O Brother Where Art Thou

[Rasix]

The coin doesn't matter, it's still his decision.  If he doesn't want to kill her, there's no reason to even be at her house.  There no reason to flip the coin at the "annoying" shop clerk unless you really want to kill him.  The coin and code are just a check on a complete disregard for life and perhaps a compulsive to kill.  He never flips the coin for his employers that he murders, the Mexicans he kills, Woody, or the various law enforcement.  They were just in his way or perceived as such.

The coin is just a way to personally absolve himself from killing people that in now way meet his eternal criteria for a quick shotgunning to the chest.

[Abagadro]

I disagree with that.  He doesn't need personal absolution as he is a psychopath.

[Rasix]

Maybe absolve is a poor choice of words.  The coin is just there to compensate with whatever problem he has with just offing people that don't meet his already loose criteria for offing.  There's no reason to go back and kill her, it's resolved.  He knows that, so he just doesn't kill her right off the bat. 

She actually calls him on his bullshit.  And.. he has to wipe off his boots when leaving the house.

[lamaros]

No Country is the worst Coen brothers film I've seen. O Brother is quite enjoyable though.

[Abagadro]

There's no reason to go back and kill her, it's resolved.

Except that he promised Llewelyn that if made a particular choice that even if Chigurh got the money back she would be dead. Now that I think about it, it's not so much chance as determinism. The coin is just means of the expression of the determinism. 

[Rasix]

There's no reason to go back and kill her, it's resolved.

Except that he promised Llewelyn that if made a particular choice that even if Chigurh got the money back she would be dead.

I'm not really arguing that fact.  Maybe you're misunderstanding my point.  Doesn't matter really.    Carson Well's description of him fits. Carla nails him at the end as well, and that's pretty much my basis for my characterization of him. Again, doesn't matter. Glad a movie made me think and didn't end in a stupid hollywood way.

As far as O'Brother.. one of my favorites.  Lebowski is my favorite of theirs', but I did a paper on the character of Odysseus so I'm a bit partial to the material.  Still odd that they claim they've never read the Odyssey.  They did it might fine.

[Abagadro]

Still odd that they claim they've never read the Odyssey.  They did it might fine.

I wouldn't take that seriously. It's like the "true story" statement at the beginning of Fargo. They aren't above fudging to heighten aspects of their work.

[lamaros]

I'd say it's probably not that hard to have a pretty good understanding of the Odyssey without actually having read the exact text, it gets around all sorts of parts.

[WayAbvPar]

Still odd that they claim they've never read the Odyssey.  They did it might fine.

I wouldn't take that seriously. It's like the "true story" statement at the beginning of Fargo. They aren't above fudging to heighten aspects of their work.

Heightening is wrong!

[DraconianOne]

I'd say it's probably not that hard to have a pretty good understanding of the Odyssey without actually having read the exact text, it gets around all sorts of parts.

Their references demonstrate that they have a very good understanding of the Odyssey - more than a passing familiarity. I'm pretty certain that they've admitted that "Of course they read it" but what they did was read it, put it down and not read it again after they started writing the screenplay.  Like Abagadro says, they claimed Fargo was a true story when it blatantly wasn't.  If you look at the credits of the film (by which I mean actually watch the film, not look it up on IMDB), you'll also see that The Artist Formerly Known As "Prince" was credited as the victim in the field but it wasn't.  It's just something they do.

[stray]

I've never read the Odyssey, but I instantly knew what this was, and all of the references. So I could believe that, I guess. There's the Odyssey, and then there's the popular highlights that have seeped into the public consciousness. This movie seems to touch only on the latter version.

[DraconianOne]

I've never read the Odyssey, but I instantly knew what this was, and all of the references. So I could believe that, I guess. There's the Odyssey, and then there's the popular highlights that have seeped into the public consciousness. This movie seems to touch only on the latter version.

So you admit that you've never read the Odyssey but you know that you got all the references. If you're only aware of the popular highlights, how do you know you haven't missed other stuff that may have been in the film?  I'll admit that maybe some of the stuff that I thought maybe obscure like Menelaus, the Lotophagi and the killing of the cows is actually part of these popular highlights but most people I know of only really know about Polyphemus the Cyclops, the Sirens, perhaps Syclla and Charybdis and the general theme of returning home to his wife Penelope.

[stray]

Doh, yeah. Fair point. It just seems like I've seen many of the things here. Same goes for the Americana references... kind of a popular highlight of things many people tend to think of with that. Cool Hand Luke, Baby Face Nelson, Robert Johnson, the KKK, black acapella grave diggers, Bible salesmen. Heh

[Yegolev]

The KKK were sheep.