Coen

The Coen brother’s two films No Country for Old Men and Fargo, both convey similar messages of the world that is changing in front of people eyes. Both revolve around 2 older sheriffs who are not conforming to the conforming world. However, in Fargo it is not until the end when Marge “doesn’t understand” why all of the killings happened. She is one step ahead of absolutely everyone, including the bad guys. She seems to understand what has happened and how it has happened, but it is not until the end where she breaks and doesn’t understand why everything has happened. It is the only thing that she can not figure out. In the other movie, Sheriff Bell can’t figure it out at all. He doesn’t understand why everything is happening the way it is and why it is happening. The best quote that sums it up is “I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five years old. Hard to believe. My grandfather was a lawman; father too. Me and him was sheriffs at the same time; him up in Plano and me out here. I think he's pretty proud of that. I know I was. Some of the old time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lotta folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough'd never carried one; that's the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one up in Comanche County. I always liked to hear about the oldtimers. Never missed a chance to do so. You can't help but compare yourself against the oldtimers. Can't help but wonder how they would have operated these times. There was this boy I sent to the 'lectric chair at Huntsville Hill here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killt a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. "Be there in about fifteen minutes". I don't know what to make of that. I sure don't. The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, "O.K., I'll be part of this world."