Thriller Analyses

                              No country for old men: full analysis

Chigurh is a hired hit man who has no remorse or compassion for other human beings. It seems that he gains a warped satisfaction or enjoyment from killing or creating fear amongst others and this adds to the film’s tensions. This is demonstrated with the innocent shop owner when Anton pays for his gas and asks the man to flip his lucky coin to decide his fate.His main weapon of choice is a captive bolt pistol in which he uses to either kill people or shoot out locked doors. As an audience we know little about him due to his lack of speech.  What does this create?

The trailer for 'No county for old men' is very effective. one of the reasons for this is the long shots of open deserted sceneries at the beginning, this tells the audience that one of the features of the film is going to be isolation which is an element of a thriller. Another reason is when we were first shown the antagonist, the scene went quiet and on came a haunting non-diegetic sound. This tells the audience that this particular character is key to the film as there was a climax of sound as he was shown which is also an element of thriller.
I predict that the target audience for this trailer are teenagers because of the fast pace editing. suggest that the audience would have to be energetic , so are so able to keep up with the lively story   line.

At the beginning of the film, there is a voice over of the narrator talking about his history in the police force and criminal behaviour  which foreshadows that, that is what the film is going to be about.

the very first shot we get to see is a couple of long shots of the dessert which adds up to an establishment shot as we get to see different parts of the dessert. this creates a sense of isolation and remoteness to the scene as there is no characters around yet.

The costumes worn be the characters differentiates them in the case of innocence: the sheriff's costume is lighter which suggest purity whilst the antagonist's costume is very dark which suggests danger, importance: the costume worn by the sheriff is quite common while the antagonist's costume is dark and interesting which let's us focus more on the antagonist.

The fact that we were shown the antagonist immediately suggests that the film is straight to the point in contrast to other thrillers that try to convey suspense. This also reflects to the character of the antagonist, that he too is straight to the point, blunt and not afraid of anything.

The macguffin of the film is the money in the brief as the motive of the character was to get possession of it and it kept the storyline alive.

In the scene where the antagonists has a dialogue with Carson, low key lighting was used in the scene, there are no non- diegetic sounds or music used which builds tension. In addition, the shot reverse shot used adds to the pressure between the characters and then the telephone ring quite loudly which acts a shock element and makes questions like who is calling? why are the calling? is Carson safe? spring up in the audience's mind.