No Country For Old Men Analysis

These are images that I will be analysing from the neo-Western thriller movie ‘No Country For Old Men’ which is a movie made in the year 2007 based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. It is set in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas and tells the story of an ordinary man who by chance comes across a fortune that is not his, and then an ensuing cat and mouse drama begins for the money. The main themes in this movie are fate, conscience, circumstance, action and adventure.

In this image you see the villain in a mid shot. Here he is surrounded by darkness which makes it hard to see his face. The darkness surrounding him could connote that he has evil ways about him and that he has a dark mind. The cage in front of the villain could signify that he belongs behind a cage because he is dangerous. Having his face hidden by the cage and the darkness of the car leaves the audience asking a lot of questions.

This image shows a struggle between a police officer and the main villain in the film. This is the first time you clearly see the villains face in the shot. This added to the tension previously because you had not seen his face and didn’t know how he would look. This mid shot of the officer and the villain, it is quite disturbing for the audience and strikes fear into them because of the evil looking face the villain expresses while the officer helplessly dies. This shot is a good way to show the intensity of the moment.

Here in this close up shot of the villain’s hands you can see where the handcuffs have been pulled against his wrists, this was because he strangled the police officer with them. This close up works effectively in showing how much the killer struggled in killing the officer; you can see this by looking at his bleeding wrists. Here he is cleaning the handcuffs and washing the blood away from his wrists, this makes you think about the officers death. and how the villain is crazy.