Tuesday, 29 October 2013

No Country for Old Men

No country for old men starts with an establishing shot of the setting and a narrator. This narrator and shot helps us to get an overview of the setting and sets the scene. There is a montage of several still shots during this scene allowing us to see the baron and deserted environment and making us start to ask questions such as how they are ever going to solve a crime here as there is no help or witnesses. The narrator is making us confused by asking these questions and making us want to go deeper into the detail in order to understand. The various panning shots that are in this scene help to back up this image that it is a very open and baron place which shows that whoever is there could be very vulnerable and left without any help. It ultimately comes down to it being a very difficult landscape to make anything of and to work with.

As some characters start to appear in the shot we can start to see the size of the landscape. It really helps to put it into perspective and shows that the characters are a long way from help. We can also see the road which looks like it is going to nowhere. We can’t see the characters very well in this shot and they are mainly shadows which helps add to the mystery and matches the setting. It continues to ask us questions, mainly what has he done? As the characters approach the car the police officer put a strange tank in the car. This turns out to be an oxygen tank and there is a close up of this which shows that it is an object of great significance and makes us wonder why he is carrying an oxygen tank. This adds to the mystery of the opening and makes us think that the police officer may potentially be in danger.

As the police officer gets in the car and begins to drive off the person that he has stopped is in shadow and the police officer in clear sunlight. This adds to the mystery of the villain as we still cannot see him but also gives us a sense that the police officer is very vulnerable. As they drive off we get a long shot of the car disappearing along a seemingly never ending road. This makes us ask where they are going and makes us wonder what significance this baron, deserted environment has in the long term.


When the two characters have arrived at the police station one of the first shots that we see is a mid-shot showing the dark, shadowing villain in the background behind the police officer. Again he is in darkness while the police officer is in the light, showing vulnerability. Not only this, but the police officer has his back turned from the villain making him completely unaware of what is going on. This helps to build the tension in the scene and before we know it the villain has struck and proceeds to kill the police officer. During the struggle there is a lot of focus on sound and close ups of the legs, showing panic. Top down views help show the expression on the faces here and how creepy looking the villain is. 

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