Analyzing Evil: Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men

hello everyone and welcome to episode number 12 of analyzing evil featuring anton chaguer from no country for old men i think anton is the most requested out of any character that's been suggested to me and for good reason javier bardem's performance in this role is top notch and no country for old men is one of those films you come back to just to watch anton in action when the coen brothers were casting for this film they tried to seek out someone who could portray a character that looked as if he could have come from mars his ambiguous background and odd appearance give credit to this notion and he's truly a one of a kind character let's comb through everything we're given in the film and see what we can make of anton first we're going to take a look at his appearance mannerisms speech patterns and the scene where anton murders the deputy to establish a few key things that are present in his character throughout the film before i start jumping around a bit between scenes our first impression of anton's appearance is definitely one of oddity his hair doesn't quite match his face and his clothes don't fit his appearance either he has a cold blank stare on his face more often than not and shows only a few semblances of joy when speaking to other characters about grim subjects his voice is low quiet and gravelly and he never raises it in anger or otherwise his motions are at the same time stiff fluid and strange take when he's eating his peanuts at the gas station there's just something about the way he places each piece into his mouth that feels off yet at the same time he has the precision and steady hand to sew up a wound on his own leg it's worth to note that he's also highly resistant to pain and makes far less of a fuss than your average person would have put in some of the situations he finds himself in we're never given a background for his character either javier bardem's accent leads us to assume that his origin is some sort of hispanic but we're never given any confirmation for this the author of the book even stated that when he came up with his name he just liked how it sounded his entire persona is one of ambiguity mystery and oddity leaving us with a man who seems out of place in the world an eerie figure from who knows where now let's take a look at that scene with the deputy while the deputy is busy on the phone he utilizes one of the primary tools in his arsenal precaution and stealth he quietly slips his legs under his handcuffs and approaches the deputy without making a sound before he strangles him with ruthless brutality while the deputy is struggling against his handcuffs anton's face is a mask of pure fury with a hint of delight mixed in once he finishes he calmly washes his hands and casually strolls over the deputy's dead body to pick up his things before leaving the rage while he's struggling with the deputy isn't seen again during the entire film but the stealth ruthlessness and lack of emotion are present in the majority of scenes in which we find anton now that we've established all of that the first thing i'd like to touch on is his motivations he appears to contain no discernible motive or purpose in his mission instead it appears that he's doing this job simply for the thrill of the hunt i say this because to me it's never quite clear if he's chasing llewellyn to take the money for himself or to complete the job in one scene he shoots his employer for hiring the mexicans to hunt after moss alongside him chastising the accountant for his former superior's inability to see that for a job you only need choose the one right tool it could very well be that even though he's murdered one of the men at that company he would still deliver the case back to them since he never expressly states that he desires to claim the money for himself i think it's within his character to be a person who isn't concerned with money and is rather like i said in it for the thrill of the hunt what could break this theory is his killing of the two men at the site of the shootout in the desert who also belong to the same company indicating that perhaps he is in it for the money but to back this up i'd like to draw some information from the novel that's much clearer on this subject in the book anton ends up returning the money to his employer once he retrieves the briefcase here he even tells him things will be run differently now with this information there are two reasons that would explain why anton kills those first two men with the transponder the first is that the head boss told him to do so these men had a hand in setting up the drug deal and it went bad resulting in them losing favor with their boss causing them to be placed on a hit list by anton's boss this is only one of two likely scenarios when we're using the book as a reference this second scenario has to do with what anton says to the accountant in the office building you choose the one right tool for a job it's highly likely he killed these men simply because they too were tools and they ended up being the wrong ones for their job thus causing the entire ordeal and deserving death for it in anton's eyes this movie stays relatively faithful to its source material so it's reasonable to say that these two reasonings could be correct on their own or together his boss very well could have ordered the murders of these men but at the same time anton might have done it whether or not he was asked to out of principle or if we just go with what we're given in the film he might have been in it for the money honestly a movie like this that leaves a lot of ambiguity in its story is up for interpretation for me i think it's the book scenarios but if you disagree that's fine as well while we're on the subject of principle let's look at what exactly anton's principles are first and foremost i think in a twisted way he is a reasonable man most everything he does he has his own reasons for doing so from killing the men whose cars he takes so they won't go to the police to murdering the hotel clerk who's seen him there's a reason for his actions he never kills at random however when he's playing the game of chance with the gas station clerk i can't see a discernible reason for him doing this perhaps he does so out of disgust he scoffs when he finds out the man married into his business after all that may play into his reasonings but ultimately i think he does so for pleasure he's just playing a game with the man he obviously didn't need to kill him as he gave him the option of living if it had been necessary he would be dead instead i believe this may be one of the ways anton gets his kicks and serves as one of the few things he does without an intended goal in mind though we do see him play with his food so to speak a number of times throughout the film such as with carson llewellyn and carla jean another thing he lives by that defines its philosophy is pragmatism he's careful with everything he does and he's obsessed with using the right tool for a job his conversation with carson supports this as he states if the rule you followed brought you to this of what use was the rule this man doesn't make any unnecessary moves or place himself under any limitations that could lead him astray and finds a way to accomplish his goal in the most efficient manner possible careless is not a word i would use to describe anton with the assumption that he's on this mission to eventually return the money to his boss we can also assume that he is in a way a loyal man this is sort of apparent when he doesn't kill the accountant in the office building as the accountant didn't really do anything wrong but he did see him and he killed other people in the film who had seen him so they wouldn't go to the police but i think because the accountant didn't do anything wrong and he belongs to his own organization he doesn't kill him out of principle he's such a loyal man to his organization that he's cleansing his workplace of bad components that will only cause further damage the longer they're left out to rust i think this is a pretty accurate summation of what anton's values are demented as they are what i'd like to touch on now is the things that anton lacks namely a regard for human life remorse and empathy if anton had to kill a screaming little girl who in some way was in the way of him accomplishing his goals he would do so without hesitation or a hint of remorse for his actions he is a psychopath through and through containing nothing we see in his character that is the least bit redeemable the only halfway decent quality he has is loyalty and that's not enough to paint him as anything less than a total psychopath i don't know if i can go so far as to call him bloodthirsty though i believe he enjoys killing i feel confident in saying that but he never kills just the kill there's always some twisted purpose associated with the murder he commits i'll refer back to what i said earlier i think he enjoys the thrill of the hunt more than the act of killing itself so what do all of these things make anton chagar it makes him an otherworldly enigma a monster of warped principle who hunts his target with ruthless relentless determination capable of killing anyone and anything in his path until he reaches his goal his lack of compassion remorse or empathy leave us with a character who has but one redeemable quality among a sea of terror for this reason i believe anton is more than deserving of being labeled evil and a monster who has no regard for any life but his own thank you for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed this entry in the series what do you think of anton is there anything i missed let me know in the comments down below and while you're at it leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see covered in a future entry in this series if you liked this video and wish to see more of my content hit the subscribe button to see more videos like this appearing in your feed regularly for occasional updates on the channel you can follow me on twitter at thevioli or by clicking the link down in the description as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon you

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 1,167,913

Rating: 4.9233313 out of 5

Keywords: Anton Chigurh, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, No Country For Old Men, Evil, Analysis

Id: UnnfoTAs5Ww

Length: 9min 9sec (549 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ricenoodlestw]

I looooove no country for old men.

and how complex yet simple anton is.