Quote:
Originally Posted by Baby Lee
I think I should clarify on NCFOM, when Bell quit, it was a realization that he couldn't 'see' this degree of evil. In the beginning soliloquoy, he said "to see this evil, you would have to be a part of it, sell your soul." Now Chigurh was in the room, and maybe Bell even realized in his gut that he was in the room, but he couldn't see him, he couldn't put together the disparate elements of what he had before him, the air conditioning grate and the coin, the presence in the room, so he came to a crossroads, sell his soul and track this down, or wake up and retire.
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Right on. In his previous discussion with the old, fat lawman, Bell realized that Chigurh had most likely returned to the hotel room, since he did the same thing before. He walked in that room knowing Chigurh was waiting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by keg in kc
Maybe even simpler. And less heroic. Track it down and die or turn your back and live.
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IMO, that's why Ed Tom hung up his gun belt in the novel (he ran away from his boys during the war, so this really wasn't his first anti-heroic act), but Baby Lee's description is dead on for the Coen's intepretation.