Originally posted by WilMac1023:
Because the film isn't about catching Chigurh. It's about how the world has passed a lawman like Ed Tom by, rendering him obsolete. He can't understand the criminal mind that would do something like Chigurh does. Thus, he is mourning his obsolescence. He is now an old man. He feels like he no longer understands the world, and also no longer feels safe in a place where a man like Chigurh could exist. Hence, the dream about his dad. He's longing for a time when he did feel safe, when his father could provide that safety; where when things didn't make sense, there was someone there to protect him. And thus, there is no country for old men like him.
Best film of the year, bar none.
Excellent explanation...but if that was the goal, I think they missed. It doesn't really make sense in the context of this movie and the Chigurh character.
An evil freak like Chigurh was nothing new or unique to the era in which the movie was set (1980). Evil people like him are always in the world (Jack the Ripper for example). What fits that explanation better would be those utterly ruthless drug gangs with machine guns that were emerging then. They're more of a peripheral part of the story here. So if Chigurh was a drug kingpin as opposed to basically a random serial killer, it would be a better fit.
Of course, not much of McCarthy's work makes sense. I read
The Road and found it like one of those abstract paintings that some people see as incredibly brilliant while the rest of us think it looks like a five-year-old got loose with mom's oil paints. Who doesn't get it - me or them?