Dan's Textual Analysis of No Country for Old Men (Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen)

You could be forgiven for thinking that No Country for Old Men was another Quentin Tarantino film, but it's not.

This is similar to the majority of the first two minutes

 The first minute and a half of this film is very simple. It is a few establishing shots, where it starts at dawn and ends slightly later. It appears to be set in a barren land, vast and empty. The colour scheme is a very golden brown, and the lighting goes from rather dark to quite light. Very few aspects of mise-en-scene are considered in these shots, as we only deal with lighting, colour, setting, composition and - if you count grass and fences - props.

Sunrise turns into day

 These shots appear to be about eye level. They're also static, with no significant angle to speak of. It is a very simplistic intro, with very slow shots and few cuts. It is calm, for now.

Even sound tries to keep it as simplistic as it gets. The only sound is the narration from a sheriff. He remains calm and collected, and talks about his past with a small amount of jargon, to get the viewers asking a few questions.

One of these shots turns out to be a tracking shot, which leads to the introduction of our first prop and two characters.

We assume the man on the left is the narrator

A man is being arrested by a sheriff (we can tell this from his costume), likely the narrator. Both men are relaxed, despite the circumstances. they do not talk between themselves, but the narration continues relatively off-topic. The camera is clearly about hip level, restricting the amount the viewer can see about the facial features of either person, which is also helped by viewing them from behind. Sound stays the same.

This shot alone makes me want to watch the full film

After a shot of the sheriff getting the suspect into the car, we finally begin to see something very suspicious. The sheriff places what appears to be an oxygen tank into the passenger seat of the cruiser. The shot is a close up, implying real significance. The narration still continues without mention of this. It begs the questions "What is it for?" and "Why would a sheriff need it?". We do not find out the answers to these questions during the first two minutes.

Finally, we see the sheriff drive away. The shot pans upwards, creating a high angle. We see again the land is about as empty as it ever was. The narration stops around here too, but a small piece of music starts, to ensure not complete silence. This leads us to the end of the two minutes.

A very slow paced thriller, to begin with