What was the point of Woody Harrelson's character in No Country For Old Men?

What was the point of Woody Harrelson's character in No Country For Old Men?

What's the point of you living?

oh fuk

That scene made me almost shit my pants when I first saw it. It's a testament to how great of a character Chigurh is that he gives that reaction just by calmly walking from off frame behind somebody.

To show that this is not a country for old men like Woody

could've been a better character with more screen time

He provides some context to Anton and further emphasizes that fact that he can't really be bargained with.

Does the book divulge on why they're so familiar with eachother?

Was the character of Woody really going to let Brolin's character away that easily if he gave him the money?

He sounded too noble on that and somebody in that line of business wouldn't be like that IMO.

There's a great passage in the book where Carson is looking at the aftermath of the shootout between Moss and Chigurh and he sees that an old woman was killed in the crossfire, it's heavily implied it was from Moss's gun.

I'm not letting this thread die.

>it's heavily implied it was from Moss's gun
Like it matters.

Hello, Carson

It's based on Woodys dad who was an actual hitman. Look it up.

It's no chan for patrician men

Please respond

Probably not. And I imagine that's why he killed him.

Homage to his father, apparently.

Why the fuck didn't he resist? He had the high ground.

shit got real too soon

There's a reference in the book to a texas judge named John H Wood Jr being murdered in 1979. The guy existed in real life and was killed by Woody's dad

Why did Chigurh bother having a 'code' if he was a psychopath?

>You should admit your situation. There would be more dignity in it

he's not a psychopath

he saw himself as an agent of fate

>You're in the hospital across the river, but that's not where I'm going. Do you know where I'm going?
>Yea I know where you're going. You know she won't be there.
>It doesn't make any difference where she is.

What did he mean by this?

He smiles after killing the cop. He's a psychopath.

she's gonna get CHIGURHED

Sugar'd?

Yeah I know. Woody's dad was a real character.

More like a character out of Raising Arizona than No Country For Old Men.

imagine taking that bolt gun right up the hershey highway

It doesn't make any difference where she is. Chigurh will be there regardless.

He was pretty much saying
>I found you in a couple days, and you did your best to hide. Do you really think I'm going to have a hard time finding your wife?

Carson Wells is a minor character who serves the exposition somewhat conveniently. He lays the score out for the audience, his brief employer (stephen root), even Anton, in a way, and Llewellyn all at once. The point, of course, is that his history with Anton is opaque - he just knows what Anton is, and frames Anton for the audience in a straightforward way , buttressing the on-screen killings. He's destined to be a statistic, one of the string of Anton's (mostly) killings.

Carson Wells' name itself can be read has having a certain anonymous character, among the other widgets. It is my personal view that the "ELL" string can be interpreted as "EII, or "113" backwards. This is some sort of abstact comment on death in the world that the characters inhabit, being just one phantom room between Llewylyn's two fatal motel rooms, the crime scene of rooms 114 and 112, which Ed Tom visits toward the end.

ed tom bELL.
deputy wendELL.
of terrELL county, Texas.

EL paso, texas.
dEL rio, texas.
LLEwelyn moss.
uncle ELLis.
long-past relatives, aunt ELLa.
carson wELLs.

This ties into my pet theory that the number range (about) 12-15 is very important to the film. I will go over it again if some anons would care to hear about it.

Please do, user

>JoEL Coen
>worships ELohim
whoa actually rustled my brainnies

I'm interested.

The numbers from about 12-15, and possibly including 11, depending on your temperament, are very important in the film No Country for Old Men. They represent a form of counting, marking time, or rhythmic device that helps a viewer to make sense of the film. However, they are also easily ignored, being like repetitive forms of muzak that tell a particular universe.

Bear in mind that this is not the same thing as saying that there is a "conspiracy theory" about the movie, or that it "solves" the riddle of the movie. Certain things are intentionally left mysterious of course (in the film, anyway), such as Wells' exact history with Anton. But keeping the numbers 12-15 in mind can help you to break the movie down, dissect it, think about its themes. And once you're aware of their importance in the film, you can't un-see it.

Consider the opening sequence. Ed Tom Bell drones about his life in a cold open, as still shots of rural Texas play (eventually some windmills turn, depicting motion), eventually bleeding into the action. There are exactly 11 such shots, giving way to a twelfth, when the action starts with a camera pan. Ed Tom even intones of the hellbound convict: "be there in about 15 minutes."

The original pile of bodies is something like 9-10 men, plus the dog. The exact number doesn't matter. what matters is that this SCALE of death, ominously shown in the beginning, is REPEATED in this same country, all over again, in the course of the film's events. Anton offs anywhere from, again, about 12-15 people depending on how you count, and Llewylyn even puts down a dog to match. The same sort of violence repeats itself. Even the number of vehicles destroyed throughout the movie is about 5 or 6, like the original five vehicles. but I'm off on a tangent.

Ya lost me

Anonymous motel rooms are quietly inhabited by desperate men, sometimes mere feet away from each other, hiding in wait. They typically have numbers like 102, 131, 114, that type of thing. In particular, the crime scene of Llewellyn's death is the roped-off rooms 114/112, whose numbers are conspicuously shown. We thus again associate the range "14-12", /or thereabouts/, with the death of the film. Ambiguity has its role in the story, of course.

What about the coin? It was minted in 1958, and arrived at the gas station in 1980, 22 years later. It is no coincidence that the mother in law's headstone reads "1922-1980." Personally I don't think that this is terribly important, but maybe the Coens having a bit of fun. OTOH a certain "doubling" is suggested. a doubling of 11, itself a reasonable estimate of the original pile of bodies, gives 22. This is exactly what the movie amounts to: a doubling of that same pile of bodies. The coin, and the mother in law's death, their numerology themselves become a further reminder of death, to the point of being heavy-handed.

It is for these reasons that I choose to read the "ELL" as "113", as another sort of ambiguity. Several of the men survive the events of the film.

In the beginning of the movie, there's a pile of dead bodies and like 5 ruined cars. About this same number of dead bodies and ruined cars are killed and ruined over the course of the film.

The point is that there's several ways you can interpret this. violence begets violence, "wow man this really is No Country For Old Men (tm)", or similar. I just choose to focus on the numerology thing because it shows up a lot in the movie.

kek

Yeah okay rain man

Weird, I don't remember that part

It's been awhile for me, but I do remember a suggestion in the film that America's 'business' is violence. This is a running theme for McCarthy in his novels, too, particularly in Blood Meridian, where the scalps of Apaches have a literal market rate. I think the formal elements you're describing feed into this idea, the piling up of bodies needing to be "brought to account", entered into the ledger.

Too, this notion of a doubling not only suggesting the passage of time and a cycle, but also a return, specifically a return on investment, and a superordinary one at that.

I really wouldn't put this past the Coen Brothers, they have an eye for detail on par or surpassing Kubrick.

I am personally convinced that the above is not a coincidence. However, I don't think that the Coens had anything more specific in mind, necessarily, than the basic themes of the movie which were already there. They just wanted to embed some numerology in their movie.

Getting really autistic, the 22-year interval suggests the 22 letters of the Coens' Hebrew alphabet, but now I'm reaching and that really has nothing to do with the movie anymore. But Jews like numerology.

Finally, I hasten to add that Carson Wells himself says to his employer: "I counted the floors up to this place... there's one missing." The Man Who Hires Wells shrugs it off, leaving it opaque.

Given both the depiction of the elevator ride and the "exterior shot" of the set, we are clearly meant to assume that this must be the 13th floor, another item which goes along with the above.