Anton Chigurh is a character personifying “pure evil”

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The main antagonist of K. McCarthy's opus "No Country for Old Men" and his film adaptation of the same name, directed by the Coen brothers, entered the history of the film industry as one of the brightest and most impressive on-screen assassins. After the release of the film, Anton Chigurh often leads the ratings of the best movie villains.

Role performer

The role of the superkiller Chigurh was brilliantly played by actor Javier Bardem, who deservedly received an Oscar for it. The Spaniard manages to portray evil better than good. Before the incarnation of this colorful hero, he also impeccably played the inquisitor who fell in love in Goya's Ghosts. After the release of the creations of the famous director brothers, the actor can consider his creative career successful - he harmoniously matches Chigurh's type, perfectly conveys his inner essence. The exemplary acting skills of the performer become truly brilliant at the moment when Javier looks at a possible victim through the screen and the audience. The heavy piercing gaze of Bardem-Chygur is a unique sight that is unrealistic to break away from.

Narrative axis

Anton Chigur, according to manyfilmmakers, today is one of the main contributions of directors to cinema. He represents the axis around which the stories of the other characters of the "Old Men" are famously twisted. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is the personification of hopelessness and existential longing. He can not keep up with the killer, and Llewellyn, on the contrary, can not avoid meeting him. Another mercenary, embodied by Woody Harrelson, turns out to be superfluous, unable to compete with Chigurh Anton, whose quotes every fan of exciting films knows.

So. Indeed, Anton Chigurh overshadows absolutely everyone in the film, acting as the personification of a terrifying, absolute evil. The immobility of the killer, who has not found his victim, calmly sitting in front of the TV and sipping milk, symbolizes the superficial calm, behind which lies an unjustified atrocity, reflecting the fatalism of the hero. The mercenary's habit of giving a random victim a chance of amnesty by playing toss (guessing the side of the coin that has fallen out) is his only pastime. The episode of the picture from a small shop at the very beginning, when Chigurh offers to throw a coin to the seller, is shot simply as a masterpiece, it looks with incredible tension. Designated victims have no chance.

Instrument of Destiny

As a mercenary for drug dealers, Chigurh is ruthless, which is why he is characterized as a psychopathic killer. At the same time, the author of the literary source positions the hero as “pure evil”, and the audience compares the character with the Terminator, the samecold-blooded and deadly. But Anton Chigurh is a multi-dimensional character. This compares favorably with the killer robot. Chigurh himself calls himself an instrument of fate.

It is no coincidence that the Coen brothers paid great attention to the development of this character in their film. The killer suits his unusual hairstyle. And the weapons that the creators endowed him with (an air pistol for slaughtering cattle and a Remington 11-87 shotgun with a silencer) once again emphasizes his lethality. Almost all dialogues with the participation of the hero were disassembled into separate expressions, which became almost winged. Every second fan of visionary creativity knows who Anton Chigurh is. And he uses quotes from his sayings in everyday communication.

Anton Chigur. Non-trivial interpretation of the image

And finally. Anton Chigur, whose photo in itself can cause confusion in the soul of the viewer, is considered by some individuals as an ordinary person of blood and flesh (although this is impossible in the context of the film). Adherents of this version claim that he is a simple character. The statement about his mental insanity for the entire duration is confirmed only once - in the scene where he strangles a law enforcement officer. A number of reviewers claim that the hero has human qualities - he takes offense at others, sorts things out, makes mistakes. Chigurh has a clear and simple motivation - the rules of survival. Therefore, if you consider him as a person, then he is a responsible performer, and just damn consistent. Everything seems to be simple, but Chigurh is not perceivedafter watching the movie as a person.