No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men is knocking around in my head. Spoilers follow…
Why is it that Anton gets more remote from us as the story progresses? The film becomes less bloody and more expository, which seems reversed. You wind up seeing the effects of Anton’s actions more than his actually committing them: gunfire around a corner, a fleeing getaway car, an external shot of a house as he emerges. He becomes clearer, in a way, the less he dominates the screen, and the more you see everyone else. Confronting him for the last time his victims can only say “You don’t have to do this,” but it becomes clear that Anton can do little else. Swift, dumbfounding slaughter eventually recedes into an inevitable, torturous wait for death. For those in Anton’s path it’s a bewildering insanity that they argue to the end. But when his victims tell him they don’t have to die you know the truth is that they can’t possibly live. Fate and denial are a potent mix. The Coen’s nail this every time.