Adaptation Of Cormac Mccarthy's No Country For Old Men

Within the 2007 film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, No Country for Old Men, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is attempting to help Moss, a man who stole money from a botched drug deal, evade the vengeance of a dangerous hitman, Chigurh, who was sent to retrieve the money for his employers. Bell throughout the story shares his viewpoint, but within the movie, those who pay attention to his thoughtful observations appear unaffected. The Coen brothers, who directed the film, acknowledge that the novel’s title is a representation of the sheriff’s perspective, but in contrast with the novel, the focus of the movie’s approach involves an emphasis on multiple characters’ viewpoint and actions. To further clarify, the novel also highlights the other characters’

From the beginning Bell contemplates, “What do you say to a man that by his own admission has no soul?” (McCarthy 3). From this passage, we understand Bell’s keen sense of what is wrong and what is right. This specific quote is omitted although the film contains most of this selection’s content. The general understanding gleaned from the book’s entire excerpt is Bell’s concern with his soul. In contrast, within this part of the story the film also introduces the image of Chigurh as he is being arrested. Additionally, the movie has additional dialogue to complement the arrest scene and ensures the focal point briefly becomes Chigurh’s unusual air tank. As a result, the audience can quickly make the association that the concern the sheriff has is directly with Chigurh and not, as can be deciphered within the book, the universal existence of an inexplicable

With Bell’s comprehension of the world, Chigurh is not the only malevolent criminal. Throughout the book, Bell wrestles with various crimes and personal issues but also engages the reader to ponder his perception of each situation and to contemplate possible explanations. Though the movie also contains some excerpts from the novel like the mention of the newspaper article where a Californian couple tortures older people (McCarty 124), it does not include all of the anecdotes the novel provides that clarifies Bell’s struggle with morality. Furthermore, Chigurh exemplifies all the insidious criminals combined and he is tangible to Bell to where he has some possible means of balancing what he perceives as the scale of right and