No Country for Old Mythology
By Chris Jones
9/21/09
Media Studies
Dr. Kevin Williams
No Country for Mythology
The film “No Country for Old Men” is a great blend of
mythology on two fronts. Directors Joel and Ethan Cohen adapted
the western novel by Cormac McCarthy and created a masterpiece
in suspense and in filmmaking in general. The two fronts that
the film comprises on is Religious and Greek mythology. The
follow dissertation of the film will be discussed on these two
fronts. As well as discuss the mythos behind the specific names
of the main characters.
“No Country for Old Men” is the story of a hunter called
Llewelyn Moss who stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and finds
a satchel full of money with an estimated two million dollars in
it. He decides to take the money thinking that no one will ever
know what happened to the money failing to fully inspect the
satchel to see that there was a tracking devise hidden within
the money. The name Llwelyn is formed from the word Llwe which
in Welch means “Lion.” A lion is represented a lot in cultures
as Christ. The last name moss is the medieval form of the name
“Moses” which is comes from the Hebrew word “Mosheh” which again
is derived from the Egyptian word “Mes.” This then leads to the
word meaning “Son.” This comes to the conclusion that Llewelyn
Moss is none other than a representation of Jesus, one part of
the Holy Trinity. Jesus is referred to as the son of God. In the
film, it is revealed that Moss was a welder, a tradesman who
specializes in welding materials together. In comparison to
Jesus, Jesus was a carpenter, a person who builds, makes, or
repairs wooden objects or structures. Now these two professions
are not the same thing but they fall in the same category of
builder or construction worker. Another revelation is the fact
that Moss and Jesus both die young. Throughout the film Moss is
referred to as a young man, most likely in his thirties. Jesus
when he died was in his thirties as well. The Coen brothers did
an interesting representation on film as to how his character is
killed off. Moss is killed off screen by the Mexicans. Almost an
allusion to the bible as Jesus was sacrificed by his own people;
Moss is persecuted and killed by his own people out of greed and
desire for the money. Both Moss and Jesus believe they were
doing what was good for society and end up being screwed over by
people they were trying to protect.
He is then tracked down by dark and sadistic hit man who
goes by the name of Anton Chigurh. Chigurh is a man of mystery
and has no origin explained in the movie. He is an unstoppable
object almost like the terminator except he is human and bleeds
like a human. His standout haircut makes him seem like he is in
the wrong decade or out of this world. His clothes are dark
which signifies his role as the villain in the film. But is
Chigurh actually a villain or is he misunderstood? Chigurh is
very philosophical in his motives. His killings have meaning to
them and not just because he likes to just kill. The main ideal
that he reiterates in the film is the theme of fate and that
everything happens for a reason. He lets his victims choose
their fate with the toss of a coin. Because the coin has two
sides it gives the person a fifty-fifty chance. Two sides of a
coin can also signify good and evil which gives the concept of
whether Anton Chigurh is actually good or evil. In regards to
the Holy Trinity, Chigurh is considered the Holy Spirit. One of
the believed functions of the Holy Spirit is conviction of sin.
The Holy Spirit acts to convince the unredeemed person both of
the sinfulness of their actions, and of their moral standing as
sinners before God. Anton does this but in a different way. The
people he kills are killed because of their sinful pasts whether
actually known or not, it seems that Chigurh follows a pattern.
Just as Chigurh is unknown to most people, the Holy Spirit
doesn’t have a specific form. The line in the film that really
brings out the significance of his character is right after he
kills the man who hired him. An accountant is standing there as
he witnesses the murder; the accountant asks Chigurh “are you
going to shoot me?” Chigurh responds with the question “That
depends, Do you see me?” This line represents the whole ghostly
persona behind his menace. Anton Chigurh’s mission is to
retrieve the money but he ends up killing the man whose money
it’s supposed to be. So it brings up an interesting point why
the money is important to Chigurh? The money can represent many
things. The first representation could be corruption in general
as money corrupts all into sinning. As a representation of the
Holy Spirit, Chigurh is out to remove the corruption in the
world hence his reason for taking the money for himself. The
other representation is salvation which could be the reason why
all these people are after it. So Chigurh can be considered evil
or good because of the representation of his character, but
because we as an audience are prone to distinguish who is bad
and who is good and makes it hard for us to real delve into the
true context of a character so simple but complex at the same
time as Anton Chigurh is.
While all this is happening, a sheriff called Ed Tom Bell
is on the trail of this whole mess trying to save Llewelyn from
the people that are after him. Now the sheriff in reference to
the holy trinity is considered the father. The name Ed Tom Bell
can be broken down into three parts. Ed is short for Edward.
Edward is usually a name of nobility. A lot of English kings
were named Edward. God is considered the king of heaven. Tom is
short for Thomas. The name Thomas is referred to a lot with in
the bible with Thomas the Apostle also known as doubting Thomas.
The Sheriff does show qualities of a doubter as he doesn’t
believe all the violence that is occurring. The word Bell is all
over religion with church bells. The overseer of everything,
sheriff Bell is considered wise and getting up in age. An
interesting detail that is noticed throughout the film is that
all the “good” guys wear cowboy hats and the bad guys don’t have
a hat. The deputies are considered angels in this context with
Sheriff Bell being God the leader of the angels. The cowboy hats
almost look like halos above their heads. The last piece of
dialogue is very confusing at first, when first watching the
film but if the dialogue is dissected it makes perfect sense in
reference to Sheriff Bell’s godly like persona in the story. The
Sheriff sits down with his wife and discusses two dreams that he
had the night before the first one he had he says “first one I
don't remember too well but it was about meeting him in town
somewhere, he's gonna give me some money. I think I lost it.”
This is a direct reference to the money in the film but I don’t
believe his dream was in reference to himself it was towards the
Jesus character of Moss and how he thinks he lost the money or
as referred to previously his “salvation.” The second dream he
refers to has a lot more significance on a higher level. Bell
says “The second one, it was like we was both back in older
times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a
night. Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and
there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on
goin'. Never said nothin' goin' by. He just rode on past... and
he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when
he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way
people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside
of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that
he was goin' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere
out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that
whenever I got there he would be there.” Like from the previous
dream the first team heard is confusing but looking at it from a
religious perspective it makes sense. The second dream discusses
journey with a father and son where the father goes on ahead
with the fire. This at first seems like Bell and his father but
actually it might be a representation of Moss and Bell as father
and son or Jesus the son and God the father. The dream is
basically saying that even though God is leaving his son behind,
the son knows that whenever he dies to follow that journey to
heaven he knows that his father will be waiting and he has a
seat at the right hand of the father.
These three characters are the main focus of the film and
are the only three that don’t share a scene with each other in
the film. Other characters include Llewelyn’s wife Carla Jean
who is worried for her husband’s sake as she realizes the mess
that he has gotten himself into. There is the a guy only known
as the man who is considered the head of the whole drug
operation and is the man behind hiring Chigurh, Carson Wells,
and the Mexicans to hunt down the money.
Carson Wells is another bounty hunter hired to help track
down the money. In the film Wells is the only person to have
encountered Chigurh previously prior to the events of the story.
He refers to Chigurh as more dangerous than the bubonic plague.
Carson Wells is the other interesting character besides the main
three. Carson Wells was once in the Army but after turned to a
life of a bounty hunter, pretty much a renegade. A figure that
can be related to Carson Wells from a biblical aspect is none
other than Lucifer himself. Lucifer was a fallen angel of god.
Shunned by god himself, Carson Wells can be considered shunned
from the army for his actions. A scene in the movie that really
shows parallels between Wells and Lucifer is the scene where he
has finally tracked down where Moss located and confronts him.
The scene begins with Moss waking up to the sound of Wells’
voice. Wells is sitting there with his cowboy hat on and begins
to discuss with him about the war and their previous army
history. With referring to the concept of hats and halos, Wells
is hat is tinted brown rather than the bright white that all the
other characters use in the film. This is a reference to
Lucifer’s tainted image as an angel. He then takes off his hat
to reveal his true nature by telling Wells “unless you give me
the money I have no reason to protect you.” This scene is
parallel to when Lucifer tries to tempt Jesus into bowing down
to him in the bible. When Wells is finally killed off by Chigurh
it just proves the point that nothing, not even the devil, can
overcome the power of the Holy Spirit.
“No Country for Old Men” uses a lot of Greek mythos to tell
the story. Most of the Mythos comes in the first half of the
film. When Moss stumbles upon the mess in the desert he notices
blood on the ground and tracks it to a dog. He then comes across
another dog dead and then is chased later by a third dog. Dogs
are a big symbol in Greek mythology. The name that comes to mind
is Cerberus. Cerberus is a three-headed dog that was known for
guarding the gates of hell, as well as prevents those who have
crossed the river Styx from ever escaping. Each of Cerberus'
heads is said to have an appetite only for live meat and thus
allow the spirits of the dead to freely enter the underworld,
but allow none to leave. Cerberus was always employed as Hades'
loyal watchdog, and guarded the gates that granted access and
exit to the underworld. The whole significance behind Cerberus
ties into the next Greek reference. When Moss is being chased
down by the Mexicans he is shot in the shoulder and falls into a
river. The Mexicans release the final dog to pursue Moss down
the river. The river itself symbolizes the Styx. Cerberus’ whole
job is to stop anyone from leaving hell. In the film Moss is
escaping from his current hellish predicament. As he is chased
down by the dog he kills it. Moss believes that he has escaped
“Hell” but really he stuck in a never ending chase that will
eventually lead to the end of him. In other Greek mythology
references one can look at the story as a semi homer’s odyssey.
In which a man is separated from his family by war and fights
his way back to his wife. In the film Moss is separated by this
war over the money and travels to the border of Mexico until he
realizes his wife is in danger and ends up trekking back to
Texas.
In conclusion, “No Country for Old Men” is a great film
that has to be seen twice to understand the full context of what
the film is actually a representation of. The films intertwining
of Greek and Christian mythology help make this film an epic in
its own way. The Coen Brothers have masterfully crafted a tale
with mythology and mysticism all rolled up in one hot cauldron
of a dessert
Works Cited
Images used
1. Llewelyn Moss - http://foodcourtlunch.com/?p=473
2. Anton Chigurh - http://www.ugo.com/movies/psychopaths/?cur=Anton&morepics=1
3. Ed Tom Bell - http://coenbrothers.net/blog/no‐country‐for‐old‐men‐novel‐vs‐film/217/
4. Carson Wells - http://essentialgearguide.com/1/654/no‐country‐for‐old‐men‐on‐dvd/