"No Country for Old Men" - Thriller Research
[Part 2]
[Part 2]
Hello and welcome back to the reasonably extensive look into the first 10-15 minutes of 'No Country For Old Men' Just to summarise, so far we have met our two protagonists and found 'creepy' thriller type conventions through one of the characters. These conventions being that the character was following someone, there was deception through the main character. Also one of the most common narratives in a thriller film, death. Two so far to be precise, not quite sure this is a family friendly film. On with the show!
We then follow one of our two protagonists to where he's killed the deer. There's one very stunning Extreme Wide Shot (EWS) that shows how desolate the place is again, shows out protagonist as completely alone, there's no-one around him at all and you can see for miles. We then switch this shot to a close up of his boots perhaps showing the usual conventions found when looking at those who come from this kind of dry desolate 'cowboy' area. It also fits in with his hat, his shirt and jeans, even his moustache all represent the conventional Texas character. There has still to this scene only been digetic sound adding more suspense and tension because it seems more real to you as a person than having a great big suspenseful orchestral backing to your life.
This then leads to a POV shot where we see blood on the floor which is so vibrant in contrast of the dull coloured floor. This really highlights death in the film. There's two trails of blood, one duller than the other, but I wasn't sure what this was implying. There was also a limping dog that was running away, possibly leaving one of the blood trails. Our protagonist follows the most recent and fresh trail of blood which eventually leads to a spot overlooking most of the deserted area. He spots from this point through his binoculars, again showing the distance he is from anyone, and how desolate the area is.
This then leads to a POV shot where we see blood on the floor which is so vibrant in contrast of the dull coloured floor. This really highlights death in the film. There's two trails of blood, one duller than the other, but I wasn't sure what this was implying. There was also a limping dog that was running away, possibly leaving one of the blood trails. Our protagonist follows the most recent and fresh trail of blood which eventually leads to a spot overlooking most of the deserted area. He spots from this point through his binoculars, again showing the distance he is from anyone, and how desolate the area is.
He then approaches the stranded cars he sees in the the distance, it appears to be some sort of drug deal gone awry. Here we have a low angled shot as our protagonist slowly appoaches gun in position to defend himself from any danger he might face. We follow him from behind as he comes closer to this bunch of stranded cars and bodies on the floor. He does not seem at all phased by what he is seeing, meaning he's most probally been around death before. The digetic sound of the flies also represent that the bodies have been there for some time. Low angled shots of our protagnoists feet give us a scan of all the bodies lying on the floor. We then see a lying body of a dead dog, prehaps showing us where the other dog and blood trail had come from.
The next shot we see shows a huge dark cloud in the distance, which gives us some pathetic phalasy, this could be either something bad is coming or something bad has been or something bad is on it's way. We see his point of view where the a man involved in this shoot ou is dead folded into an uncomfortable position in the from of the truck. Our protagonist spots something and then we follow him switching to a point of view shot towards the window of a truck. It's dusted out, we're feeling the suspense of the character, what is beyond the window, what can't we see? He opens the car door and a dying man is on the chair calling for water in Mexican. Our protagonist does not jump to the aid of this dying man and instead looks in the back of the truck for personal gain. And finds a truck load of drugs. He also takes some ammo from this dying man's car, showing absolute no remorse and sorrow for this man. Making our protagnoist seem cold, and horrid.
All in all this concludes our look at the opening of 'No Country for Old Men' and it ticks quite a various lot of thriller narratives etc. Firstly we're given two seemingly psychotic characters, one killing a policeman one totally untouched and hard-skinned by death. Both of these men also become criminals, one for murder and the other for looting. Then we have our victims, the people murdered by out 'physco-criminal protagonist' and those by the stranded awry drug deal. The narratives of death are featured quite prominantly in the opening too, we also gain the 'being watched' narrative as again our 'physco-criminal protagonist' executes this before murdering one of his victims, whilst using deception which is another common narrative of a thriller film. Isolation is heavilyt featured throughout and so is gain. We have quite alot of iconography for the Texas type character and some pathetic phalasy thrown in there too.
I hope you've enjoyed my look at the film and next anylasis will be of 'Once Upon a Time in the West' a thriller that fits in the sub genre of 'Western'. That'll be coming soon. Happy Reading!
I hope you've enjoyed my look at the film and next anylasis will be of 'Once Upon a Time in the West' a thriller that fits in the sub genre of 'Western'. That'll be coming soon. Happy Reading!
This is fantastic Kenny. You are analysing in detail and referring to the conventions of thrillers, which is great. See if you can point out some of the effects of certain camera shots that you mention. M