"You don't have to do this" No Country for Old Men

This is a gruesome movie to watch, bloody and thrilling. This movie makes you think hard about life and death, about what you believe and what you don't, what you need as essential to your life and what you desire but eventually could get you killed. "No Country for Old Men" is not your typical Hollywood movie, and it reveals the powerlessness of human being in front of a true evil. The word "danger" loses its sense in this movie, it does not get dangerous over time, "danger" just never leave the audience.

There is one sentence hovering over my head after I watched the movie. "You don't have to do this" was a plea given by the wife of Llewyn before Chigurh killed her. It seems that Chigurh really don't have to kill her as she got no money and never saw Chigurh before to report anything. By the same token, the sheriff doesn't have to find Chigurh before his retirement and he did not. Llewyn doesn't have to fetch the water for the Mexican drug dealer but he did, which cause him grave danger.

Whether you do something beyond reasoning, depends on whether you have a rule in your life. All three main characters have principles in their lives, the difference is that Llewyn has some but not much (not when 2 million is at stake), the Sheriff used to have it but lost it (when his life is at danger), only Chigurh never bend his rules and always sticked to his so-called "fairness".

The author wanted to remind us that you live and die by principles. Things make no sense at all actually can either save or kill you (like a coin toss), so it only makes sense when you hold on to a principle. Your true color is tested when something grave is presented and you just can't survive without principle(s) any longer.