11月19日
Curious 'Country' Connection
Wow. In terms of Cormac McCarthy very loosely basing the mysterious killer Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem in The Coen's movie) on a real guy (or at least playing around with his name), this speculative bit of background regarding "No Country For Old Men" is interesting. But when it gets to co-star Woody Harrelson's father, you start to
really wonder about such coincidental connections. Blogger K. Bowen dug up
some impressive information:
"While watching the movie, something unusual struck me. A weird coincidence. Or perhaps a non-coincidence. In fact, that is what's interesting about it.
"You must understand that I share one big thing in common with the great American author Cormac McCarthy. We both have spent considerable portions of our lives living in El Paso, Texas. I grew up there. He spent most of his adult life there. Which explains why 'No Country for Old Men' revolves around a drug deal gone bad in the arid desert of West Texas about 1980. The hit man sent to recover the drug money, played by Javier Bardem, is named Anton Chigurh. To an El Pasoan, that name can’t help but ring a bell.
"One of the big drug kingpins in the Southwest in the 1970s was allegedly an El Pasoan, Jamiel 'Jimmy' Chagra. He was (and presumably still is) a colorful character. Raised in a Lebanese family who moved up from Mexico, he spent much of his riches gambling in Las Vegas... As an El Pasoan, it’s hard not to notice that the two names – Chagra and Chigurh – share the same consonants.
"Now, I can't say for sure that this is the case, and you would not have seen any member of the Chagra family stalking through West Texas on a killing spree. Whatever was done or not done, it was white-collar. However, if I were a novelist writing a book about drug trafficking in and around El Paso circa 1980, I might be tempted to play around with the name Chagra.
"Now this is where it starts getting really interesting. The most infamous event involving the Chagra family took place in 1979. While walking in a San Antonio parking lot, Federal Judge John Wood was shot and killed by a hidden gunman... Curiously, one who served zero was Jimmy Chagra himself. He would be acquitted of a murder conspiracy charge, but found guilty on a drug trafficking charge and sent to prison until early this decade. (Naturally, someone is writing a film script.)
"Now here’s the big twist that brings it back to the film ….. the man convicted of accepting $250,000 to do the shooting? The late Charles Harrelson. The father of Woody Harrelson. Who appears in this movie. Not only does he appear in the movie. He’s the only person in the movie who is said to be able to recognize the killer.
"So is that coincidence, or casting? I don’t know. Certainly Harrelson has worked for the Coens before. Maybe no one thought about this. But I have my sneaking suspicion."
--posted by Kim
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