I don't know because of the length of the movie or what they want to express. The Coen brothers cut the plot to pieces, omitting a lot of key plot points, and even won an Oscar.
Here are a few places that are clearly explained in the original novel, but not explained in the film
1. The death of Moss
In the original book, after the killer Anton killed Wells, he answered a phone call with Moss. Moss rejected the killer's proposal not to kill his wife when he handed over himself and the money, but he couldn't bear to take the money and fly away alone, so Going to look for his wife, Moss called his wife and asked her to take her family out of the house immediately. They made an appointment to meet in El Paso. They also met a girl who was going to California on the way. The two chatted all the way, talking about themselves. Vision for the future of life
Anton went to his wife's parents' house, fluttered for nothing, but found the call record to the county sheriff Bell in the phone bill
Moss's wife, Karajan, eventually chose to trust Sheriff Bell, so she called Bell and told her that she was staying with her grandmother in a motel outside El Paso, and that Moss called her from Van Horn. Bell heads to Van Horn to find Moss. But by this time the drug dealer had tapped Sheriff Bell's phone, and Moss' planned escape was exposed.
The Mexicans ambushed Moss in front of Moss and the hitchhiker's hotel, pointed a gun at the hitchhiker's head, and forced Moss to lay down his weapon. Perhaps because of the guilt empathy that had implicated his wife on the hitchhiker, Moss dropped the gun. But the Mexicans still shot the girl, then turned the gun and shot Moss. In this way, Moss took money that did not belong to him because of greed, not only killed himself, but also killed everyone who came into contact with him. Moss was shot in the head and face, fell to the ground, picked up the gun and shot the Mexican, avenging himself and the innocent girl who was implicated
Anton also followed Sheriff Bell to find the hotel where Moss died, and immediately had a futile confrontation with Sheriff Bell, who had gone back and forth, in and out of the hotel room.
Sheriff Bell informs Karajan about Moss's death, Karajan weeps in remorse and scolds Bell
2. The whereabouts of 2.4 million
The money was taken by the killer Anton. The original book explained it more clearly later, and by the way, it also explained clearly why the drug dealer failed in the transaction at the beginning
The truth is: the 17th-floor executive who hired Carson Wells was the downline agent of the drug cartel boss in the United States. The executives on the 17th floor want to steal money and goods. But things got out of hand: everyone died and the money was taken by Moss. So the executive, like Moss, smuggled heroin and reported that he was hacked (this is also reflected in the movie, when Carson Wells found Moss in the hospital, he once asked Moss, did you take heroin? Moss replied no. It can be seen that the executive's external statement was that the truckload of heroin and money was lost, not just money, and maybe even the blame was thrown to Moss. We spectators know that, Except for the executives, no one else could have taken that truck of heroin.) The drug cartel was furious, and asked Anton to resolve the matter. Anton assumed that the downline of the drug cartel in the United States was unreliable, so he acted alone, and even the two American connectors who gave him the signal receiver were killed by him. The executives on the 17th floor were worried about the incident, so they sent another person to bring other signal receivers to find Moss. The three Mexicans followed the signal receiver to find Moss' hotel, where they waited for Moss to return. At that time, the money was in the ventilation duct. They had signal receivers, and it was impossible to find them. It could be seen that their mission was not money but people. As long as Moss died, he would be the culprit of heroin. When the executive learned that the three Mexicans had been killed by Anton, he turned to the bounty hunter, former Special Forces Colonel Carson Wells. Carson Wells received two tasks, 1 to kill Moss, 2 to kill Anton. Carson Wells was a shrewd speculator. He was sensitive to the tricks of the executives, so after finding Moss, he did not rush to do it, but contacted Moss to find out the real situation. After he asked that Moss did not take heroin, he unexpectedly had to negotiate with Moss and said that he would protect Moss. Because as long as Moss is alive, the executive is in Carson's palm, and Carson can use Moss as a bargaining chip to trade with the executive, swallow the 2.4 million, or even ask for more. But Carson Wells was one Anton away from the big winner, and just as he was smug, death quietly came behind him. In the end he and Moss died of greed. After Anton killed Carson Wells, he went back and executed the executive on the 17th floor.
The accountant is the role of the Coen brothers. In the original novel, when Anton limped in and killed the executive on the 17th floor, there was no accountant next to the executive. Anton said to the dying executive, I am you to send Kasenwei. Ers to kill people. Executives are the third person to die from greed, as Carson Wells pun: your building is missing a floor
After recovering the money, Anton came to a certain place to visit a man with a secret whereabouts, and handed over 2.3 million to the man, telling him that he was missing $100,000, and the $100,000 included his own expenses and being stolen. Part of it, the rest is here. And that man is the real boss of the drug cartel. The boss was very shocked that Anton could find himself, and even more shocked when he saw the money. He asked Anton, why didn't you take the money yourself, 2.3 million can do a lot of things. Anton said it was my honesty, he asked for a long-term cooperation with the boss
Foreign readers have a kind of guess that this nameless boss is Colombia's Crazy Dragon Pablo. Not without reason, the story is set in the early 80's, when Pablo was in his prime, but it shouldn't, because Pablo doesn't sell heroin
4. The reason why Anton sat in the police station at the beginning of the film
The original novel had a chat with Anton before he killed Carson Wells, and said what the hell was going on. At that time, Anton had a verbal conflict with a few drunk people in the bar. So Anton called his abuser to the parking lot outside, killed him at once, and then let the deputy sheriff handcuff him and take him back to the county police station. Anton told Carson Wells that he did it because he wanted to test his own limits and whether he could get himself out of trouble by his own will, because he believed that people were omnipotent. Then it was Carson Wells who called him a lunatic
5. Karajan's death and Anton's car accident on her doorstep
No matter in the movie or in the original book, Anton let Moss's wife Karajian choose the pros and cons of the coin to decide her life and death. It's just that Karajan didn't directly refuse like in the movie, saying that it is not coins but people that decide life and death. In the novel, Karajan chooses the head, just like the earlier grocery store owner, but she doesn't have the same luck as the grocery store owner, and when Anton moves his hand away, it's the word. In desperation, Karajan said the lines in the movie
The film's changes to this are very subtle, and the film has a taste that is not in the original book, that is, if you don't obey Anton's rules, you have to die.
In the original book, Anton behaves weirdly, but the movie magnifies Anton's weirdness. But he's still essentially a killer hired by a drug dealer. Think carefully about the style of the killer Anton. It is no different from the Mexican cartels that see the sky and put photos of beheadings on the Internet: they run rampant, if they say they kill your whole family, they must kill your whole family. If you dare to touch my money, I will You must die, your whole family must be killed, your head will be chopped off, your body will be hung on a bridge, someone will gang-rape your wife and daughter, put people on tires and set them on fire, throw children into acid buckets, use shocking to intimidate others and set "rules" for others: I am the only one who respects me, and anyone who refuses to obey me will have to die.
This kind of brutality was unimaginable for Americans in rural Texas in the 1980s. Although they have a rough style and like firearms, they are still honest people with good intentions. They are not so crazy, and they cannot fight against such a terrible enemy by nature. The impact of drug crime scares them and leaves them feeling overwhelmed
Here we recommend "Slayer on the Border". It will be very interesting to compare "No Country for Old Men" with "Slayer on the Border". Homelessness is the cause, and Frontier Killer is the effect. The wave of drug crimes has finally brought about a different law enforcement: if you do anything, I will do anything more than you; if you brutally kill the whole family, I will be more brutal than you, and I will kill your whole family. In the end, the US-Mexico border becomes a land of lawless wolves. Those with good intentions will either go far away and go to a place where there is still the rule of law, or stay and become equally ferocious wolves.
After Anton killed Karajan, he came out and drove away in a hurry, but he got into a car accident at the intersection. The original novel here is more ironic than the movie, because it is clearly written in the original novel that the car that hit Anton was the Three Mexican teenagers, full of marijuana, driving with drugs, not looking at traffic lights.
Killer Anton is cunning and ruthless. He is invincible all the way. With his brutal killing, even novel readers and movie audiences can't help but be shocked by him. They psychologically accept his "rules" and regard him as some kind of invincible world. An avatar that runs the rules. However, Anton showed his true shape in this collision. He was a thug who worked for drug dealers with flesh and blood. In retrospect, Anton knew where Moss was recovering, but instead of going to Moss directly, he threatened Moss with the life of Moss' wife and asked Moss to surrender to him. Why didn't he use ferocity to cover up his fear of Moss? ? Because the last time he went to kill Moss, he was counterattacked by Moss and suffered an unprecedented heavy blow, so he did not dare to challenge Moss at home again, and switched to an attacking strategy. And in the end, Anton was planted in the hands of a drug-driving child, which means karma. The perpetrators are doomed to suffer the backlash of evil deeds and reap the consequences
Lastly, my favorite part of the original novel where Moss opens the box next to the corpse and sees the $2.4 million for the first time. Every word in the sentence is full of charm, which cannot be captured with a camera:
He (Moss) sat there, looking at the money, then he closed the lid and sat with his head down. The rest of his life lay before him. Day after day, from morning to night, until he passed away. Everything was condensed into the forty pounds of paper in the box.
View more about No Country for Old Men reviews
