David H. Reynolds
Dr. Childs
English 1302
October 24 2012
The
Struggle for Control in the Coen
Brothers’ No Country for Old Men
There are those
who believe that there is a higher power controlling our destinies, there
are also people whom take control of
there own destiny. Then evey so often we hear of an indivisual who sees them
self as an higher power and sets out to take control of everything that they come
in contact with. In the Coen Brothers’ No
Country for Old Men, there are examples of all three types of people.
Sheriff Bell who has said “I have been waiting on come in to my life.” , Lewelyn,
Vietian Vet, who takes it apon himself
to intervene in a drug deal gone bad and consciously change his and his
wife’s life forever. And Chigurh, the Grim Reaper like character whom assumes control
over the lives of others.
The movie No Country for Old Men depicts a
distinctive contrast between the three main characters and how they go about
obtaining the control that they desire. While Sheriff Bell passively wishes for
control over his community, Lewelyn aggressively attempts to take control back
over his life. Then we have Chigurh who is overly aggressive in his attempts to
not only control his situation but everyone’s who crosses his path. Chigurh
seems so control crazed bechuse he thinks of himself from diffret from all
other humans
In the Article “Hold still” Models of Masculinity in the
Coens’ No Country for Old Men by Stacey Peebles, she states “ No Country
for Old Men follows its male protagonist in their varied efforts to make things
hold still and conform to their will.” She goes on to describe the scene where
Chigurh approaches an unsuspecting motorist and asks hem politely to “hold
still” before he fires his bolt pistol in to the man’s forehead. Then she describes how the movie skips to the
scene where Lewelyn aims his rifle at an antelope on the plain below as he
utters “you hold still” before he fires off a shot. Then she discusses Sheriff
Bell’s voiceover and how he is displeased with the changing times and in a
sense wants things to hold still.
Wanting things
to conform to your will, is wanting control over them, which is a natural
instinct, especially to one in a leadership role. Typically people in leadership roles include
but are not limited to; Husbands or head of the house hold, like Lewelyn or an
officer of the law like Sheriff Bell, who is also a husband and head of the
household. So it would be quite natural for them to want to be in control of
their situation. The Control that Chigurh wants however is quite unnatural.
In Bell’s case
he holds a position of public authority; he took an oath to serve and protect so
in that aspect he wants control of his community. He is also getting old, times
are changing and in his eyes and the eyes of many others, times are changing
for the worse. So in that aspect he would like control over time. Controlling
time is an unrealistic expectation, and that may explain part of the reason
that he felt like he was not succeeding at his job and started looking forward
towards retirement. Another reason perhaps, maybe that his struggle for control
for lawfulness over the land directly conflicts with Chigurh’s struggle for
control which has left a trail of carnage over the land. In that battle for
control Sheriff Bell was on the losing end. If Sheriff Bell were ever granted
the control that he passively seeks, it would result in a lower crime rate and
a community that’s safer for its inhabitants.
In the article A Flip of the Coin: Gender Systems and
Female Resistance in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men by Erin K.
Johns, Anton Chigurh is described as a “systematic and cold psychopathic killer
who relies on the system of fate”; but what is the “system of fate”? In the
article, FATE VS. FAITH
IN AMY TAN’S THE KITCHEN GOD’S WIFE by Aleksandra Izgarjan,
Fate is described as “the suggestion that a higher power knows the next move
and that we are at the mercy of that force”. Chigurh, however acts as though he
is this force. He places the responsibility of the dictions that would be made
by this higher power that is referred to as fate, all in to chance; a flip of a
coin. After the diction is made by the coin, rather the person who’s fate is
being decided lives or dies, then he proceeds to enforce that diction. In the
film No Country for Old Men Chigurh
walks into a gas station and into the life of an innocent bystander; an elderly
man who is behind the counter. After a brief conversion with the man, he then
asks him to “call it”.JeremyChigurh says that the coin he carried
had “been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it’s here,”
wants him to choose heads or tails on the coin; Courtni He is somewhat of a grim reaper and uses a coin
toss as a game to determine whether or not his victims die.If
he gets it right he lives, if not he dies. Luck or fate must have been on the
old man’s side that day because he chose correctly and was therefore spared;
Chigurh let him live. Even though he seems to use this “system of fate” as an
excuse for his actions, it is him who is making these dictions not a higher
power. This is Chigurh’s way of controlling his world and everything in it; he
is very extreme in this way. There are no systems involved in this process unlike
he would want one to believe. This is not the work of fate or any higher power;
this is only the work of a controlled crazed serial killer. Even though in that
seine of the movie he relies on the chance of the coin, it was him that made
the initial dictions to put the innocent bystander’s life in question in the
first place. The highest form of control that one can have over another is to
control rather him or her lives or dies; it is this feeling of power and control
that drives Chigurh to commit these random acts, not some moral disposition. There
is another known mythical character that follows this same pattern, he is
referred to as the “Grim Reaper”. The Grim Reaper is personified death. this metaphorical representation of death comes when
it has been decided by the proper authorities (the higher powers) that it is
time for someone to die. Chigurh however, is not the proper authority when it
comes to making these dictions. He is more like a Death vigilante. A self
proclaimed Grim Reaper, who has assumed control over whoever’s lives that he
comes in contact with.
