Inspiration for 'No Country For Old Men'

I saw Le Samourai for the first time last night and was completely blown away. Minimalist but very evocative and powerful cinema at its best. I would love to watch it again and again. One of those very rare movies where 5 or 6 minutes passes without dialogue and you don't miss it at all.

I had also recently seen "No Country For Old Men" (by which I was sorely disappointed unfortunately). But I realized about halfway through Le Samourai that the Jef Costello character in Le Samourai was almost certainly the inspiration for the Anton Chigurh character in No Country For Old Men.

Both characters have many similarities -- they are both stoic contract killers, nearly unhuman in their lack of emotional response to their victims, and both with quirky, reserved styles that change very little throughout the movie. Chigurh was portrayed as more sadistic and creative in how he killed his victims as compared to Costello, but I think this is just an unfortunate side effect of the graphic violence that modern movie audiences need to see in order to understand that someone is "bad".

But what really made this connection for me was Costello's mysterious rings of keys that gained him access to any locked door that he wanted. He was able to steal two cars, and later in the movie enter a locked door. This struck me as very similar to Chigurh's weird pneumatic tool that he used to punch out locks. This was also a recurring theme in both movies -- violating other people's personal space, by breaking into their homes and offices and even their bodies, thus adding to the creepy ambiance in both movies.

I have also heard (but not verified) that Le Samourai is one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite gangster movies. I can definitely see how this movie would be a source of inspiration.