Article: COOL DRY PLACE Abattoir blues: Lifting souls from the slaughterhouse

What is art if not the affirmation of life from the darkest, direst of circumstances?

Maybe you believe it speaks to our morbidity that two of the most hotly anticipated films of the year are in essence tales borne from dens of death. But from such stark surroundings often springs salvation.

In November, the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" will receive its wide release, bringing to screens everywhere Cormac McCarthy's chilling meditation on violence in the American West. The buzz is deafening, of course, because of the Coens' involvement, but it also reportedly owes much to the performance of Javier Bardem, who is being hailed effusively for creating in Anton Chigurh the most wicked ...

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