Ed Tom Bell (A) (NCOM). Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Oscar winning Tommy Lee Jones, in the Coen Brother’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men is an ageing, soon-to-retire, War veteran who carries the memories of days past were things were more black and white and less ravaged by more modern violence, “a laconic World War II veteran who oversees the investigation and the trail of the murders even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to solve. His reminiscences serve as part of the book's narration”.[1] Bell had served in World War 2, in comparison to Llewelyn Moss who served in Vietname, but the Coen Brother’s do little to divulge on whether or not these two character’s were in the same outfit at any given time or if they truly connected. He replies to one of the other officers inquiring about Moss and the people who are after him, namely Anton Chigurh, “Officer Wendel, ‘You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of bitches that’re huntin' him?’, Sheriff Bell, ‘I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me.’[2] Throughout the story, Sheriff Bell is blown away by the shear ferocity of the violence that has been following Chigurh’s wake in his once quiet Terrell County, Texas.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell opens the film with his narration about the older times in Texas, where law men were only needed to keep the peace in more civil manners however the more evil of things to come, namely Anton Chigurh, are impossible to understand without losing a part of oneself in the process, “But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, 'O.K., I'll be part of this world”.[3] The Coen Brother’s, as well as McCarthy, utilize Bell’s reminiscent memories as a form of narration throughout the film as well as a third-person perspective offering an outside perception on the unfolding plot as well as a reflection of self preservation and changing times. Bell clearly states throughout the film that he is outmatched in every way by modern violence. In the recurring motif of characters in the midst of an unchanging fate, Bell puts up a very little fight. Being the force that Anton Chigurh, Bell is clearly outmatched, being held back by morals and having value for human life. He gives off the perception of a sheriff who is more accustomed to the town drunk causing a small disturbance in some farmer’s wheat field rather than a rugged lawman who seeks justice over self-preservation.

There are decent things about Sheriff Bell though. He is a realistic sheriff, one that would look for the aide of younger and stronger enforcers all the while reassessing the situation from an experienced viewpoint. However the coward he might be, Bell never lets what has happened over run his ability to reason and deduce the wake of crimes he is striding behind. He is never quick to anger in any part of the film but more instinctively protective of Carla Jean Moss, played by Kelly Macdonald, and the other denizens of his small Texas town. The fact that Sheriff Bell has served in military combat, although never stated whether or not he was drafted for it, he does show a sense of pride being a lawman. His opening monologue does reflect on the past choices that he has made in becoming a law man, "The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job.”3

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is indeed an outmatched individual but his ending monologue with his wife at the kitchen table gives his final self-reflection of what his true role is. His dream about him and his father riding in the light downpour of back desert Texas, carrying a flame within a horn; a symbolic gesture by the Coen Brothers to the preverbal passing of the torch, and he knew that when the time came of his arrival his Father would be waiting there beside the fire that had been carried.