No Country For Old Men

I read the script to the 2008 film “No Country For Old Men” by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. Personally I prefer the more novel-like approach in screen writing. When reading the writer paints a better picture if it is written more like a story rather than screen directions or actions. Writers like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers do this. Along with their unique storytelling on screen, the characters in the screenplay come just as alive as when an actor portrays them. My favorite character was Anton Chigurh (the villain) a man with psychopathic tendencies that is willing to go to the end he of the earth to find his bag of money. The amount of insane violence and    tragic death he causes is written in abstract detail. His drive and intelligence for each strategy he’ll come up with is hauntingly brilliant. Not only does he need to be psychologically tested, but he tests you psychologically with the question of “call it”. The words asked in a specific scene where a store clerk is encountered by Chigurh. Chigurh begins to toy with, asking about his life,  making him stumble upon his word and posing him as an idiot as he slowly becomes more and more scared. He eventually asks the clerk to call the side of a flipped coin. When the clerk asks what he stands to win, Chigurh replies with, “Everything”. Smart dialogue like this, small and simple words that drive a character into a bigger entity. I really do love this character and admire him for being one of the best villains in film. If interested you can find the screenplay online or on Amazon, and the film you can find on Netflix.
-Roberto Hoyos