"I have only one way to live. It doesn't allow for special cases." In the 2007 film written by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men, audiences see a "shift" in what we believe to be the true nature of violence. In the film itself, audiences quickly become aware of Chigurh, the rising antagonist that manifests himself more and more frequently as he follows the protagonist.
Though Chigurh morals and values are incomprehensible to everyone else besides himself, he does have insecurities and therefore does feel a motivation to extend his ideals onto others. He in many ways is this "unstoppable evil" that creates these "no-exit" tones which cause intense tension to seek through all the way to the audience.
As the people he encounters may attempt to diffuse the situation that, from the mindset of Chigurh, they brought on themselves, Chigurh is abiding by a strict code that goes beyond any human understanding. A strict code that over time makes the audience understand that there is absolutely no way out for the developed protagonist(s) as they either attempt to run away from Chigurh or attempt to combat him.
Regulative control requires the ability to perform freely both an action and an alternative action. The kind of control that Chigurh represents is guidance control which doesn't involve alternatives. Chigurh is beyond evil, he is instead "a logical extension of the power paradigm of the law of the father, a law that can lead only to the transgression of its very statutes".
It many cases, the determinant of life or death is all a matter of a coin toss. A coin toss that decides as to when we get that bolt in the brain that leaves us lying helpless on the ground, waiting for the true "living prophet of destruction" to come and kill us.
Determinism in moral responsibility is what makes Chigurh a symbol of death. If audiences decide to label Chigurh with any form of a personality imbalance they must understand that that often times implies intense emotions associated with impulsive behaviors. Chigurh doesn't display any impulsive behavior.
It's logical to assume at first glance that his actions are irrational or are impulsive, however, when looked at more closely there is a noticeable thread of foundation that determines his actions. He in no way has the power to "pull together the strings of absolute destiny", instead, he is simply an "instrument" that maintains this absolute destiny.
With that, he is not "detached" from the acts that take place. In many ways, he is fully committed and attached to this previously mentioned strict code as he relies on a coin that in no way can be influenced by either party. The coin is of a determined consequence and therefore he has no say in the matter.
In a society of "numbing regularity", Chigurh is the transgression of statutes. He is the "countermovement" to a developing Western society. The strict code that Chigurh abides by is the denial of the existence of aim, unity, truth, or being. Though Chigurh may seem like a fundamentally evil and dreadful form of existence, at the core he is just a component of the process.
He is peeling back layers of each person he encounters until he finds the true substances that make that person what they are, Chigurh does not yield to any moral sentiment and that is because he understands fundamentally that without his code he would be nothing but a "transgression" to a greater meaning. His code of conduct includes principles "that transcend that of money, drugs, or anything like that".
Chigurh is an entity. An entity that "drifts through the physical plains" that is beyond time or a spectrum of morality laying down execution to those that are meant to stop existing. The mere reputation of him instills dread and fear almost as if because Chigurh is not actually a human at all but instead a symbol of the "untenability of existence". A symbol that represents discourse in a God-forsaken society. A discourse that reduces the meaning and value of life into a mere desperate plea that death hasn't reach its next victim.
In the end, this film was extremely horrifying. Personally, what scared me the most was the unpredictable nature and unawareness of the process that Chigurh abided by. Though it seems clear that there is a fundamental basis for the process that Chigurh is a variable of, the basis is intangible. The process from the mindset of the viewers has no logic in it.
I say logic because it seems evidently clear that the variable of morality is quickly extinguished when we see Chigurh kill his first victim. This movie, in itself was amazing because, from my perspective, it left a lot of questions unanswered.
The only thing the movie left me was a mutual feeling of dread as we soon became aware (Spoiler Alert*) that Chigurh did fulfill the promise of killing the protagonists wife. Regardless of how it made me feel though immediately at the end, this movie was very well made and I high reccomend it.
