Analysing the opening sequence to No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men is a Western/crime film directed by Ethan and Joel Coen (The Coen Brothers) that released on January 18th 2008 and was produced by Scott Rudin Productions, the cast features Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Woody Harrelson.
NARRATIVE
This sequence opens on a series of shots of what appears to be Texas - setting the location for the rest of the movie, over it plays a non diegetic voice over by a man talking about how he is proud to be a sheriff like his father and grandfather. He talks about how modern times for sheriffs had changed as he recounts horrible things he has encountered working as one, such as a man who killed a 14 year old girl and said he would do it again. This is followed by another sequence showing a man getting arrested and driven to a police station, where we see him release himself from his handcuffs whilst the cop is talking on the phone, before sneaking up behind him and violently choking him using them. We then follow him as he steals the cop’s police car and drives up behind a random car on the road, pulling him over, he then walks over to the random man’s car and shoots him in the head with some sort of highly pressurised oxygen tank, which instantly kills him. From this, we can assume the rest of the film will follow this man’s crimes and perhaps reveal more about him; his morality, backstory, motives etc… it may also reveal the Sheriff’s role in this story, where perhaps he is in charge of hunting him down to arrest him.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This film mainly targets adult male audiences; the extremely violent nature of this opening alone, showing two cold blooded murders, rules out any younger audiences. This type of violence tends to be targeted towards men as they are stereotyped to enjoy violence in movies whilst women are stereotyped to not handle it well.
GENRE & TONE
The genre is instantly established through the first few shots showing a Texan landscape, combined with the narrator speaking about sheriffs and crime in a heavy southern accent, these are all typical aspects of westerns. The general tone is immediately revealed to be violent and brutal towards the end due to the long and graphic takes of two separate murders within minutes of each other, and their cold nature depicted.
CHARACTERS
We are mainly introduced to two characters; the sheriff and the murderous man, using Levi Strauss’ theory on Binary Opposites as they fit the ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ roles. We are introduced to the Sheriff through a non diegetic monologue where he speaks about his work as one, stating he is proud of this role as he is following his father’s and grandfather’s legacy. He reminisces over the older days of sheriffs and says he likes to hear about them from the ‘old-timers’ as apparently times had changed and modern times carried much more disturbing work. He ends this monologue by stating that he isn’t afraid of crime or dying, but rather of facing things he can’t comprehend. This introduces him as a man who is dedicated to and willing to die for his job, yet is still somewhat sensitive (as in, holds genuine emotion) as he speaks of his father and grandfather, and how the disturbingly large scale of modern crime frightens him because he doesn’t know how to approach it. This honest character is then strikingly contrasted with the murderous man, who seems to partake in the type of crime he spoke of, as he commits two murders with no hesitation or seemingly any negative emotion - the first murder of the cop features a close up of his face with a genuinely disturbing expression that almost resembles a crazed smile.
TECHNIQUES
The various techniques used in the scene where the man viciously chokes the cop enhances its intensity and brutality. It begins with the cop making a phone call informing the other of the man, who he found carrying some type of oxygen tank; whilst the cop is in the middle third of the shot and is in full focus, the real action occurs in the out of focus background towards the right where the man frees himself and approaches the cop, this reflects how quietly and efficiently he managed to do this. The man then chokes him and throws both of them to the floor with a pleonastic sound effect exaggerating their impact against the ground. No sound plays throughout this except for the diegetic sounds of the man gasping for air and the shuffles heard from him sliding around in desperation, this adds to the scene’s shock as we are forced to only listen to the sounds of his slow painful death, with no soundtrack to hide behind. The main factor that solidifies its disturbing nature however is the long lasting take going from a long shot of the two struggling to a close up of the man’s face, who’s insane expression is genuinely frightening and could stay in the audience’s mind for the rest of the film to remember his cold lack of remorse.
SUCCESSFUL?
This opening sequence excellently presents the nature of the killer as it reveals his willingness to commit shockingly brutal acts without hesitation for pure convenience, yet it tells us nothing about him as a character, creating a focal point for the rest of the movie. The line in the monologue about crime in modern days ties in perfectly with the crimes we are shown, which yet again creates the question of how the two characters are tied to one another. The questions it creates and the sheer brutality it depicts successfully engages its target audience that enjoy violence who may want to find out more about the killer.
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