. Confronting its truth - acknowledging its eternal grip on humanity - would put his soul in jeopardy. What would it do to a man, after all, to fully admit that the human soul is ultimately and irredeemably savage? The abyss also stares into you, so to speak.
This all leads up to the ending monologue, where No Country gives us a profoundly depressing metaphor for humanity. Bell recounts his dream of his father walking through the vast and cold darkness with a weak torch, hoping to build a fire somewhere, and Bell knows he will join him there. These are the two policemen, the representatives of order and peace, trying to find some crevice in the dark and murky realm of human nature upon which we can build a civilization. We are all there with Bell and his dad, huddling near it for warmth, staring into it, trying to convince ourselves that this insignificant speck of light is the natural state of our souls, desperately ignoring the infinite darkness beyond.
I like your analyses a lot. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember them showing whether he killed the trailer woman or the man in the office. In each case they just cut to another scene or showed him leaving. Why didn't they just show him walking away from them so that we know for sure that he didn't kill them?
Well, except for Moss's wife, you see every murder Chigurh carries out, and with Moss's wife it's made clear through their conversation that he kills her. So I'm comfortable assuming that if he had killed those people, it would have been made clear to us that he did so.
To the extent that any ambiguity exists, though, it fits my analytical framework better if he does not kill the sassy lady and office man, so I see it that way.
To the extent that any ambiguity exists, though, it fits my analytical framework better if he does not kill the sassy lady and office man, so I see it that way.