No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is a thriller by the Coen Brothers starring Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Kelly Macdonald to name but a few and is a story of an ordinary man to who

chance delivers a fortune that is not for him. In the opening ten minutes of the film many people die which makes the audience want to continuing to watch the film in anticipation of who is murdering the people. The film is set in an isolated place, almost a desert scenery which is common in thriller films, giving an ‘out of the ordinary’ and scary feel to the setting.  The murder is a sinister and ominous man; he gives nothing away as to what he is thinking or reasons why he killing the people he does. The sounds at the beginning of the film are non-diegetic giving the sense that the sheriff is speaking directly to us, the audience.  

CLAMPS (costumer, lighting, action/actors, make-up, propps, setting) of Anton Chigurh the villain No Country for Old Men:

Costume – dark black clothes, this gives nothing away about his character. Shows no emotion through his clothes, the colour may reflect his mood and mind, maybe evil. Black often represents the villain, dark and portentous.

Lighting – nothing is given away about him, he is a neutral character that has no emotion. He has no extra light to the natural light; he has a large shadow a lot of the time due the high sun. This may represent his dark nature.

Action/Actor - Only the villain is shown in the first sequences to the thriller. He creates the action by killing people, but the action isn’t of a high impact, it seems mellow.

Make- Up – His face is extremely pale and his eyes are dark, this is a common characteristic of the villain.

Propps – the villain uses that looks like an oxygen tank to kill his victims. It seems to be an innocent object but when we see what it is used for it is obvious that its used for a lot more.

Setting – An isolated desert area, it is obvious to the audience that if something bad happens it is going to take a long time for anyone to realise anything dreadful has happened. 

Jae Bennett