Tom's Film Blog

The Coen brothers subvert the expectations of the viewer by avoiding the confrontation between Bell and Chigurh. This is done to maintain the way Bell has been portrayed throughout the film (the tired and worried sheriff). This is done through two elements of film form: camera angles and performance. First of all, at the beginning of the scene, we are given a shot reverse shot of Bell's point of view and a close up of him in his car. This is mainly done to align us with Bell as a person: showing us the world through his eyes. Furthermore, the close up of him in the car is done to highlight his emotion and body language. The close up clearly shows that he is afraid and hesitant of going in their because he feels he will be killed just like Moss. This is evident as his body language shows that he waited a moment before getting out of the car, almost as if he thought of driving away, conforming with his archetype of not doing anything. However this trait of Bell is transgressed when d...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RpEdCX5kNM In the scene where we are introduced to Llewellyn Moss, the audience is aligned to his character through various elements of film form and film-making in general. This is seen in the first shot of his introduction. For example, before we have point of view shot before being shown a close up of Llewellyn looking down his rifle. The physical closeness of the camera to his face make the audience feel close to him as a character and want to follow him as the story progresses, which is what literally happens in the following scene. Also, the point of view shot allows the audience to have an insight into Llewellyn as a character and let us see the world how he sees it. This is important because throughout the film Moss is depicted as a morally grey character with no real allegiances to good or evil, unlike Chigurh and Bell. This ominous way of depicting his character is highlighted in this scene. In particular, he is hunting animals with a gun. Gun...

One element of Film Form used to create alignment in No Country For Old Men is sound. The opening scene is narrated by Bell and we get an insight into his character and beliefs. For example, we learn about his fears of crime becoming more volatile and unmotivated: the more psychotic and random nature of the crime, the less he understands and is able to stop them. This allows the audience to understand him and sympathise with him despite not actually seeing him until later in the film. This is good contrast with Chigurh, as we are introduced to him straight away but we do not see his face clearly or hear him talk. Introducing Chigurh as Bell talks about his fear of random crime is dramatic irony because Chigurh is almost the manifestation of that fear with his apathetic and inhumane murders. Throughout the film we see Bell's nightmare come true as the film, to the point where Chigurh gets away and Bell essentially loses. This is all comes from Bell's monologue at the beginning, ...