You've seen a lot of movies, seen a lot of fights between good guys and bad guys. Maybe, too, you've read a lot of books, read about monsters and criminals and psychopaths. Maybe, just maybe, you've been in the presence of villainy yourself. You think that makes you an expert. You think that means you know what it's like to look in the face of pure evil.

Unless you've seen "No Country for Old Men," it's time you think again.

Anton Chigurh, played in a rightly hailed performance by Oscar nominee Javier Bardem, is more than a monster or a villain — he's a singular force of nature: powerful, inexplicable and capable of anything. He's "the devil incarnate," "No Country" co-star Josh Brolin said in a press interview released by Miramax.

"You don't understand [his violence], you can't pigeonhole it. You can't categorize it," Brolin said. "He's very malleable, but not malleable on your terms, malleable on his own terms."