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ERA : No Country for Old Men

This movie is set in the wild west during the 1980s. It depicts a time and culture of freedom where you can seem to get away with anything you would like. The main character is named Llewelyn Moss, he is a Vietnam war veteran who has settled down with his partner in the Midwest of the US. In the opening scene he is out hunting in the fields and gets lost tracking an animal. While he was wondering around, he come across this disturbing scene. There are about 5 or 6 cars shot up and 10 people dead on the ground. The main character has been so desensitized to these types of situations because of the war. Llewelyn walks around to find that it had been a drug deal that took a turn and he later finds the ‘last man standing’, who had a duffle bag of cash. He takes the cash, and this becomes the set up for the rest of the movie. 

The law is these two ‘cowboys’ who are lackadaisical about their duties to protect the people, and this is emphasize in the first couple of scenes. The policeman come up to an open massacre in the prairie and they seem to think little of it. It was only a drug deal gone wrong to them, and they could shrug it off. These two will later come back to the movie when the climax begins to build.  You can hear them talking about how useless they feel throughout the movie, because they can do nothing to stop all of these murders. 

Anton Chigurh is the murder in the movie. This man has murdered 3 people in cold blood before the first 30 minutes of the movie. He has been hired by drug lords to hunt and kill Llewelyn because he took their drug money. The two men have many interactions that end in shoot outs or chases, but both always come away with their lives.  The finial shoot out scene both Llewelyn and Chigurh get injured in the altercation. The two flee for help on opposite sides and part ways. 

Llewelyn runs from Chigurh and decides to pick up a hitchhiker on the way for extra protection. Yet, this doesn’t work. When they get to the next hotel local drug dealers shoot and kill the main character. Chigurh shows up and is pissed because Llewelyn didn’t give him the money. So, to keep his word Chigurh goes back to Llewelyn’s home and kills his partner, which he had promised. On his way out of the movie Chigurh gets into a car crash and brutally breaks his arm. He pays a young boy a lot of money for his shirt and then walked away from the scene of the crime. 

This movie sets the scene of a country that has little law enforcement. You are made to believe that in the Midwest you are on your own. Llewelyn has to fight his own battle and protect himself because the law enforcement in his town cannot stop the drug lords and their accomplice on a murdering spree.  As the title say, No Country for Old Men, this is not a place for the elderly or slow. If you can’t not protect yourself you will have no chance of survival.

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