ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM (24)
By:
September 24, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of our favorite sympathetic villains. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
ANTON CHIGURH
The first time we meet Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (the Coen brothers’ 2007 adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel), we see him from behind. Chigurh. A hit man played by Javier Bardem and sporting the most terrifying man-bob in film history, we catch a glimpse of his face from the side as he’s being arrested. In the back of the squad car, he’s a dark silhouette. At the deputy’s office, he is a blurry background figure. It isn’t until he strangles the deputy with his own handcuffs that the camera finally closes in: his face alive with expression, almost rapturous, as if murder is the only thing that makes him real.
I love Chigurh for reasons I can’t quite explain. I have bad taste in men and Chigurh is a parade of red flags. Another hit man compares him to the bubonic plague. But his relentless menace and near-spiritual approach to homicide is alluring. He’s an artist. His arsenal is creative: it includes a captive bolt pistol. For him, his work isn’t just a job — it’s personal. This is an antihero on a philosophical quest. The question, it seems, is: Who or what decides who lives and who dies?
Chigurh is unknowable, the shadow self personified, and remarkably consistent, as he kills innocent and not-so innocent men, and, well, I don’t want to spoil the ending. If I were dating Chigurh and he told me he was on his way over, I’d take him at his word. This is not a guy who’s going to flake. Sure, he might kill me when he arrives, but he’s going to show up. And promptly. That’s more than you can say for some.
The myth of the homicidal maniac is that he is the one in control. The killer is a man who believes he has wrested destiny from the gods. Chigurh takes a more humble approach. Sometimes, he lets a coin toss decide the outcome. By surrendering control, Chigurh becomes a tool for something bigger. “If the road you followed brought you to this, of what use was the road?” he asks the fellow hit man before murdering him. Good or bad, we’re all on the same road, grimly marching onward to our fate.
ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Kathy Biehl on DR. FRANK-N-FURTER | Catherine Christman on ALEXIS CARRINGTON | Crockett Doob on M3GAN | Nick Rumaczyk on AURIC GOLDFINGER | Mariane Cara on MIRANDA PRIESTLY | Trav SD on PROFESSOR HINKLE | Alex Brook Lynn on TOM POWERS | Lynn Peril on ENDORA | Adam McGovern on EDDIE HASKELL | Mimi Lipson on SUE ANN NIVENS | Heather Quinlan on HAROLD SHAND | Tom Nealon on SKELETOR | Matthew Hodge on BARRY LYNDON | Josh Glenn on JOEL CAIRO | Dan Reines on WALTER PECK | Mark Kingwell on HARRY LIME | James Scott Maloy on CLARENCE BODDICKER | Nikhil Singh on LOCUTUS | Carolyn Campbell on CARSON DYLE | Tony Pacitti on DENNIS NEDRY | Gordon Dahlquist on WALKER | Colin Campbell on RUTH LYTTON | Marc Weidenbaum on THE XENOMORPHS | Susannah Breslin on ANTON CHIGURH | Micah Nathan on PATRICK BATEMAN.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!