Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell

Sheriff Ed Tom is the philosophical center of this movie, and he does his best to give guidance to Carla Jean and Llewellyn Moss about how to deal with the stolen drug money.

But in the end, it's Ed Tom who needs counsel more than anyone. He's the one desperate to figure out what the point of human life is when there's so much darkness and violence in the world, and the closest thing he gets to a mentor is Ellis, who tells him that he needs to stop obsessing so much over his own sense of meaning in life and just get on with it.

Before you dismiss this as bad mentoring, we should point out that it actually turns out to be some of the best advice Ed Tom has ever received.