So, how close is the plot of the movie to the book? Does it end in essentially the same way: with Tommy Lee Jones miserable in having failed in his attampt to save Josh Brolin and the killer alive and well?

I loved the movie but it seemed like it was purposely made in a style to infuriate the audience. I've always wanted to make a movie that does that (just because you get so used to mainstream movies always doing the same things) but this movie really did seem to pile it on. From not even getting to see the protaganist meet his end after all the emotional care we put into him to Tommy Lee Jones giving up depressed and beaten to the killer killing the wife and then *almost* getting killed in a car accident only to walk away from the authorities yet again.

Everything I wanted to happen in the movie as a human being (the protaganist to prevail and live happily ever after with his wife, for Tommy Lee Jones to kill the killer) didn't happen and it seemed like they wanted to rub it in your face. Even the abrubt depressing end seemed to really hammer this point home.

I love the audacity of the Cohen bros to make such a movie, but it really was tough to sit through the end.


One question for you all: When Tommy Lee Jones shows up at the hotel at the end they show the killer is inside waiting for him, where does he go? Did he escape out the bathroom window or did I miss something?

plot is almost exact - minor changes for brevity sake, such as lewllyn's trip to el paso being cut completely out, and Chigurh's motivation is slightly altered but not in a way that matters for the effect of the story. Ends essentially the same way. In the book it is more obvious that the sherrif is the main character, as he is the narrator of stories (similar to ones he tells in the movie) between chapters.

I don't feel it was made in a style to infuriate the audience, as it follows the book, down to the way they show lewellyn's death, with the sherrif coming up on the hotel and everyone dead. Now...the book may have been made to infuriate the audience, and in some ways it did, but I think it is more to emphasize how quickly these things go bad/end, and to emphasize that whatever the reader/audience wanted, lwellyn wasn't going to make it...it just doesn't work that way. Cormac McCarthy (the author) doesn't write very happy books.

I had some trouble with the scene where Sherrif Ed Tom goes back to the hotel as well - where is Chigurgh hiding? I need to watch it again - they show Chigurgh so quickly it's hard to tell. I'd say he's in the closet in the front, or in the room next door - I don't think it's something like he jumped out the window or he was behind the door and Ed Tom looked at him and then left, which some people seem to think. I don't have a copy of the book to check how it happened in the book.

You feel they were trying to 'rub it in' because even though you thought you wanted to see a movie where the main character fails and the bad guys win, you really didn't. The first time I ever saw a anti-climatic ending (Holy Grail I'm afraid) I was actually quite upset. This is after I professed to having wanted to see something like that happen for years. But when it actually did, I felt robbed.

I don't think Anton is walking away scott-free at the end. He has a compound fracture and no transportation. Maybe his stuff was in the car. Even if he has a hideout blocks away (very doubtful) he's not going to make it with half his radius/ulna bone sticking out of his arm. It ends without showing any definite resolution with him, but I don't think he's going to get to far.

I wondered where he was hiding to. I thought it was in the room nextdoor. That would have made the most sense.

I liked the movie for the realistic way it was portrayed. There wasn't to much superhero action or unbelievable sequences except for one. Anton did seem to 'guess' every move to accurately and I can't figure out how he gets to that skyscraper in (Dallas?), up to the 13th floor with a shotgun and air tank and then gets out without being detected. That was the only thing that was to far fetched.

The way I remember it, Bardem was simply behind the door after the Sheriff opened it. That's what made it extra creepy. While watchin' it, I didn't think Tom was going to make it out of the hotel room alive. I think the character realized this, knew he was on death's door, and that's why he stops investigating and walks out.

Of course, I may have this totally wrong as it's been over a month since I've seen the movie.

This was a Western Noir no doubt. It might have ended badly for Moss and his wife, but he invited it onto himself and had several chances to do something different but chose the worse. No sin goes unpunished in Noir. I did not really see it as a downer ending. It was sad for the wife, but it was more about the reality of and persistence evil, not in a mythological or biblical sense, but in the day-to-day world that doesn't always get caught or punished. I think him getting hit at the end was more about fate showing Chigurh what a real quirk was, not his coin tossing. Anyone else notice they kept showing the Rams head on the car Chigurh was driving? Hmmm. In the book it is more obvious that the Sheriff is the narrator so it is not as much of a shock when Moss buys it. I also recall the wife calling the toss and being wrong, though most of the dialogue in that scene was there. It is also shown that the reason Chigurh is caught at the beginning by the police is a becuase he wants to be , to see if he can get out of the situation.