Research Paper On No Country For Old Men

“No Country for Old Men”
No Country for Old Men is an Academy Award winning film directed, edited, and written by Joel and Ethan Coen and is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country for Old Men. The film characters include a Vietnam vet, who is now a blue collar welder, a violent contract killer, and a confident but weary sheriff. The film takes place in West Texas in 1980 and is centered around the chaos of questionable decision making and killing without a purpose or at the very least, killing without ethics. This film is a thrilling suspense filled film from the opening scene to the closing credits.
The film opens with an establishing shot of the Texas landscape of the wide open emptiness and the vast plains. A narration breaks the silence by informing you about the way things used to be. Tommy Lee Jones’ character, an experienced lawman, named Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. The sheriff pontificates on the easy, breezy times of lawfulness in the past, while

we are introduced to the films violent contract killer, Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem. Bardem won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance.
Anton is an unstoppable killing machine that you are unable to assess. You constantly struggle to understand why he is so ruthless, even when it is unnecessary and the film does a great job of not letting you in on his methodology. It is not enough that people die or that blood flows, the directors emphasize the trivial details in death. The high-angle shot of Anton’s vicious attack on a deputy during the opening scene, coupled with the tracking shot that allows you to view the violence from different angles, leaves you astonished by the savagery of Anton’s character. You then see a shot of the deputy’s boots and a barrage of scuff marks that tattoo the floor, pointing to the struggle and desperation for life, when death approaches.

After the first two scenes of Anton’s ruthless killing of the deputy and an innocent elderly gentleman, we met Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin. Llewelyn is out hunting and makes a less than perfect shot on an antelope, which he attempts to track down by following the blood trail. The blood trail leads him to what he thinks is his lucky day. Llewelyn approaches several vehicles in the middle of the desert and finds several dead bodies that appear to be the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad. He opens the door to one vehicle and finds a man, shot in the stomach, barely alive and begging for water. He leaves him for dead and finds a large stash of drugs in the bed of the truck and shortly thereafter, finds another dead man under a shade tree and locates a briefcase filled with money. Llewelyn takes the briefcase and makes his way back to his truck, as he arrives at his truck you hear a clap of thunder from an oncoming storm and you sense it is going to be one intense film.
The cinematograph in the film was used to express grim and dark circumstances throughout most of the scenes. The cinematographer, Roger Deakins, uses many of the camera angles and shadows to communicate impending doom around every corner. The camera style and the lighting are both there to serve the characters and to tell the story. The camera movements appear to be well thought out so that they enhance the salacious feast of violence. Every frame seems to pull you along with each character while you hold your breath until danger passes.
The sound of a thrilling movie makes you feel more tenseness because of the anticipating wait of a main scare. In No Country for Old Men, the shocking and exhilarating plot makes you slowly creep down into your seat because of the sound that is never there. Making a film without any score or background sound makes things happen unexpectedly.
Anton and Llewellyn first encounter in the hotel is a great scene. Finding the transponder in the briefcase that had the money in it, Llewellyn knew that someone would be there soon. As Llewellyn sat on the edge of the bed, the creaking of the bed springs, sounds of the beeping transponder and footsteps coming down the hallway, you were at a loss of breath and you knew something big was going to happen. Turning off the light and seeing the shadow of the unknown person standing on the other side of the door, you had to make an assumption of who it was. With the lock shooting at Llewellyn, you knew Anton had that found Llewellyn.
The editing of No Country for Old Men is seamless.

Three characters are virtually in a chase without ever really being in any scenes together. The editing, done by the Coen brothers and Roderick Jaynes, is done in a way where you do not want the scenes to end because they leave you so emotionally charged. In one of the scenes were Anton gets close to finding Llewelyn, the money transmitter beeps at the same pace that you heart would beat. The scenes cut back and forth from where you know Llewelyn is preparing for his expected visitor to Anton’s discovery that he has made it to where the money and the man are. In another flawless edited scene, Anton kills the bounty hunter, played by Woody Harrelson, off screen. In an effort to show that death means nothing, Anton is calm beyond comfort when the camera pans away when he shoots Harrelson and cuts to the ringing phone on the table. He answers while you see blood oozing across the room toward Anton’s feet as he raises them onto the bed and continues his

conversation.
No Country for Old Men is a flat out masterpiece and truly extraordinary film. The pure creepy and evilness of the character Anton Chigurh is astonishing and a remarkable performance by Javier Bardem. But what really made this such a great film was the attention to details in the little sounds and flawless editing. No Country for Old Men is not for the faint of heart, but I highly recommend watching it.