Coen’s ‘No Country’ could make Oscar history

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‘The man who fell to Earth’
The harmless existentialism of the Dude, played by Jeff Bridges, could be the mirror to the cold-blooded variety of Bardem’s “No Country” killer Anton Chigurh. He seems to come from nowhere, existing to kill without mercy, occasionally letting victims determine if they will live or die by a coin toss.

Anton is something of a Martian, a presence from elsewhere inexplicably bearing terror and death.

“The whole idea of the man who fell to Earth is sort of what we tried to get across in his introduction to the movie. He’s just coming out of the landscape,” Joel Coen said. “You make him both the implacable killer, but you imbue him with sort of recognizable humanity at a certain level that makes him even scarier.”

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Bardem views Anton as “a man who has an earplug, and he’s talking to you, but at the same time, he’s hearing a soccer game, so when you’re talking to him, you don’t know where he is. ‘Are you here or are you there?’

“Instead of a soccer game, it could be God or fate that he’s talking to, so that would be the insane part. That along with the haircut will create a kind of insanity and uncomfortableness for the person he’s looking at.”

There’s one big question should the Coens sweep all four of their categories come Oscar night: Will the real Roderick Jaynes be there to collect his editing prize? The Coens describe their alias as a cranky geezer in his late 80s who lives in England and doesn’t like to travel.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledges the Coens as quadruple nominees even though their names are not on the ballot for editing.

So who gets the trophy if Roderick Jaynes wins?

“We’re going to read the name on the card,” said academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger. “Who comes up remains to be seen.”

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