After we saw No Country for Old Men, my girlfriend and I argued about Anton Chigurh’s background. “He’s Russian!” I said. “He’s Mexican,” she insisted. “Come on, his accent is obviously Eastern European, I said.” “No, it sounds more Mexican!” she said.
After reading more about the movie and story, it turns out that Chigurh is not supposed to have any background. He’s supposed to be completely ambiguous. So we were both wrong.
But this thread is for MAKING UP a backstory for him. Be creative! Use your imagination! But I want to keep it more serious and less comic-oriented, in other words, if you were an actual screenwriter who had to make up a background for Chigurh, what would it be?
Is he some kind of Russian hitman like the guy from Fargo (even though he was Swedish?) Is he an ex-special forces soldier with military or medical training (remember how he dressed his own wound?
Well, Javier Bardem, the actor who played Chigurh, is Spanish. The etymology of the name Anton is Eastern European and/or Russian, so maybe his parents are/were immigrants or something.
I never thought of him as having a backstory. The story’s a morality play; Chigurh is Death on two legs, without the baggage of a normal person, or even a garden-variety psychopath.
However, I’d say he has a background in Marketing.
He was just a normal, run of the mill American everyman. He went to work, paid his taxes, and enjoyed the company of asian call-girls. Then one day, he got the worst haircut in the history of the world, and all hell broke loose…
Supporting actor winner Bardem graciously thanked his directors, the ubiquitous Coens, for his villainous role in “No Country for Old Men” and for “putting one of the most horrible haircuts in history on my head.” He addressed part of his speech, in Spanish, to his mother, Pilar, who beamed from her front-row seat. (from an article covering the ceremony – best thing ever.)
Sorry to digress from the “backstory” portion, but has anyone actually read the book? I’m trying to, and the lack of “quotation” marks is driving me crazy.
I put it away after ten pages. I’m told it’s a great book, but the decision to not use correct punctuation - a pure affectation that adds absolutely nothing to the book - drove me crazy in about twelve minutes.
It’s not his best. Blood Meridian (his best, and one of the best American novels), All the Pretty Horses, the Orchard Keeper, and even The Road are all better. But if you need quotation marks, or if untranslated spanish bothers you, you’re out of luck.
In the book, he is even more an ideosyncratic character. He is identified by Moss as looking “exotic,” and is described as having dark hair, a dark complexion, and blue eyes. That is a pretty unusual combination. Definitely a racially ambiguous one, and one not (entirely) white.
I believe the amalgamation of traits was written with the intent to spark an association in the reader between his character and the idea of ‘otherness’ - something foreign, yet vague and untraceable, inciting suspicion and distrust, but also alluring, hailing from everywhere and nowhere at once.
In reality, it would probably be less complex than that. I envision him as being mixed - race, from South America, perhaps with German ancestry. Biracial or Latino.
He is a psychopath, as Carson Wells remarked. Psychopathy is a deeply misunderstood condition. It is a variant brain formation, coupled with a lack of oxytocin processing. This is not something one acquires; he was born with it - he feels no guilt, no fear, no love, and no empathy. That is what psychopathy is. He has never felt those emotions, never will, nor does he care to. Physiologically, he cannot access them.
It would be interesting to explore how a character like this would respond to racism directed at his appearance, though this is hinted at in the book.
I like to envision him as having a sexual history with Carson Wells. I “ship” them, or whatever. If you’ve read the book this may be easier to imagine. After all, they did work together, and they’re on a first name basis. “I know him every which way,” Carson had said. So many possibilities there.
Love this character. So glad I came across the story.
I doubt whether a character like that would work in marketing. I would assume that he had a career where his particular skillset would be useful, probably HR.
A sexual history with Carson Wells…interesting and entirely feasible! I like it!
That terrible haircut is ok on a young boy, and popular some years ago. The fact that Chigurh has maintained it indicates he stopped…I don’t know what the term is, he stopped ‘growing’ at that age? Or something happened to him at that age…it also indicates his psychopathy takes him out of the mainstream of life. If he had had a girlfriend or worked in an office, that haircut would have been changed to something more modern. But Mr. C walks his own way in life.
Ha, I didn’t actually expect anyone to respond to this. I typed out my response, and it wasn’t until I posted it that I saw that the initial question was 13 years old.
I think the pairing of those two characters is pretty realistic. The fact that people have written fanfiction about them inspired me recently to write my own. I’ll publish it (if I get up the courage to do so!)
I don’t care much for the way that they adapted his character on screen, after reading the book. The haircut is just a little bit too ridiculous. He has a lot less personality in the movie adaptation as well. The movie is still very good in many respects, however. He is now one of my favorite characters.
