I also thought this film was exceptional and well deserving of the Oscar. Javier Bardem created what, in my opinion, was the most terrifying villain in the history of cinema; he reminds me of a great Dostoevsky character, something purely satanic yet intimately acquainted with the world he inhabits. The modern, humanist left cannot even begin to grasp evil like Chigurh (the original humanists like Machiavelli or Hobbes were entirely familiar with it)and Chigurh fully knows this; in a way, he seems to be meticulously measuring each person he meets, probing them, as if their entire lives are being weighed in microcosm. The effect is both electrifying and disorienting, there is a sort of immobilization in the face of such menace, people either cannot bring themselves to see what they plainly know, or never even see it coming: this man is no man at all and every second seems to stretch out.
This is not a gratuitous film, but it is unquestionably a film for adults. I applaud the Cohen brothers and Cormac McCarthy for making such a thoughtful and demanding film. Another note: the production values are out of this world; brilliant casting, cinematography, sound, lighting etc. This is a exceedingly well-crafted work.
