In the usual script, it seems reasonable that justice triumphs over evil, because the usual script often carries the audience's good wishes, that is, punish evil and promote good. The problem is that the ideal in the eyes of human beings is an existence that simplifies the rules of the world, while the real world is complex, and various rules cooperate with each other and contradict each other. The absurd is formed when human egocentric ideology and natural laws collide.
The film begins with a set of empty scenes, a series of Texas wilderness. The wild atmosphere reveals the overall tone of the film—natural, calm, objective, and not bound by reason. This is also the characteristic of killer Anton, who kills innocent people. The man is to change to an inconspicuous car, the policeman is killed to save himself, he chases the cowboy because he has a purpose, and if there is a purpose, he must execute it, the means are not important, all his killings are not ends, but means. . For him, it's not 2 million dollars, even if there is a Mickey Mouse doll in the box, he will do the same behavior, because, for him, there is a purpose to execute it, and the units that hinder him in the execution should be cleaned up, that's all Simple, it doesn't matter what the purpose is. This extreme dehumanization is precisely to create a templated symbolic image, and throughout the whole story, it can be said to be a fable.
The rules of this fable are very clear, that is, the unpredictability of world events. From this point of view, the plot of the whole movie can be explained. When the audience thinks that the cowboy is the protagonist of justice, he will eventually win. What I never expected was that it would die from the old lady's inadvertent answer and the inadvertent conversation with the prostitute. The second killer thought he would be smooth sailing, because he was a seasoned killer and was used to this line of work, but he encountered Anton who was beyond his understanding, so he failed. The killer's employer thought he was in control of the situation, but he couldn't understand Anton's behavior, so he too failed. Even the final winner of the movie, Anton, at the end, honestly drove according to the traffic rules, thinking that he could escape, but was hit by a red light runner, so unexpectedly, he followed the innocent passerby who was killed by him at the beginning. Just like that, something unexpected happened.
But is it really inexplicable? In fact, what seems unreasonable is actually reasonable, because the natural world is like this, and nothing is absolute for people. There is randomness in everything in the world. We think this movie is unreasonable because we use the eyes of "people" and the plot we want to see to measure this "natural" fable. According to Albert Camus, the absurdity of the world is everywhere, a depraved man who vowed to reform from tomorrow, and he was indeed ready to do so, was caught by a drunk driving while crossing the road the next day His car was hit and killed, and the reformed man did not run a red light and did nothing at all. There was no reason for the accident, he could only admit that he was unlucky. But what can be done? You say this is unreasonable, you think he will not die, but reform himself and eventually become a successful person, which should develop into an inspirational story. But the natural world doesn't care that way, he's just unlucky, can you say that? The absurdity of the world lies in the fact that the world does not change because of human subjective consciousness. On the contrary, human reason is extremely fragile or meaningless in nature.
The same is true for this movie, which is a fable about the absurd. People think that everything will develop according to their own script, but they are all lost to random emergencies. People always lament: "Good people don't live long, and disasters leave a thousand years!" However, In fact, for nature, good people live long and short lives, while bad people live long and short lives. In other words, the length of life is the result of luck and its own creation. Nature is absolutely fair and will not be biased. On either side, all things enjoy the laws of nature equally; it is just based on the subjective will of "people", hoping that the good people will live longer and the bad people will die early. When the world decides that in an event, the good people live longer and the bad people die, people will take it for granted, so Selective neglect. When the scale of the world falls on the other side, people feel unreasonable and deeply saddened. They have a deep impression of this tragedy, so there is a saying that "good people don't live long, and disasters leave a thousand years."
This film uses random events to destroy the drama, creating an absurd effect, which is very novel. Fits the theme of the movie.
My personal understanding of the ending. At the end of the movie, the old policeman as the narrator talks about his dream, which also corresponds to the title of the movie "No Country for Old Men". The dark and cold world described in the dream actually refers to the violence described earlier in the movie. And the absurd and irrational world, and the torch in the dark, is the residual idealism, giving people goals and directions. Why "Nowhere to Be Old"? Because even if the old police are experienced, they are vulnerable in the face of disorder and irrational nature. The torch in the dream may be the last hope of the movie, which reminds me of Albert Camus' point of view: the world is absurd, and this absurdity is everywhere, because of this absurdity, people are always in a miserable state. In the situation, although the situation is pessimistic, people should be optimistic.
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