Chigurgh - No Country For Old Men

"Somewhere out there is a true living prophet of destruction and I dont want to confront him"(McMarthy, 4)
Anton Chigurgh is one of the best villains of modern literature because he brings like a natural disaster he brings this terrible sense of dread and there is nothing we can do to stop him. In the novel, we know he is coming from the quote above but he explodes onto the page in the first chapter when he strangles the deputy to death with his manacles. This is the very first time we are introduced to Anton Chigurgh and it's a scene we do not forget through out the novel. The straightforward way McCarthy describes Chigurgh's actions hits the reader hard but at the same time without emotion. This lack of emotion instills a terror in the reader and in the protagonists that is present in both the novel and film adaptation. Whenever he is on the page or on screen, the viewer knows someone is going to die.
The way Anton Chigurgh kills his victims also adds to his character. We first see him kill the deputy with his manacles but it seems that he main weapon of choice is what they use to slaughter cows. A very unique killing tool, that makes it seem that to Chigurgh his victims are nothing more than cattle to be slaughtered. The first time we see him use it is in the scene below:
"The man stepped away from the vehicle. Chigurgh could see the doubt come into his eyes at this bloodstained figure before him but it came too late. He places hi hand on the man's head like a faith healer. The pneumatic hiss and click of the plunger sounded like a door closing. The mans slid soundlessly to the ground, a round hole in his forehead from which the blood bubbled and ran down his eyes carrying with it his slowly uncoupling world visible to see. Chigurgh wiped his hand with his handkerchief. I just didnt want you to get blood on the car, he said" (Chigurch, 7).
Another method Chigurgh uses is to ask his victims to flip a coin. His ease in killing has created a God-plex that he basically admits to Moss's wife before he kills her, saying, "Even a nonbeliever might find it useful to model himself after God" (McCarthy, 256). He could let her go, his word was to a dead man, but he is choosing not to because he has that power. Their exchange on the subject goes as follows:
"Call it.
I wont do it.
Yes you will. Call it.
God would not want me to do that.
Of course he would. You should try to save yourself. Call it.THis is your last chance.
Heads, she said.
He lifted his hand away. The coin was tails.
I'm sorry.
She didnt answer.
Maybe it's for the best.
She looked away. You make it like it was the coin. But you're the one.
It could have gone either way.
The coin didn't have no say. It was just you.
Perhaps. But look at it my way. I got here the same way the coin did" (McCarthy, 258)
When she begins to cry and begs him to spare her, Chigurgh finally tells her, "You're asking that I make myself vulnerable and that I can never do. I have only one way to live. It doesn't allow for special cases" (McCarthy, 259). Chigurgh lives his life as a sort of angel of death, not allowing for mercy when he has deemed that a person's time has come.
In the novel it is more clear that Chigurgh is a hitman and who he is working for. In the film, although they say he is a hitman, that seems to fade in the destruction and death that follows him. He seems to be a wanderer of death that is controlled or sent by no one. I prefer the latter, thinking it to be more terrifying, but the first is more realistic.

Hannibal Lecter - Silence of the Lambs

The infamous "Hannibal the Cannibal" (Harris, 4) has been one of the most fascinating villains in all of literature and film. He has the capacity of not only getting into the minds of the fictional characters but also the audience's mind. And yet, he is in less than ten chapters of the novel, "Silence of the Lambs", and has only sixteen minutes of screen time in the film by the same name. He is a villain, but not the one the protagonist, Clarice Starling, and the FBI are after. That is the power of Hannibal Lector. He does not have to be physically present to have a profound menacing effect on others. He can be locked away for years and yet his words continue to feast upon the minds of not only Crawford and Starling but our minds as well.
So why and how is this possible? What makes Hannibal Lecter so captivating? I would argue that he is two sides of the same coin of society. On the one hand, he is a genius with a "cultured voice" (Harris, 16), and a supporter of the arts. In conversation he is polite and well mannered. He is the exact opposite of the savageness that the word "cannibal" brings to mind. It is this side of him that is particularly dangerous. It makes those around him, and the reader to an extent, trust him, listen to him, even like him. This makes it easy for Lecter to show his other side when his victim lets their guard down. An example of this would be the picture of (what's left of) the nurse who Lecter attacked, "his pulse never [getting] over eighty-five, even when he swallowed [her tongue]" (Harris 12). Hannibal Lecter is a paradox - a cultured "monster" (Harris, 6).
Even when he isn't attacking people physically, he uses their personal details and memories to play mind games. In the case of Starling, he had information she wanted, he mocked her, challenged her - but it was the one moment when he did not do this when their fingers touched and he thanked her "is how he remained in Starling's mind. Caught in the instant when he did not mock. Standing in his white cell, arched like a dancer, his hands clasped in front of him and his head slightly to the side" (Harris, 231). In the next three chapters Lecter brutally kills two officers, taking the face of one to escape.
Hannibal outshines Jame Gumb because of he seems to already know everything about Buffalo Bill before even reading the case file. He easily points out Jame Gumb's psychological issues and exposes his fragility before we even have a scene with him. On the other hand, Lecter's only weakness seems to be his desire to outsmart everyone around him - that he is arrogant. This is a relatable weakness, one that the audience can understand more than Gumb's psychological issues, and so it is often dismissed or forgotten.
The differences between Hannibal in the film and novel are minor in my opinion but they are present. In the film, his arrogance is shown to us while in the novel Jack Crawford points it out during a conversation with Clarice. Anthony Hopkins' fantastic performance brings Lecter to life in a most terrifying way. I would say that the only major difference is that the moments between Clarice and Lecter are more subtle. When they touch fingers it is not as clear that is the moment when he will remain stuck in her mind. But the duality between civilized and monster is very present and I would argue that his exchanges with Jodi Foster are the best scenes in the movie. Their first meeting stands out in particular. The way he is standing in the middle of the room, waiting for her, already an all knowing predator.