... the cruelty is difficult for me to take. I agree with the sentiments expressed by Sheriff Bell that things seem to be getting worse, in terms of a callous disregard for other people. He says at one point that it begins with the loss of civility, and I think he has an excellent point. I believe - and I may be completely naive here - that there used to be some codes of honor which were even followed by many criminals, such as not killing or harming women or children. This is not to say that it's ok to harm grown men, but at least the "no women or kids" (thank you Leon) engaged some sort of limit which has now seemingly gone completely. It's a way to calculate the true cold-bloodedness and evil - think of the Nazis willingness to kill women, kids, and the infirm. I suppose it comes from the notion that grown men can generally - or are expected to - fight for themselves, whereas women and kids generally do not have the physical upperhand. And it's a thin thread, but a thread nonetheless, that having some respect for the life of those who can't defend themselves gives someone some small hint of morality to cling to, and perhaps a tenuous connection to civilization and humanity.

What does this rant have to do with Old Country? The central figure in the book, Anton Chigurh, is a cold-blooded killer who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone. And I have a hard time enjoying that determined and chilling action. For those of you who have seen the movie, but not read the book: in the book, Carla Jean, the wife of Llewellyn Moss, does not talk Chigurh out of killing her. He takes out a coin and tells her to call it, she calls heads, it lands on tails. He kills her. (Edit: I thought, in reading the Wikipedia description, that this had been changed in the movie, but it appears I was wrong, and the filmmakers just made it more ambiguous - that sounds to me like an excellent choice.)

I think perhaps the reason I have such a hard enjoying this is because I believe that this kind of violence and murder does occur, and that is disturbing. If I thought it was an exaggerated lack of morality or humane empathy, I could more easily relax and enjoy the excellent writing and careful plotting.

And this is not to say that I want to stick my head in a hole and pretend evil does not exist. But when I'm confronted with such things - in my hotel room the other day I made the mistake of watching an ABC documentary on child prostitution in Cambodia - I start to think that perhaps it's better that I only have cats, because what kind of world would I be bringing a child into? Is it really a case of a memory filter that makes it seem to everyone as though the world is going downhill, when in reality there's always been the same level of evil but expressed in different ways?

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I do not want to see a movie where the central character (who I'm sure is incredibly well acted based on the reviews) is a coldhearted unredeemable killer.