Directed by: Ethan Coen
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin
based on the Cormac
McCarthy novel of the same name
The film is about an ordinary man who gets his hands on a
fortune of which he keeps in a satchel. This enforces a cat and mouse chase of
where Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) attempt to chase down and kill this
ordinary man Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin). This chase ensues in the desert
landscape of Texas. The chase is followed all the way by Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
(Tommy Lee Jones) The film uses the
themes of fate and circumstance while also focusing on the villains evil driven
plot. Anton doesn’t let anyone or
anything get in his way of trying to chase down Llewelyn and kills anyone who
gets in his way. His signature weapon is a captive bolt pistol which causes
instant death. He is able to track Llewelyn down using a tracker that he has
and that attracts him to Llewelyn as he has a sensor in the satchel in the bag
of fortune. Anton kills Llewelyn but still isn’t able to get his hands on the
money. This happens as Llewelyn planned to give the money to his wife so she
could run away with it, but Anton was able to find Llewelyn and kill him before
it happened. The wife then comes home and finds Anton in her bedroom and he
asks for the money of which she doesn’t have. He then flips a coin to decide
her life and asks her to guess of which she continually refuses to give an
option. We then see Anton leave the house on his own leaving that scene on a
cliffhanger to see whether the wife died or not. Anton then drives away and is
severely injured in a car accident and just walks away from the scene. The film
then ends with Sheriff Bell retiring from sheriff duties and shares a dream
that he will be reunited with his deceased father one day.
Setting: From the setting, we can immediately see that the
film is going to be some kind of western film. This is because of the desert
landscape. The opening starts off with a sunrise which makes the scene become
lighter. The opening scene then shows lots of empty areas with lots of grass
and bushes. Nothing much really happens here which could suggest that there is
a calm mood to the film and that nothing will go wrong. This could also suggest
that the scene is almost too quiet and something is destined to go wrong.
Sound: Most of the sound that we hear in the opening scene
is the voice over from the sheriff. He tells the audience of how he is a
sheriff and how is father and grandfather were also sheriffs. He tells us that
he is proud of his lifestyle. The sheriff then tells us a true story about a
man who killed a 14 year old girl. The sheriff arrested him and sent him to the
electric chair. The villain told the sheriff that he had been planning to kill
someone for as long as possible and that if he got caught, he would kill again.
The sheriff says that he doesn’t understand the villain’s motives. He also says
that he wouldn’t want to deal with this man because he wouldn’t understand him.
This suggests that the villain in the back of the police car is a mysterious
man and the audience are intrigued to find out more about him.
Costumes: In the opening scene, we see two characters. We
see a policeman/sheriff and the villain. We can tell this because of the
costumes. The policeman/sheriff is wearing a policeman outfit and has a police
car. We know that he is a good guy in the film because of this as he is doing
his job in arresting a criminal. The other character is the villain of the
film. His costume suggests this because we see that is a wearing a black coat
which would suggest evilness and mystery. This tells the audience that the
villain will do evil things in the film.
Characters: We get introduced to the villain straight away
in the film. Even before we see him, we get the voice over from the sheriff
that says how he killed a 14 year old girl and if he was ever turned in, he
would kill again. This already suggest that the villain is really evil and
horrible and has no remorse about anyone who he cares. We then see how the
villain is getting arrested (turned in) and this sets out the tone for the rest
of the film. The audience would know that he will kill again in this film
because the sheriff said that, that is what he would do. This sets out the tone
of the film and we learn that the villain is the real bad guy in this film. It
differs from other thrillers because we never usually learn about or see the
villain at the start of the film and we are usually introduced to them in the
middle of the film.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem)
Anton is a hired hitman and we learn that he has little
feelings or emotions. We learn that he has no remorse or care when he kills his
innocent victims. He doesn’t let anyone get in his way of getting what he wants
and will kill anyone that attempts to get in the way or is in the unfornate
position of being in his way. He kills so much that we almost see that he gets
a weird satisfaction of killing so many people. He also likes to play games
with his innocent victims which decide their deaths or not. For example, in the
scene where Anton is in the gas station and he asks the shop owner to guess the
flip of a coin to decide his fate. From this, we learn that Anton is a sick,
evil man and likes to play games where the highest of stakes are involved. This
just adds to the mystery and evil intentions of the villain. In the picture
above, we see Anton with his signature weapon, captive bolt pistol. He uses
this frequently all throughout the film to either kill people or to open doors
which are locked. From this choice of weapon, we learn that Anton is a no
nonsense man as he likes things to be done quickly and instantly as this weapon
kills people and opens doors instantly. Also, throughout the film, we see that
Anton doesn’t say much. This instantly creates suspense as we never get to know
his as a character and what his intentions are. This also creates the effect
that he is a no talk, all action guy and just gets on with the job in hand.
Anton constantly wears an all black costume which suggests that he is always
evil and will never return to being a nice guy. He also often speaks in a
sarcastic tone which shows he doesn’t care about anyone but himself and finds
that killing people is all fun and games for him. He also walks round and does
his actions with a manner of confidence as he is never shown to be worried and
always has a grin on his face. This shows that he is confident is what he doing
and has no worries whatsoever that he will fail the task in hand.
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