No Country for Old Men - A Moral World/Amoral World - Part 3/3: Sheriff Ed Tom Bell

No Country for Old Men ends with Ed Tom and so it is only right to end this three part post with a look at the sheriff and what is associated with his character. This will give way to widen our lens and see the film as a whole, commenting on why Cormac McCarthy his novel called 'No Country for Old Men' in the first place.

Ed Tom Bell is a county sheriff who has clearly come to the end of his road, wanting to retire. Where we have discussed Chigurh being representative of chaos and a force which cannot be tamed, Ed Tom is essentially someone who is not only duty-bound to try and tame this force, as he is a figure of the law, but most importantly Ed Tom is someone who believes it can be tamed, and that what is good does ultimately prevail.

Ed Tom has evidently been raised in a family of sheriffs, which can be extended to suggest that Ed Tom has been brought up with the traditional notions of right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral. With the situation the film presents us, I believe that the person who loses the most out of all of it is not Llewelyn nor Chigurh. Chigurh by the end realises that man cannot be above nature, and thus cannot retain his self-fulfilled image of being exempt from the forces of the universe. Llewelyn is much easier to see with regards to what he loses as he physically loses his life, and therefore loses the chance to be with Carla Jean as he had planned. Ed Tom's loss is far more severe, however. Ed Tom loses faith, and falls under despair, questioning all that he has believed in for the past 50-odd years. Despite the film's runtime of 2 hours 3 minutes, I want to deduce my analysis of Ed Tom to the very final scene of the film where he is talking about his two dreams the night before to Loretta. This is because it is not only expressive of Ed Tom but also, I believe, of the very purpose McCarthy's novel was written. Here it is for those who need to refresh their memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXNfxK5Q2Qg

Let us look at Ed Tom's second dream, where he is riding with his father who is carrying a light in the darkness. With Ed Tom beginning the dream with "it was like we was back in older times" is a clear indication that his thoughts are in the past. Ed Tom's perception is concentrated in the past, in 'older times' as that is all he knows. He is alien to the modern world. His father is carrying fire in a horn, riding past him and eventually "going on ahead" to fix a fire in "all that dark and all that cold". In the dream, Ed Tom is assured that as long as he follows the direction his father is going in, "he'd be there". Ed Tom takes a pause, and then simply concludes: "And then I woke up." What is clear is that Ed Tom's preconceived idea of what the world and old age would be like has turned out untrue and in turn as led him into despair. In a scene beforehand, Ed Tom says, "I always figured when I got older, God would sort of come into my life somehow..and he didn't." Ed Tom feels completely alone in this world where he once thought that justice would conquer in justice, and through time, one becomes wiser and closer to God. He is now understanding that he is on his own, but as Ellis points out this is not something experienced by Ed Tom alone; "what you got ain't nothing new".

Ed Tom is a character who is going through an existential crisis, but to a wider degree, is symbolic of the shift in times. He embodies this inability to comprehend that which is new and without meaning. All the suffering that Ed Tom has witnessed in Moss' case needs a meaning, a conclusion, a solution for Ed Tom in order for him to reinstate that suffering is not meaningless and that morals are able to upheld but alas he sees that there will always be a form of darkness in the world that cannot be amended - this provides a potential reason for why he does not confront Chigurh in the room.

Hope is a feeling that we normally have in our thoughts about our future endeavours. We look out into the world and feel that we have an ability to do well, to both be a 'good' human being but also be the best versions of ourselves and conquer the world. Ed Tom is a figure who had this optimism but in reaching old age succumbs to face reality. There is no such clear divide as the moral and immoral like in fairy-tales. Our world is not a intentionally cruel one, but merely does not care for our dreams and duties. It is a false prophecy that in the end all will be well, and that there will be a light which rids the darkness. Ed Tom has not only woken up from his dream, but has woken up to the lie he has been living that their is meaning in everything. The world is now for him amoral and he must accept the facts that he will die a world where fighting for what is 'right' is not enough, as there will always be an equal amount of what it is 'wrong' - it is just the way the universe balances itself out.

He recognises there is no country for old men and that where he once thought age brings wisdom, it in facts makes one feel emptier as you see there is so much you both do not and cannot know. I do not stand with the argument that No Country for Old Men is a pessimistic story whereby - because Chigurh lives - it is a tale of how evil overrules good, on the contrary. Chigurh living is, I feel, only representative that there will always be bad in the world and that is just how it is. Old perspectives of a hero defeating the villain have no place in the new, real world as morality is a blurred line where we all abide by our own philosophies, and thus there will always be an array of people from those following the word of God to those following their personal desires in a world which is not bound by any morality.

I hope you have enjoyed this three-part post on No Country for Old Men and if you have any thoughts on either what I have said or on the film, I would be delighted to hear them. You can contact me via our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thincfilm/ or through messaging us on instagram, just search for "thincfilm".

Also, to those interested, if I were to rate this film according to our system it would be the following:

4/5/3

12/13

~ Iman