Although I’m embarrassed to be asking this question, I may be less so depending on the answer (or, at least, the consensus of opinion).
Last chance . . .
SPOILER COMING
How clear was it to you that Llewelyn Moss had been killed by the Mexicans at the Motel in El Paso? Frankly, and embarrassingly (I think), I didn’t realize that it had even happened. In addition to the distinct possibility that I may be entering the first stages of dementia, there are a couple of other reasons why I missed what was probably the most important development of the movie. For one, IIRC, there was no close-up shot of the dead Moss nor was there ever a statement made to the effect that Llewelyn had been killed.
The fact that one of the FAQs at the IMDB asks, “what happened at the El Paso hotel . . .” makes me believe that I wasn’t alone in missing in what was arguably the most important killing of the movie.
It was clear to me he had been killed. It took me a few minutes and thinking back over the previous scenes to realize it had been the Mexicans and not Anton.
I just wanted to say that I recently read a collection of Robert Silverberg short stories, and a line in one of his stories was, “no country for old men.” Made me do a double-take.
I thought it was quite obvious that Josh Brolin was dead and that the Mexicans who’d been stalking his wife and mother-in-law had done it, not Javier Bardem.
The only thing I’m still not sure of is who got the money. I know Chigurh was using a dime to open up the vent shaft in the hotel room, thinking the money might be hidden there again… but I’m not sure he actually found the money… or if ANYBODY did.
Nah, it’s not dementia. It’s not really overt, you could easily have missed it or not recognized him, it was almost more inferred. More importantly, it was not “…probably the most important development of the movie.” Llewelyn is not the central character in this movie, the Tommy Lee Jones character is, and his antagonist is the deeds of the killer and what he represents, not really the killer or the Mexicans themselves. It’s about how the world is changing/has changed, and the inexorable march of time.
The only real reason that Llewelyn’s death is important is to show that Llewelyn is not important and that good guys* don’t always win.
*Llewelyn is more morally ambiguous than good, perhaps, but is certainly good compared to the assassin.
Not only that, but it’s an act of compassion that really gets him in the soup. He’s got the money, and possibly could get away with his wife and start a new life far away, but instead does the most dangerous thing he could: he goes back to the scene with the trucks and bodies in the desert, to bring water to a man who’s probably already dead.
I miss things, too – up to now, I thought it was Anton who had killed Moss at the motel. Definitely a movie worth looking at again.
Doesn’t Ed Tom drive up as the Mexicans are driving away? Not to mock your question, Karl. There are so many subtle and nuanced aspects to this film that it’s very easy to miss things.
My extremely stupid question is how did Anton escape the motel room when TLJ was in there? There’s a debate on IMDB about whether or not they were actually in the same room, but I frankly can’t stand to spend too much time there.
