The Coen Brothers Dissected

As a Minnesotan, one might have thought that before I became "an adult" I would have seen Fargo. Sadly, this assumption should not be made. Fargo and No Country for Old Men really caught my attention as movies that I either could relate to or found interesting. At this moment I am feeling the inspiration to discuss the latter of those two films.

A scene from No Country that really disturbed me was when Sheriff Ed Tom Bell returns to the crime scene where Moss was killed. As Bell approaches the door we see that the lock has been characteristically blown out by Chigurh. At this time, we cut to a shot of Chigurh, inside the motel room where Moss had been staying, hiding behind the door with the light from the hole shining just enough to show his face and his gun. OK, when this flashed up on the screen, my heart skipped a couple beats. Sheriff Bell was my FAVORITE character in the film and there was no way he was gonna just be taken out like that. Back to the movie; Feeling that perhaps Chigurh could be in there, Bell reaches for his gun. When he opens the door nothing happens. Bell looks around the room and sees no one nor anything (this made me happpy).
As Tom sits on the bed he looks down to the side at an AC vent and we see the whole story. Now, what I would like to focus on now is the fact that sitting next to the vent cover is a dime with the heads side UP. In past encounters- the store clerk, Mrs. Moss- heads up has been lucky. My view is that Chirgurh asked himself whether or not to wait and see if Bell came back. The heads signified that Bell was really not a threat to him and that he did not need to die.

Truly, I have never seen another thriller/psycho killer film where the murderer has such a place in his brain for fate. In most slasher movies there is nothing that can be done to stop what has been set in motion. However, in No Country for Old Men Anton Chigurgh looks to fate and the unexpected to guide him on his true destiny. I thought this to be VERY cool!

Even though the film was not based off original material from the Coens AND it supposedly held faithful to the book, it can obviously be stamped a Coen Brothers film. Whether it was the setting that influenced the characters and events around them or the somewhat dumb nature of others. These are just two examples of typical Coen elements among many in such a a fantastic film.