No Country For Old Men Analysis

Existential film is shaped by the central themes and overall narrative that draw strongly from existential beliefs and questions. Directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men is an existential film as it reveals the idea of the existential concept of absurdity — anything may happen to anyone at anytime without any rational explanation. The three protagonists in the film, Llewellyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, and Ed Tom Bell, all experiences certain existential absurdity and amorality from the rest of the world.

As a character, Llewellyn Moss is searching for the meaning of life. Though, he is ultimately faced with the futility of such a quest in a world without rationale. First, Moss’ s actions, his greed at having taken the
His existence in the film becomes a threatening force — the inevitability of death. He has come to hold the characters accountable for their choices and to urge them to ask themselves: what is the point and why have they lived? He is the embodiment of the existentialist importance of personal responsibility; he is the constant reminder that only the individual is liable for their decisions and where those decisions have led them. Because of Chigurh, Bell is forced to question his reality and Moss’s struggle is made trivial, truncated by death. As a ruthless villain, Chigurh operates clearly according to a set of his own uncompromising principles — not for greed, as Moss acted; not to absolve himself, as Bell attempted to act. Chigurh is the amoral — incarnation of a meaningless world. He attempts to use the flip of coin as the basis of his amoral justice, so that he is not the one who makes the decision to kill, but the victim who must call the toss. Yet, Chigurh’s choice to base his murders on chance is a decision not to make a choice. He denies his own free will by attempting to escape the choice of whether or not to kill. Chigurh is the element of the unexplainable and the absurdity that pervades the