No Country for Old Men — Don't Underestimate the Audience

The lack of music score is also a very conscious and effective move in this film.

I've just noticed that all three men also sit in the same seat at one point, yet their paths all drastically diverge to various outcomes

“No country for old men”and “there will be blood”..damn we were spoiled in 2007

This movie was brilliant, it told you nothing, but gave you everything.

Tiny detail I just noticed: There's this recurring scene we see in action and suspense films nowadays where the protagonist is driving through an intersection and they get T-Boned, but you almost always see the car that hits them in the distance of the interior shot. The scene where Chigurgh gets T-Boned it comes from the opposite side, almost like the viewer is in his headspace, and we're just as oblivious to the other car as he is. Anyway, I just thought I'd point that out, even though it's a bit off topic.

One of the reasons I love shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is that quite often they just show a character doing something and force the audience to figure it out. It's a really engaging and I wish more shows and movies did similar instead of spoon-feeding exposition.

The good guy asks for a jacket, and they sell it to him. The bad guy asks for a shirt, and the kid gives it up out of kindness.

I think there's another subtle aspect to the moral that most people missed in this film. Up until Moss' showdown with Chigurh, the villain is seen as almost immortal and essentially unstoppable. Moss is able to wound him and offer him his first true challenge, which feels emotionally appropriate because Moss is the protagonist. Then, when Moss is killed, Chigurh goes back to being unstoppable and terrifying again. Chigurh is a personification of evil itself, which none of us can survive without the aid of heroes or at least heroism; in Moss' absence, evil is free to move about and operate unimpeded and unchallenged. At the end of the film, when Chigurh is severely injured in a startling car accident and limps away with his bones sticking out, his future is now uncertain, and he is shown in a shocking turn to be much more vulnerable than we had thought. We are left to realize that the image of unconfrontable evil in our minds was always an illusion and an exaggeration; that even the most terrifying villain is ultimately powerless against the forces of entropy which rule the universe. He may be stronger or more fearsome than we are, but to a careless moment at a stop sign, he's just another accident victim. At the very moment of the film when the sheriff is explaining his choice to resign, certain that he cannot contend with the changing times, the thing he feared the most is shown broken and defeated. So to me, the real moral of the film is that nothing - not even the devil himself - is immune to the winds of change. There was never a "good old days"; only ever a relentless march of time, which consumes everything in its path. The sheriff, at this point, ceases to become a character, and joins the viewer in offering interpretations of the film we have just seen. And in failing to understand the fragility of all things - even evil - the sheriff's interpretation of the film, and indeed his whole assessment of his world, is shown to be tragically incorrect.

3:27-3:41 The way that entire scene played out was the most disturbing scene in a movie that I've ever seen. The way the victim stays so calm and trustworthy because he assumes it's a police officer. So much so that he even lets him put that "kill piece" right up to his forehead. Which I assume is exactly how it would play out in real life because people are programmed to think "He's a cop, he won't hurt me." A really genius scene all around.

The book explains why he was arrested to begin with. He snapped a guys kneck or choked him to death (doesnt specify) in an altercation outside of a diner of bar. They arrested him hours later. He said he allowed himself to get arrested to see if he could escape from the situation.

While it's a great movie I feel like Cormac Mcarthy deserves a lot of credit. Not only for the story he created, but his writing style translates into film extremely well.

"It's your lucky quarter. Don't put it in your pocket sir. Or it'll get mixed in with all the others, and become just a coin..... Which it is." There's some very calming substance in the strangely illogical mind of Anton Chigurh. The best screen villain since The Terminator.

I never noticed that curtain that was parted before. Thanks for that. I saw this movie in an early screening before its theatrical release. The earlier cut never showed Moss gunned down. So the rest of the movie I was left thinking “what happened to Moss?” I think this was a callback to the book, as the sheriffs talk about Moss being killed, but there’s no payoff/showdown. I think that the Coen bros. had to give the audience the “equals 4” (Moss dead on screen) answer cause we were so invested with him. We needed a confirmation. One of my favorite movies. Great vid, Michael. :)

I remember reading the novel and getting to the part that said the protagonist's body was found, and he wasn't even killed by the main antagonist. I re-read that part at least 5 times thinking there was some kind of misprint.

Teens were innocent at first...they acted according to their gut feelings and offered help without expecting anything in return, but when they were offered money and they took it the two of them became separated and began to argue about the way it should be divided. This holds a significant meaning in the movie. The ways in which humanity can be shattered with the arrival of greediness and complete silence of the universe to our ideals of right and wrong.

One of my top 5 movies. I watch it every few months. One of my favorite parts, which I haven't seen other people mention in the comments is when Anton is talking to the lady filing her nails at the trailer court. She literally stands up to, and stares down one of most evil, pathological movie killers of all time. He's thinking of killing her for standing up to him and not yielding to his will, then he hears a toilet flush in another room and knows she's not alone. He decides she isn't worth the bother. Little did she know who she was playing mind games with, and what could have happened except for a toilet flush. Love it!

I had to do a thesis on this film in a class. I watched it so much to complete the paper I got sick of it and haven't picked it up in over 5 years. This video might have brought it back for me. Thank you.

One of my favorite films of all time! Thanks for this

The off screen death is to make the viewer FEEL how sheriff bell feels when he finds Luwellyn dead. Absolutely brilliant story telling.

I found this film an edge-of-your-seat experience. One of the best, scariest villains ever.