Critical Argument In The Film 'No Country For Old Men'

Good and evil have existed since the beginning of mankind. Good defends the righteous, as evil has been bent on destruction. In today’s society, many people believe that good will always triumph over evil. The murderer will eventually be caught by the police; the carjacker will one day meet his doom; the superhero will defeat the evil villain. Simply, in some circumstances, this is not entirely true. Good does not always prevail over evil. This is exceptionally true in the movie No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers. The dominant theme in the Coen brother’s movie is evil.

‘It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth.' [Juror 8, page 53] Perhaps this best sums up the basis of ‘Twelve Angry Men' by Reginald Rose. This play is about a young delinquent on trial for the murder of his abusive father. The jury must find him guilty if there is no reasonable doubt, and in turn, sentence him to death. ‘I don't envy your job. You are faced with a grave responsibility.' [Judge, page 1]

My favorite song of the movie was “Piddle, Twiddle” sung by John Adams (William Daniels). It is my favorite song because it describes how most of the Continental Army and some of the colonial citizens were thinking about the actions of congress. The song talked about how the congress does not do anything important. Or if they do something important, it takes them a very long time to complete it. I think overall, it captures what a lot of people, including John Adams, was

In this essay, M.D. will analyze the roles and choices the main characters made while relating them to the main theme of good versus evil and fate versus free will in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.)

In Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country For Old Men,” fate plays a significant role in the novel and is present in the lives of each of the characters he portrays. Fate, as defined in the dictionary, is “the will or principle or determining cause by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do.” The theme of fate is demonstrated in all of the characters in the novel, but most evidently in Llewellyn Moss, Ed Tom Bell, Carla Jean, Carson Wells, and Anton Chigurh. Fate is the main difference that lies between all of these characters. In his interactions with other characters, Anton Chigurh continually suggests that each and every choice we make determines our fate.

There are many significant views and values that Reginald Rose demonstrates in 12 Angry Men the most important one being that prejudice constantly affects the truth and peoples judgement. As the jurors argue between themselves as to whether a young boy is guilty of stabbing his father it is shown that “It’s very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this.” This is most evident in the way juror #3 and juror #10 come to their decision that the young man is guilty as they bring in there prejudice against young people and people from the slums to make their judgement without considering the facts of the case. Rose uses juror #8 who can see the whole trial because he is calm, reasonable and brings no prejudice as a prime example

In Spike Lee 's Do the Right Thing, the story takes places in 1989, another year in the long struggle for equality for African-Americans. The film portrays the racial tensions between locals of the neighborhood and an Italian-American family in the majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) in Brooklyn, New York. Spike Lee shows us what a day in the life of the Brooklyn neighborhood consists of and throughout the movie he portrays several different aspects of a modern urban neighborhood, using the many unique personalities of the characters in the movie.

The question is whether No Country for Old Men and Stagecoach provide adequate examples of the decline in American moral values. From my perspective of today’s world and my interpretation of No Country for Old Men and Stagecoach, I can see how the argument could be made that they have declined or haven’t changed at all. I see a difference between the relationship of Ringo and Dallas vs other members of their traveling group compared to Sheriff Bell vs Chigurh. These relationships, in my opinion, explains a lot about the development of moral values, or lack of, in the western United States. In this paper, I will describe the moral values that are represented in each movie and I will also try to describe my understanding of why American moral values may have declined between No Country for Old Men and Stagecoach.

Bitter about the evolution of the corruption of society, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell plays the official hero clinging to old traditions and reminiscing about the old days in No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Delusions of a peaceful utopia during the time his grandpa Jack was a sheriff has left Bell looking at the world through hopeless eyes; a world on its knees with only one explanation for its demise: Satan. Not necessarily a religious man, Sheriff Bell, when asked if he believes in Satan, remarks: “He explains a lot of things that otherwise don’t have no explanation. Or not to me they don’t” (218). Throughout No County for Old Men, Sheriff Bell is determined to save Llewellyn Moss in order to prove that justice can be served in a world

Ignorant souls will probably tell you that No Country for Old Men is a film of thirst for blood, material wealth and a sheriff's investigation. Those that suggest this, however, are the same that tune in weekly for their dose of Big Brother: The Evictions and are swayed by the words of their local car salesman. The Coen brothers’ masterful 2005 adaption of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is a standout in recent cinema history, pushing aside this year’s spit-out of Transformers from explosion-junkie Michael Bay. Taking a different approach from their usual quirky, humour films littered with three word profanities (cue: Burn after Reading Osbourne Cox fans), the Coen’s have successfully stepped into a dark, deeply disquieting drama

Throughout the entire movie No Country for Old Men there is a very strong theme of the juxtaposition of fate and free will. There is endless emphasis on the decisions that characters make, and how their decisions will ultimately affect their lives. All the characters are presented with situations where their choice plays a role in their fate. In No Country for Old Men, the fate of characters is determined by their actions and choices.

Bayless, Ryan S., and Allen H. Redmon. “’Just call it’: Identifying Competing Narratives In The Coens’ No Country For Old Men.” Literature-Film Quarterly 1 (2013): 6-13. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men follows three very different men in a tense cat and mouse chase through several border towns. It begins with a drug smuggling deal gone very wrong in the middle of the desert that leaves behind a truck bed full of cocaine and a sack with 1.4 million dollars left for someone to discover. When on a hunting endeavor, Llewelyn Moss discovers the scene and the million dollars. When he takes the money, he seals his fate with a brutal killer named Anton Chiguhr, and the old Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell. These men display three different personalities and mannerisms. The three main characters in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men represent three different generations.

Anton Chigurh is not the kind of person you would want to run into at a gas station, pull over in a traffic stop, or have next to you at a hotel. His eyes are sunken and lifeless, draped by dark, thick locks due to his peculiar haircut, and his attire is black from head to toe. Chigurh’s appearance, crafted perfectly by directors Ethan and Joel Coen, is so eerie because he is meant to personify death. Wherever he goes a death is sure to follow, and it is all in his hands. The Coen brother’s illustration of Anton Chigurh in the gas station scene (0:21:13-0:25:37) from No Country for Old Men shows that death is omnipresent, and a result of our own choices.

This movie is one of many classic movies that have the ultimate understanding of life and the human physiological behavior. This movie entitles three mechanisms of hunting to describe critical aspects of life, hunting for animals, hunting for men and hunting for meaning. Hunting is the act of tracking and taking a life; this act differs from hunting an animal to a human. This particle can teach a lot of principles like being patient, good timing and the art of tracking.