Film: No Country For Old Men

As is often the case, when you first stumble upon something great, you might barely recognize it. Like a casual conversation with a psychopathic killer, one probably won't recognize the individual as a psychopath. This film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel - is such an occasion. On first viewing the film, I thought the movie was clever but unessential.

Still, something kept drawing me back. It just wasn't the raving reviews of many friends. Behind this story about an unexplained killer - there was something lurking that I had not understood.

The first clue is that Javier Bardem's character Anton Chigurh has no sense of humor. Everything is taken with deadly seriousness. What this demonstrates is an overbearing vanity. If one was to incarnate an argument for determination within one individual, it would come in the form of Anton Chigurh. Before several killings. Anton will toss a coin - leaving the responsibility to fate. This refusal to take personal responsibility is suggestive an individual who might believe that he is carrying out a mission on earth. The killer is ultra confident..., what happens is meant to be.

One can contrast this outlook with Tommy Lee Jones character, Ed Tom Bell, a police sheriff close to retirement. Despite his years and expertise, he is unsure and uncertain about the nature of the new threat to his community. It is also a personal journey for Ed. He is aware of how events in life can appear random. Often investigations have to remain unexplained. To ponder upon the nature of life and come up short of answers, demonstrates humility and a caring attitude. But in one telling scene, Ed confesses that he thought that when he grew old, he might find God.

This failure to find God - and the psychopathic killer, is no mere coincidence. The demonic nature of Chigurh, a man without a soul, centres around the theme of 'soulfulness.'

To be soulful is to question and not always understand. To be soulful means taking responsibility for one's own life, despite random occurrences, in the knowledge that even the best laid plans can be ruined.

Ed Tom Bell's failure as a police sheriff and as a man, lies in his inability to put everything at risk.

His search for an explanation for Chigurh's activity is doomed from the beginning. By trying to understand the soul-less nature of the killer, the very possibility of a godless universe would open up, putting at risk his very own soul.

The failure to take that risk, demonstrates a lack of faith.

This film is utterly profound.

The creative urge and the desire to learn.

I started writing poetry when I was sixteen after watching the U2 film 'Rattle and Hum'. There is a point in the film when it changes from black and white into colour. The stage backdrop turns a blood red and Bono starts giving it loads! I remember rushing up to my bedroom afterwards, finding a scrap of paper and starting to compose.

The funny thing was that I didn't identify with myself in the poem. It was a deeply personal verse but I didn't sense I was feeling the way the poem described. It is true that I was not use to 'expressing my feelings.' That had only become cool a few moments before. But more important than the poem was the window this opened up for me.

Until I was sixteen, I didn't read anything unless I had to. I took no interest in things that were not of my immediate concern. My school grades probably reflected this. I lacked curiousity. That year, however, I started visiting a secondhand book shop in my home town. I would at random pick up things that I knew very little about- whether that be Italian poets or a biography of a London school in the early eighties.

This all delighted me and was worth a hundred years of compulsory schooling.

I was smitten. I had caught the bug. This desire to learn is worth more than intelligence or riches. It is the factor that makes sure that things get done. It also teaches moderation for one begins to learn that the world is a wonderful and strange place. Before I had lived within myself, cut off from so many possibilities. This had changed all of a sudden. I began to look outwards.

Art and the unrequited.

There is perhaps nothing as damaging than unrequited feelings for another person. Feelings are not like thoughts and it is difficult to rationalize with them. You cannot decide to like someone just as one cannot decide not to like a person. Feelings are pre-rational.

You can control your behaviour and act honourably or dishonourably. It is always possible to say nothing when one wants to speak or to lie to save someone else's feelings. Yet, you cannot 'convince' someone to like you. Nor should you be too disturbed when someone you do not really care much about, expresses unwanted feelings. All you can do in such circumstances, is to act with respect and give a polite but firm 'no.'

When you feel strongly for someone and they do not return these feelings, it can be very hard to deal with. The first response is to feel that one's pride has been undermined. This can then develop into feelings of injustice. It takes a lot to leave oneself vulnerable and risk rejection. This is why repect is of the ultmost importance.

One cannot make oneself unfeel the other person by making a decision. When someone says, "It is time to move on..." it is never that simple. While such advice is often given with concern from a friend, one cannot simply wish the other person and their memory away. All one can do is live with the pain until the feelings die a natural death.

To try and force this issue can lead to damage. One can drink oneself into an unfeeling state. Or one can learn to hate themselves and then the beloved can become a victim of nasty remarks or worse. Socially, the best one can normally do is to remain silent.

But this is when the therapeutic value of art becomes apparent. To write a novel, love poem or song- to paint or make a film is an activity closely connected with bereavement. One both learns to remember and forget slowly in an act demonstrative of love.