Moral Relativism In The Film 'No Country For Old Men'

No Country For Old Men

The choices a person makes can affect them in so many ways, it can be positive or negative depending on what they believe to be right or wrong. It's the decisions we have made in the past and will make in the future that determine what type of people we want to be, for example, We have all been in that situation where we had to make a choice about whether or not to steal something when we were younger. We could choose to make the right decision and not steal or steal and risk the consciences. For me this was when I was about 5 or 6 years old and was at my friends house. While my friend when to the bathroom I waited in his room and could not stop staring at this Michael Keaton Batman action figure that was on top
Moral relativism is a person's positions on what's right or wrong based on a person's individual choice, everyone can decide on what is right for themselves and in this case Anton Chigurh has decided that killing people in order to get what he wants is the right thing to do. Anton Chigurh has certain principles that he has decided as being what's right, an example of this comes from Mr. Carson Wells while he was speaking with Llewelyn Moss at the hospital. “No No. No. You don't understand. You can't make a deal with him. Even if you gave him the money he'd still kill you. He's a peculiar man. You could even say that he has principles. Principles that transcend money or drugs or anything like that. He's not like you. He's not even like me.” (Carson Wells). Anton Chigurh has his own views on what's right or wrong, his principles are what he believes to be right and nothing will convince him otherwise because that's what he decided was his position on morality. Another example of how Anton's moral philosophy is Moral relativism is when he went to the gas station and decided to let faith decide whether or not the gas station attendant should live or die with the flip of a coin. Anton explains how the coin has been traveling for 22 years to get there and now that it's there it’s either heads or tails and he has to call it without knowing what's he risking.
As a police officer he makes sure everyone is obeying the laws that society has deemed as being right. Ed Tom Bell's moral philosophy in the film is The Socratic Definition because he is trying to find the absolute truth about this murderer who has killed a lot of people including Llewelyn Moss, he tried to protect Llewelyn Moss, and -------------. Ed Tom Bell in the film is trying to find a merciless killer who has killed a lot of people and was trying to kill Llewelyn Moss and take the two million dollars that he found. Ed Tom Bell’s moral philosophy being The Socratic Definition, is trying to find the truth about who this murderer is and throughout the film. He investigates the crime scene in the desert, Llewellyn's home, and the motel where Llewelyn was killed trying to find the truth about this relentless killer. Furthermore, Ed Tom Bell knows that killing is wrong as a human being and a law enforcement officer so he tried to protect Llewelyn Moss from Anton the psychopathic murderer who was trying to kill him. The sheriff investigates Llewelyn's wife in order to find Llewelyn so he could protect him from Anton the person who was after him. However he failed at his attempt and didn't get there in time to save Llewellyn from the drug cartel who got to him before Anton did.