csaldaneri

In Part Three of “No Country for Old Men,” Sheriff Bell talks about how he thinks Law Enforcement doesn’t benefit all that much from new technologies. But the part that interested me was the ending of his soliloquies, where talks about the Sheriffs of old. Like Jim Scarborough who according to Bell never carried a sidearm. Sheriffs like that, Bell seems to hold in high regard. Bell also uses guns used by old sheriffs, Like a Colt Single Action Army or a Winchester 1897. Finally, Bell also visits old-timers to hear their stories of a different time, a different west than the one Sheriff Bell is in. Bell holds this vision in his head, from what I’ve read in this soliloquy, of the Old West of those Sheriffs who never had to fire their guns because people were good in his head. He venerates them. From the equipment, to the sentimentalities of the West that never existed. The West that Bell seems to know is a fabrication. The Old West was cruel to people, no matter who you were. The West Bell knows only existed in the stories told after the fact, when the person last left standing was the Hero in their stories, where it was Wholesome, compared to the grit that we have the knowledge of today. Bell seems to want to go back to this West, even though the West he wants isn’t going to happen. He’s on the present, where in this country, there isn’t room for old men.