Movie Moments: The Sheriff, in No Country for Old Men (2007), recounts a dream he had of his father

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The moment in No Country for Old Men (2007) when the sheriff recounts a dream he had of his father, in the final scene, is a great movie moment. It may be a quiet moment but it is potent and effective. Some critics felt that the film did not end well because of this scene particularly as the credits come on screen right after the dream is recounted. The performance by Tommy lee Jones makes this scene stand out because it sums up his experiences and his hope for the future. Those critics that felt the film should not have ended at this particular moment missed the boat because they did not take the time to assess what the scene actually meant. The film ends and begins with the Sheriff Ed Tom. In the opening scene he is relating his uncertainty about the times in which he lives. He is aware that the culture that forged his way of existence as a law man is dying out because of the new type of criminals that are emerging. Criminals that make him feel outmatched. The moral fabric of the society he cherished is being torn apart.  Throughout the film the mysterious criminal Anton Chigurh embodies the uncertainty of the times in which the sheriff is living. The Sheriff even goes as far to call Chigurh a ‘ghost’. There are many elements in this great film to discuss which cannot be done at this point and will have to wait for my ultimate great film review. Suffice to say that by the time the dream is recounted by the sheriff he is now retired. He retired because of the many events in the film that made him feel overmatched. He felt that it was time to hand over the reins to individuals that were better capable of handling these new types of social problems. One of his colleagues points to the core of the problem: ‘the money and the drugs.’ The expansion of criminal networks or organized crime is linked in some way to these two elements. Look at the plethora of gangs in Mexico today. This film set in 1980s is very relevant. The 1980s would have been a  time when the cocaine drug trade was expanding at a considerable pace.  Selling the drugs ( in this case cocaine or heroin) is the illegal way of obtaining money, or legal currency, which is a reflection of enrichment when accumulated in vast sums. We see what the circumstances associated with the money and the drugs did to Llewelyn Moss who was caught up in the deadly game once he decided to seize the money (2 million), left over from a deal gone terribly wrong,  that was supposed to be used to purchase drugs (heroin or cocaine). The characters that get involved make it difficult for the sheriff particularly as he is unable to protect Llewelyn from the overwhelming odds. What really overwhelms the sheriff is the big picture. The big picture expands considerably when numerous players become involved on a social and economic level. The division of labour within this network of money and drugs is extensive and it is something that this small town sheriff cannot fathom. Chigurh is one of the more extreme manifestations given his role and the approach that he takes to get things done.  Even the members of respected firms are involved in the rackets. How can a small town sheriff contain such violence, intrigue and conspiracy that crosses state borders in the US and the national  border  between Mexico and the US? A topical issue today.

Even though the sheriff decides to retire because he is overmatched he does believe that there is hope as a result of this dream that he had involving his father. Before he recounts the dream to his wife in the morning he clearly looks lost having given up the badge. He seems lost this particular morning because it is probably the morning of his first day as a retired sheriff.  Before he recounts the dream he wonders about what he should do and even considers going riding or probably helping out in the house. Helping out in the house is out of the question, according to the wife in her own tender way. The wife asks him about how he slept and he replies ‘I don’t know. Had dreams.’ ‘Well you got time for ‘em now. Anything interesting?’ asks the wife. ‘They always is to the party concerned.’ The wife responds tenderly ‘ Ed Tom, I’ll be polite.’ He then decides to recount by prefacing that there were two dreams he had the night  before with both involving his father. To Ed tom it’s peculiar because ‘I’m older now than he ever was by 20 years. So, in a sense, he’s the younger man.’ The first dream is inconsequential because it was about meeting the father in town who gave him some money. He  thinks he lost the money in the dream. The dream seems inconsequential because it has to do with only money. Money is a superficial representation of wealth. Superficial because true wealth is derived from the  productive qualities of human labour utilizing a given state of resources or the means of production extracted from the earth and moulded by human labour. Money represents the extent of production in a particular society but it is not the source of real wealth.    One can imagine how dreaming about money is a good thing . Many people have good dreams about receiving money especially when you imagine the things you can buy with money or the investment opportunities that arise from having money. Money is the universal exchange equivalent. All commodities are exchangeable with that element designated as money.

 Anyways it is apparent that the first dream does not have much meaning because it concerns only money. The second dream, however, is more meaningful. ‘Second one, it was like we was both back in older times. And I was a horseback, going through the mountains of a night. Going through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground. And he rode past me and kept on going, never said nothing going by, just rode on past. He had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down. When he rode past, I seen he was carrying fire in a horn, the way people used to do, and I could see the horn from the light inside of it, ‘bout the color of the moon. And, in the dream, I knew that he was going on ahead. He was fixin’ to  make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold. And I knew that whenever I got there, he’d be there. And then I woke up.’ The wife, looking on, understands the hurt because as he was recounting the dream he began to swell up as if he was going to cry because the dream was very emotional and had some real meaning for him. The silence that follows is eerie with only the tick tock of the clock as the screen goes blank. After a brief sounding of the clock  the credits begin to roll. 

Well what does the dream mean? It is clear that his feeling of being overmatched led to despair on his part but this dream is one of hope; not just for himself but for humanity. Human beings are always inspired to push on into the darkness or the unknown however this can only be done because of those pioneers that made the trek before us. We would be conscious that even though there seems to be much darkness or uncertainty a light is there to guide you and give you purpose and direction.  The sheriff probably hopes that he left his own mark as his father did. He could have been that light for Llewelyn who was out there in all the dark and cold before he was gunned down. The sheriff did try to communicate with Llewelyn,  to be that guiding light amidst the dark and cold, but he failed. The sheriff could also be referring to joining his father in the afterlife but I would not go so far.

The sheriff gets emotional because he could not save Llewelyn. If only  Llewelyn had just reached out instead of trying to go it alone in the cold. Seek the advice of those that could truly help you. The sheriff came from a time when small town community values really mattered. It was not a case where the police served primarily the capitalist class but served the interests of a community that was more communal due to its peasant based origins. The sheriff genuinely wished to help Llewelyn out of this kinship feeling that comes from having an affinity with the members of your community. Llewelyn decided to go it alone particularly as the discovery of the money was a sign that he had the potential to go it alone. This is normally the case when the private property of an individual begins to bear fruit as a result of his labour or the labour of others. Llewelyn thought he hit the jackpot and so he no longer needed to be bound by any community because the money, which reflected the generation of wealth,  could take him anywhere. The emphasis on his own individualism became apparent as he alienated himself from the community. The sheriff refers to the older times in his dream because in those days you would fall back on the security of the community. The hope or the light that we seek is only there unless others have gone on ahead to lay the foundations for us to benefit. Without these foundations we cannot come to grips with our own social purpose or the direction that we must take. The sheriff knew that his father would be there at the end of a dark tunnel and that gave him the courage to push on. It gave him a sense of purpose or direction whereas Llewelyn ended up in a wilderness where, as the film tagline claims, there are no clean getaways. There can be no clean getaways in such an enclosed system with so many competing interests. By taking the money Llewelyn got himself involved and it would have been difficult for him to truly escape on his own or with no recourse to the cooperation with others. Llewelyn was stuck in a wilderness and was probably not aware that he needed to be searching for some form of light or hope that could have allowed him some form of security. This security is always found in the old timers. No matter how much we, as younger people, might think their time is done we do need their security as we push on ahead in the dark or the cold. When you finally mature you age as well and the cycle will continue as the generation after you will regard you as an old timer but still fall back on your achievements as a source of inspiration to go on to achieve on their own.

In the end the Sheriff became a bystander to a situation where he was overmatched or where his impact was negligible as the community values he cherished were being torn asunder. As I said before he could be referring to his own failure or inability to do more to help Llewelyn. Llewelyn could be representative of the new generations who will need some source of inspiration to push on through the dark and the cold.  In the end we all go the way of the old timers. Although it may no longer be a country for old men at least they laid a foundation for the young people to build on and flourish. The imagery of the horn with fire, going ahead in the dark, which was the colour of the moon, is very evocative. There was a similar artistic conceptualization in the video game God of War 3 which was released three years after No Country for Old Men and suggests the artistic influence of the film.