Whats the significance of ...(spoilers)
..Moss being killed off-screen?
to make you ask -
who did it?
MovieChat Forums > No Country for Old Men (2007) Discussion > Whats the significance of ...(spoilers)
There are a few related reasons for it, I think.
One, just prior to Moss's death, the POV switches to Sheriff Bell. So we experience Moss's death strictly as Bell does. We know only what he knows. Thus finding Moss just recently killed emphasizes Bell's sense of frustration and failure to rescue him. In turn that sets up his final scenes.
Two, the effect of killing this major character off-screen is that it makes his death seem shockingly perfunctory and squalid, the opposite of the glorious "special project" he vowed he was going to make of Chigurh. That vow made us expect to see the big showdown play out as per the pattern in action movies. Instead, the effect of his off-screen death made it seem trivial and pointless.
Three, as a result of upending expectations, the off-screen death has the effect of making us realize how strongly ingrained that story pattern of the glorious showdown is. And how unreliable it is. Moss seemed to believe in it, but life doesn't necessarily comply to be like the neat patterns in action movies.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Larks says sugar is pure evil blah blah blah but it is according to larks the Mexicans who trigger bell's frustration and failure. Larks says it's the Mexicans that set up bell's final scenes.
shareWe know only what he [Bell] knows.Just out of curiosity - what is it that Bell knows? share
What do you think he knows?
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
For one thing, he knows Moss has "seen the things" which he has "seen" which "certainly made an impression" on him.
shareThe first time I watched it I had the same question. The more you see it you realize this story isn't about Moss. This is a story about Sheriff Bell. It shows the Sheriff is in over his head and it's time for him to retire. The Sheriff has grown weary of all the violence in the world and in the end, Moss' story is what leads him to finally pull the plug.
shareIt is the flipping of the modern action movie on its head. The entire movie is about a main protagonist acting out of unjust motivations, mainly greed and pride facing off against an antagonist who acts on principal, not on desire. This is already a flipping of roles of stereotypical action movie which will typically show a good guy acting on morals for the greater good bs a bad guy acting on desire. To complete this flip of roles, the typical one on one action hero showdown climax is replaced with Moss being killed offscreen by someone who isn't the main antagonist, ending instead with an old man talking about his dreams.
Doing this also robbed the viewer of a climax, giving an unsettling feeling that the conflict was never really resolved. Giving his death a little ambiguity (although if you don't think the Mexicans did it you're dumb) also gave the impression that it wasn't a person that killed Moss, but the world he tried to insert himself into, that a person like him is destined to die if they attempt to go up against the type of people he did, no matter who it is that winds up pulling the trigger.
Good stuff.
The other interesting thing for me is that ever since the opening monologue I anticipated a showdown between the Sheriff and the antagonist we see being arrested. Then after hanging with Moss for a bit, I anticipated two showdowns. Moss's didn't happen, but I did get the Sheriff's, in a fascinating way. Everything feels like a showdown, as far as the Sheriff's concerned, and as far as we're concerned... until suddenly it's not. Another pull of the rug, another anticlimax. In the same location!
Yet the Sheriff is still defeated, in the sense of his spirit, so I think this second climax is similar to what you said about the world killing Moss, not just a person. The Sheriff goes up against what he doesn't understand, risking his soul, and that's what takes the beating. The antagonist is a man, but he's also not just that.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Oh, psycho killers can have their own principles. As I say, principles justify. Make the psycho feel special. Give him meaning. Otherwise: "it's just you," and there's plenty of them around, and so what?
Of course Chigurh acts on desire. He isn't just pushed around like a twig in the flow of a river; he desires certain things and chooses to indulge those desires. Then he applies a tired old principle to those choices, to gussy them up and make it seem like he's not choosing. It's all fake, of course.
Dmaria has clearly swallowed that Chigurh-plum nonsense whole. He's sweet on the character. Even calls him Sugar.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Larks reminds me of the golfer who practices very diligently but without instruction. She can't figure out why she never gets any better. The answer is that by practicing the golfer is grooving her mistakes.
Case in point larks insistence that Sugar is just another psycho killer. Another stereotype. Larks should contact Wde and gets some instruction on what no country is about. She wouldn't keep slicing her drives.
Excellent post by Wde especially when he says sugar acted on principle not desire. Wde makes a good point when he says they flipped the modern action movie on its head. I wish he explained what is the purpose of doing that.
Larks as usual is clueless.
I'm glad larks is back. Such a rich source of nonsense.
Wde puts larks in disgrace. Wde says no country flips the modern action movie on its head. He says sugar acts on principle not on desire. That it wasn't a person who killed moss it was his destiny based on his actions.
Larks responds at the level of a fifth grader. She says sugar is just a psycho killer. Nothing to see here folks. Larks claims that no country is what Wde calls a stereotypical action movie.
I think it was meant to signify that the movie is not about Moss and his cat-and-mouse game with Anton. The movie is more about Sheriff Bell and his relation to a different world
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