Iraq and Old Men

I recently saw the movie No Country for Old Men, without having any knowledge of what this movie is about, or even what genre it is in. As the movie started, I was surprised to see that it takes place in 1980, a time when sheriffs and shotguns ruled the land. I wondered why this movie was so popular, and why the Coen brothers would even choose to make a movie that much resembled a western in this day-and-age. It seemed odd that a wide variety of people enjoyed this movie, not just western fans.
However, as the movie went on, I realized that this is a different sort of western. The focus is not so much on who has the money, but on the idea of everyone trying to survive, of everyone being both the pursuer and the pursued, and the idea of fate and free will. The line “You don’t have to do this,” is repeated many times in the movie by the innocents to Chigurh, whose murderous ways say otherwise.
I think this movie is so popular because of the themes that are intertwined throughout it. They aren’t shoved in the audiences’ faces, and there’s plenty of blood and killing to keep viewers occupied, but the themes are there underneath all of that. The characters’ feelings of uncertainty, of acting out of desperation and later facing the consequences, and of struggling to keep it together mirror something in the real world.
Audiences can tell from the get-go that No Country for Old Men isn’t a ‘good always wins in the end’ sort of film. This creates real tension, and there is a sense of uncertainty for both the characters and the viewers throughout concerning who will survive. This mirrors the sense of uncertainty that people are feeling about the war in Iraq. We all know that in real life, good doesn’t always win. Another connection to our situation in Iraq is how sometimes we are the hunters, and sometimes we’re the hunted, much like in the movie.
The theme of acting in desperation and later facing your choice starts when Llewelyn takes the case of money. Although the taking of this case isn’t played up as a big moral dilemma, the situation is such that we know this man doesn’t have a lot of money, didn’t plan on stealing, and that he stumbled into the situation. However, Chigurh is soon on his trail, and Llewelyn realizes that this man will kill him whether he gives the money back or not. This feeling of getting yourself into something and not being able to back out is also mirrored with the war in Iraq. Although America did purposefully invaded Iraq and didn’t really stumble into the situation, we are now at a place where we can’t really just walk away. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do about it, but we know we’ve got to keep moving.
Generally, the message at the end of the movie isn’t a good sign if it’s saying anything about Iraq. In No Country, the guy who stole the money winds up dead, as do a lot of other people (some who were more involved than others), and the main killer walks away. Hopefully we’ll manage to keep it together and not get caught off-guard.