Javier Bardem Tribute; Beau Brigham

It was very interesting and special to see Javier Bardem at the Arlington last night. Javier Bardem was at the Arlington theatre to receive the Montecito award for his out standing performance as Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men.” Before “No Country for Old Men”, I never knew who Javier was. Javier’s performance in this film made me really enjoy it. “Chigurh is a tall, slouching man with lank, black hair and a terrifying smile, who travels through Texas carrying a tank of compressed air and killing people with a cattle stun gun” (Ebert). Anton is a character who is incredibly frightening and Javier transformed into him, perfectly. The violence and terror this character represented, couldn’t have been played by any other actor. Javier has a way of morphing into these very difficult characters by letting go of his own identity and bringing in another. As Rodger Durling said last night, Javier’s performance “was so terrifying it gave us all nightmares.” It was very interesting to see all of Javier’s other roles he has played. He has played a wide variety of roles as a cripple, a homosexual, an old man, and a creepy psycho killer. I was a bit surprised half way into the interview last night. Since my only time seeing Javier in a film was “No Country for Old Men”, I perceived him as a very serious, tough guy. After hearing him talk and have a conversation with Rodger, he was the complete opposite. He was very nice, polite, relaxed and had a great sense of humor. It was interesting to have my original perception of him be completely twisted around after seeing him in person. Javier talked about how on the set of the film, the Coen brothers told him to get in the car and start driving. When they asked Javier this, he said, “ I don’t know how to drive.” This really shocked me because again I thought Javier was this really tough guy who could be in a car chase and shoot down his victims while driving but it turns out, he was terrified of the idea of even driving straight. This didn’t disappoint me in any way, it was just different and it surprised me. This is why I love film so much because you constantly learn more about people and life. Something that you perceive one way turns out to be far from what you believed.


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