No Country for Old Men

Curtisha Jones

English 1301

Dr. E. Childs

08 December 2012

It’s Your Choice

Choices…. We all have them.  In the movie No Country for Old Men, we see greed, bad choices and consequences for some of the bad choices.  Llewellyn Moss had a choice from the beginning of the movie to the end.  What is the thought process behind people making bad decisions?  Some would argue that there is a medical issue or a chemical imbalance in the brain such as depression to trigger these actions.

            From the beginning Moss had a decision to make.  As he was on the mountain, he spotted an antelope.  He shot to kill, but did not succeed.  In disbelief, he left the mountain top and followed a trail of blood to hopefully finish the job of killing the antelope.  Instead he stumbled upon what appeared to be a drug deal gone terribly wrong.  There were dead, decomposing bodies everywhere; not to mention a dead dog as well.  At this point Llewellyn had a decision to leave the scene to go get help for a man who was shot, but was still (at the time) alive.  Instead he saw an opportunity.  The movie suggests that Moss knew there had to be one man remaining who has possibly ran off with the money.  Once he spotted the last man standing, Moss made his first of many bad choices.

            Moss made a choice to take the money.  He did not know the consequences of his actions.  What makes people make bad choices?   To determine what leads people to make bad decisions, it’s helpful to consider what we would need to create the ideal decision-making environment.  Most theories on decision-making are made on what the so-called “rational” decision-maker will do when faced with perfect information including a complete and total knowledge of all possible outcomes with absolutely no uncertainty.  Moss did not have any information.   If he had information on where the money came from, and who would possibly be looking for the money and not to mention if the satchel contained anything that could trace it back to him.  He did not think twice about taking the money.  As Huebscher mentioned, “most of our poor-decision making stems from the subconscious ways we trick our brains to make choices that we later realize are complete wrong.”

            A study conducted by researchers at University College London reveals that making a difficult decision can result in poor decisions and could be associated with depression. Could Llewelyn Moss been depressed?  He was a Vietnam War veteran who lives in a poor-looking trailer park home, with a wife who works at Wal-Mart.  Maybe he felt he deserved better and taking the money was his opportunity to live like he wanted to live.  In an article from the General Medical and Health Lab, it states that we are in a mad rush for achieving success in the shortest possible time even if it means resorting to means that are not exactly honest and fair.

         Bad information or no information at all can lead to bad choices, too.  Before you compare the options available, you must make another decision: where to see the information you desire.  A wrong choice here will lead to a bad choice when it comes time to make the decision before you.  And if you're confronted with too many options and too many choiuces, your brain overheates, and you lose the ability to ssift and analyze only the information that's helpful.  Is it possible to fight your own worst instincts? Only if you can spot these flaws in your decision making process.  But first, you'd have to make a the good decision to look for them. 

Title TBD (No Country for Old Men)

In No Country For Old Men, there were many choices and consequences.  Some people make decisions based on their choices and not consequences for their actions.

In the movie, Moss has made many choices. In the opening of the movie, Moss stumbled upon a gang that had been killed in the desert.  Dead decomposing were everywhere.  There was one man still alive, but wounded.  He asked Moss for water. Instead of Moss leaving to find water to help the dying man, he asked “Where is the last man standing?”  It’s his choice to leave the man in search of the last man standing, he could have used this time to get the dying man help.  Moss uses his binoculars to see if he can find the last man standing.  He noticed someone sitting under a shade tree.  Moss decides to wait to see if the man is going to move.  After time passes, Moss walks over to the tree and sees that the last man standing is dead.  He takes his pistol and notices a satchel nearby.  He opens it and finds that it is full of cash.  He had a choice to leave the money, but he didn’t.  He took the money.   This was very selfish of him; but later we would see that this weighed heavy on his mind.  He was not able to sleep because he was thinking about the man asking for water.  He decided to get up in the middle of the night to take the man water.  He knew this may not be a good idea.  Before he left he told Carla Jean that he was about to do something dumb and if he doesn’t come back, tell his mother that he loves her. Carla Jean says “but your mother is dead,” and Moss said “Well then, I’ll tell her myself."  

By the time Moss made it back the desert to take one of the last men water, the man was dead.  The consequence of his procrastination and greed ultimately resulted in him being noticed by the gangsters coming back for their drugs. He hears someone talking and lurking around his truck.    They slashed his tires and drives down the mountain towards him.  Moss leaves the water and they chase him while trying to shoot him.  One is successful. He is shot in the arm.  He had a choice to stop and surrender the money to the men, but he did not.

            Chigurh meets two men in the desert.  They examine Moss’ truck, and Chigurh takes the vehicle registration ID and finds his address.   Chigurh picks up a pistol, and takes the transponder remote.  Unknowingly to Moss, the satchel of money has a tracking device in it.   When Moss made it home, Carla Jean notices he is shot. He tells her that they and the money have to disappear and there’s no going back.  Moss knew these men are dangerous, so he sends Carla Jean to pack and go stay with her mother for a while.  While Moss is away making sure that Carla Jean departs safely Chigurh goes to Moss’ trailer home and blasts off the lock using his air gun.  Chigurh looks at a phone bill at Moss’s home and sees that Carla Jean frequently calls her mother.  Chigurh goes to the manager’s office to see if he can get more information on Moss.  The manager refuses to tell him anything.  At this time he hears someone in the bathroom and makes a decision not to kill her.

Chigurh goes to a gas station and the clerk tries to make small talk with him.  He asked him “how was the weather in Dallas?”  Chigurh had stolen a car, so he had no clue how the weather was.  Chigurh proceeded to taunt the man, asking him questions.  Then he pulled out a quarter, flipped it, slammed it on the counter and said “Call it.”  The clerk didn’t understand.  He urges the clerk to call it.  He nervously calls “heads,” and sees that the coin has indeed landed on heads.  Chigurh made a choice to not kill him.  

When Chigurh met Carla Jean after her mothers’ funeral, he tried to make her “call it.”  She chose not to call it.  She stated that it was not up to the coin to decide her fate.  It was all up to him.  She said “the coin don’t have no say...”  Chigurh said he had to kill her.  He gave his word.  At this point, he could have chosen not to kill her; but he didn’t.  Chigurh kills Carla Jean.