No Country For Old Men Analysis

The opening scene in 'No Country for Old Men' is quite unconventional of a thriller. It starts with a lot of landscape views, and a voice over. The voice could be linked as a stereotypical thriller voice, as it is quite deep, and the audience is unaware of his identity. The Sheriffs voice is a hallowing sound, that creates the effect of being almost patronising. The voice combines with the vast landscape pictures, to create a very isolated feel to the setting. No civilization can be scene in these landscapes, and with the character's voice over explaining about subjects such as hell, it makes the impression there is nowhere to run to.

The villain in this is introduced at 2:10, and is being walked into a police car, handcuffed. The villain is dressed in all black, which expresses evil, and warns an audience of upcoming danger. There is only these two characters present in this scene, and although the villain plays an vital role, we purposely aren't aloud to see his face. The villain is first recognisable at 3:20. This is after the audience have seen the back of his head, shadow in the car covering his face, and then being out of focus at the start of the police station scene.

When the villain gets up to kill the police officer, he walks up behind the officer, and his head disappears off the top of the screen. This shows the hierarchy of power in the film, by the fact that the villain is clearly looking down on his victim. He then strangles the man with his handcuffs, and drags him on to the floor whilst the officer is struggling for breath. Again once on the floor, the villain is higher up in the shot than the victim, keeping that feeling of power, but also the camera angle helps create a crazed look to the shot, which appears to match the personality of the villain. Whilst down on the floor, the villain appears to show completely inhuman not effected facial expressions. He seems almost expressionless which creates a feeling of uncertainty within the audience, which will help to produce fear and suspense throughout the film.

An unconventional part of this scene is that we do see some gore, and we also see some more in the next clip.

The last part of the opening scene shows a cars bumper POV, and then a quick sound of a police siren going off, with a car in front. The car pulls over, and the villain steps out of the police car, and proceeds towards the car that he just pulled over. He asks the man to step out of the vehicle and is once again at a higher vantage point to his victim. The way he speaks is again monotone and appears expressionless, which is unconventional to any human being, but adapts perfectly to a creepy thriller villain..He then asks the man to stay still, and shoots a powerful burst of air into his forehead, creating a clean hole in the mans head, he then falls to the floor. Once again this is unconventional, as most thrillers do not actually show gore, or murders, and it is more than likely that you do not see t he killer that did it.
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