The villain, Anton Chigurh is portrayed by Javier Bardem, and he does a masterful job. The character is so good, that the audience’s attention is shifted more towards the villain than the actual protagonist. Anton is also said to be one of the most accurate depictions of a psychopath in movie history.
He uses an unconventional weapon to kill most people he decides to kill. But when in gunfights, he is skilled in a range of firearms. In one scene, he uses a big shotgun with a suppressor attached to it, and it’s one of my favourite scenes in the movie. He’s a very creepy character. He walks slowly and everything he does is methodical and neat. He has a very wide array of other skills too. For example, top-notch detective skills and knowledge on how to care for a wound. He’s inhumanly resistant to pain as well. He tosses a coin to decide whether he wants to kill someone or spare them. It’s really amazing how a human villain can be scarier than an actual supernatural monster.
Even though he is a remorseless killer, I can’t help but find him badass and cool. I’ve tried to customise my character in GTA or Saints Row to be like him, to kind of roleplay as him in-game.
Anyway, I hope that more people will watch this masterpiece of a movie.
No Country for Old Men is a great film! This was probably my first exposure to Javier Bardem as an actor. He also played a Bond villain really well in Skyfall.
Javier also played Captain Salazar in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. That was a quite good performance too. He’s a marvellous actor for villainous roles. But Anton Chigurh is who I consider is his best character.
Really enjoyed that movie as well. I actually watched it for the first time last year and it certainly deserves to be called a classic.
I find it really hard to get sucked in by action movies because the tension just isn’t there for me, or there’s too much going on. But the way they set up those shots was masterful, I thought. It really felt like a hunter and prey kind of scenario at some points.
Obviously, the antagonist’s performance only added to that. I still remember the scene at the hotel, when he shows up under the door, and everything after that.
The weapon as well, as you mentioned susika - really unusual choice and something I’d never seen before. But it totally suited the character… Methodical, precise, no care for anything other than achieving what he wants.
Tbh the interactions between him and some of the side characters were the creepiest scenes for me. You can see how unsettled they are, and how disjointed his social skills are.
