Throughout the movie "No Country for Old Men," directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss, and Sheriff Bell always fully occupy the screen one at a time, regardless of how involved they are with each other at any point in the movie. New York Times critic A. O. Scott recognized this trend in the film; "[They] occupy the screen one at a time, almost never appearing in the frame together, even as their fates become ever more intimately entwined" (Scott). The way the directors separate Chigurh, Llewelyn, and the Sheriff on screen is an absurdist element and it happens various times throughout the movie. Absurdism is defined as "a philosophy based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe" (Merriam-Webster). Some of the absurdist elements in the movie can be found in Martin Esslin's The Theatre of The Absurd. This separation of the characters is an absurdist element that allows the characters to appear in the same scenes but occupy the frame one at a time.
One scene in the film that involves all three characters is the scene of Llewelyn's death. When Llewelyn is murdered, he is killed by Chigurh and soon afterwards, Sheriff Bell arrives at the scene. When he arrives, Chigurh is not there but they never show Sheriff Bell occupying the same space on the screen as Llewelyn's dead body. This is absurd because even though Sheriff Bell is there to inspect the crime scene and Llewelyn's death, they never appear in the same frame together. In Martin Esslin's The Theatre of The Absurd he talks about the reality of life and how it pertains to the absurd; "The absurdity of the human condition itself in a world where the decline of religious belief has deprived man of certainties life must be faced in its ultimate, stark reality" (Esslin 401). This quote shows the absurdity of the film and how the characters must face the harsh reality of life and they do this without ever being in the same frame.
