The Coen Brothers have, one may say created an absolute masterpiece of a movie, which some may say is an amalgamation of the Wild West movies of old and a horror story. “The wide open plains, cowboys, Texas, guns and horses but has the syntax of a film noir even sometimes a horror movie. There is a murderer, one could even call him an unstoppable force, he kills without mercy and with a semi-novelty killing device. It deals with a man who finds a loot of money and must escape his pursuers who are a bunch of dirty business men, corrupted by greed and the lust for power and control, those are the rules and structural elements of a film noir and Anton Chigur seems to follow the rules of a horror movie; a ‘slasher’ movie to be more precise” (Olson 67). The fact that this movie follows two plots makes it all the more intriguing and fascinating for the audience. Yes we can all see the wild west elements in the movie, with the story being set in a small Texas town, which is situated somewhere on the southern fringes of the State, near the Mexican border; but the true horror elements lie within the character Anton Chigur, who has been brilliantly portrayed by the brilliant Javier Bardem. Anton Chigur is a bit of an amalgamation of a serial killer, a child’s worst nightmare, and karma. The Coen Bros. have been very intelligent in giving this role to Bardem. Not many directors would have dared to give him this role, as at the pre-production phase of this movie, Bardem was still having language difficulties in English, and had a thick Spanish accent.
The Coens have brilliantly complemented Bardem’s performance on the screen, with a distinct Noir style of lighting on the set. The most impressive thing about the Coens here, is the fact that they have stuck to the original story line, form the novel by Cormac McCarthy. No director would probably have done this. “Like many Film Noirs, a feeling of fatalism is embedded in this film” (Andrew Davies, “Echoes of Noir: An Analysis of No Country for Old Men”, The Noir Zone) But the Coens were intelligent enough to more or less stick to the original novel, and perhaps add a pinch of humor and pathos, here and there. Indeed, there are moments in the film where one does not know whether to wince, or cry, or laugh; and yet many people end up doing all three. This is what makes the movie all the more gripping. If we analyze the character Anton Chigur, we see that he is never really joking. He means what he says – always. But where the Coens interject with their sadistic humor, is with the reactions of Chigur’s victims, as we see Chigur himself confessing to Carla Jean Moss (Kelly McDonald), Llewelyn Moss’ (Josh Brolin) wife that they (his victims) all say, “You don’t have to do this” before he kills them.
“If there is one thing that characterizes the Coen brothers’ films, it is the depiction of a more-or-less ordinary character situated in a world that is spinning out of control” (MKP, “No Country For Old Men” – Joel and Ethan Coen, The Film Sufi) At the heart of the plot, lies the story of Llewelyn Moss, who finds a bag full of money at a Mexican drug-deal-gone-wrong in the middle of the desert, and decides to keep it for himself. However, the crucial mistake that he makes is going back out in the desert, to give the dying Mexican some “agua”, or water. What follows is a simple cat and mouse game – first between Moss and some unseen Mexican mobsters, and then the main chase between the former and Chigur. By going back out there, Llewelyn had left a trail of breadcrumbs for the likes of Chigur, the Mexican Mafia, and even the Law Enforcement Officials. The fact of the matter is, no one else at the shootout had any identification on him, so neither the Mafia, nor Chigur, and not even the Police and anything to go on. But going out there a second time, and being compelled to leave his car there, Moss was the only name that was being linked to the crime scene, though the Sheriff had no doubt, that Llewelyn had nothing to do with killing those people at least.
But the key piece of philosophy that actually sells this movie, and indeed the novel, is reflected by the character Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). Here, Jones brilliantly portrays the old school Sheriff, whose world is falling around him, and who has a feeling of helplessness, even though he is the chief Lawman in town. Sheriff Bell feels that the new kind of evil that is popping up in his town everyday is something that is beyond his comprehension. These deeds are perhaps not for him to punish anymore. The apparent lack of moral code in these new age criminals absolutely baffles him. The Coen brothers around forty years old during the making of this film, and they themselves conceded to people close to them that they were feeling the same lack of moral code in the society and that a similar overwhelming evil has come into existence in the world that we live in, and that it’s not the innocent world out there, and neither is its beauty unadulterated anymore. However this feeling is somewhat negated at the end, while Sheriff Bell is conversing with Ellis (Barry Corbin), who tells the former that this kind of evil has always been out there in the world. But this probably comes as little consolation for Bell, who has been feeling helpless against the forces of evil. This mood has been perfectly complemented by Anton Chigur’s dialogues, where he gives one the feeling that his victims are not just being murdered – they are meeting their inevitable end. Chigur thinks his the wrath of God, or Karma, or even Kali – the Hindu Goddess of Power and Death, or even the “Black Hand of Death”. Chigur is a dark and mysterious character that has been brilliantly been portrayed by Bardem. It has however been argued that Chigur, according to McCarthy’s novel, is an atheist, or a Darwinian creature, killing for survival. However, there are quite a few loopholes in this theory. It is evident from Chigur’s conversation with Carla Jean, Carson Wells and Llewelyn Moss that the actions of these people, or a chain of actions that they may not be aware of, lead him to them. It is not clear whether Chigur himself believes in God, but he definitely believes in Fate, or Karma. He sees himself more as a hit man, working for Karma. It is ironic that the Mafia has hired him as a hit man to retrieve the satchel full of money. No matter how much the mafia may try, they cannot control him. This is almost reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s Joker, portrayed by the late Heath Ledger.
“The darkest scenes in this film is terms of lighting usually are those with Chigur” (Andrew Davies, “Echoes of Noir: An Analysis of No Country for Old Men”, The Noir Zone). The dark portrayal of Anton Chigur, along with the Wild West element in the movie, is perhaps just a couple of reasons why this Neo Noir style has worked so well for this Coen Brothers’ Classic. Although No Country For Old Men cannot be (strictly speaking) classified under the banner of Film Noir, it does contain some elements within it that almost takes the audience back to the post-war era (1940-60).
The first instance we get of the Noir technique used in the film is when Llewelyn is hunting deer. Here, we see the shadow of a dark patch of cloud approaching towards the general direction of Llewelyn. This is significant in the plot as unknown to Llewelyn himself, his life is about to take a turn for the worse pretty soon. One may also say that the dark cloud signifies Fate, and in some ways, Anton Chigur himself. Also the positioning of the shadows on the faces of the actors at various points in the movie makes gives it a classic Film Noir feel. A couple of classic examples of this from the movie are – when Chigur visits the Moss’ empty trailer, he sits for a while in front of their TV, drinking milk. While he sits there, he is constantly looking at his own silhouette and shadow, reflected and cast upon the TV screen respectively. This particular scene helps us comprehend the sheer insanity that lays within the head this psychopathic serial killer. A normal hit man of the Mafia would not come to the home of the person he is about to kill, and drink milk from his fridge. Exactly in the next scene we see Sheriff Bell sitting in front of the Moss’ TV in a similar fashion as Chigur, looking at his shadow and silhouette on the TV screen, while drinking milk, with a perturbed expression on his face. This helps the audience understand that this old lawman is trying to get into the mind of this psychopathic criminal, to try to understand him, and therefore, predict what his next move would be. However, Bell is at a loss at the sheer lack of moral code and the cruelty of this man, and this moves him deeply. Another important scene where we see Sheriff Bell looking at his own shadow is right at the end, when he visits the crime scene of the murder of Llewelyn Moss for a second time. First, his shadow is cast on the door, and then on the wall of the motel room. In the shadow, we do not see an old Sheriff, whose world is crumbling around him. We see a tall lawman, with his hands on his hips, ready to take action. Perhaps this is where Bell realizes that he is no more the staunch law enforcer he once was, that he is now a mere shadow of himself.
Much of the action in this movie takes place in the dark, which is classic Noir technique. However, there are some crucial points where No Country For Old Men is fundamentally different from classic Film Noir. The first and the most obvious of them is that this is not a black and white film, where one may say, the directors had more liberty to play with light and shadow to impart certain special effects. Another major point of difference from classic Film Noir in this movie is the fact that there is no clear cut Femme Fatale character here. Yes, there have been many a critic, who has argued that the satchel full of money plays the role of the Femme Fatale, as it lures Llewelyn Moss into dangerous situations, and ultimately causes his demise. But the fact of the matter is, the satchel full of money is more of an improvement, rather than being a key element of classic Film Noir itself. An interesting area where the Coen Brothers perhaps have improved upon the classic Noir techniques is the way Chigur stalks his victim. He slides ever-so-quietly into the path that his prey has recently treaded, and moves in for the kill without a single sound. In the scene where he momentarily stalks Carson Wells, even we, the audiences are surprised at first to see him emerge from beneath the stairs. Another of his interesting scene in this regard was the chase scene between Moss and Chigur. When moss is running away from the dark alley, we know that Chigur is somewhere in the dark, waiting to take him down. We become sure of his when we see a shot being fired from that dark alley. It is almost as if Chigur is looming over the horizon of Llewelyn’s Fate, much like the aforementioned dark cloud. And lastly, one classic scene where the Coen Brothers played brilliantly with light and shadow was the scene where Sheriff Bell stands on one side of the door at Moss’ crime scene, while Chigur stands on the other. Bell’s side is lit up by the light from the corridor, while Chigur hides in the darkness of the room. In a way, this signifies the confrontation between good and evil. But unlike some of the Nolan movies, the representative is not merely present to antagonize the representative of good. Evil has its own work, and the confrontation never really takes place. This mixture of some classic Film Noir techniques and improvement on some other Film Noir elements is what helps to mane No Country For Old Men one of the most successful Neo-Noir films of this era.
Sources:
Alan Silver, Elizabeth Ward. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style. Overtook TP, 1993.
Mayer, Geoff. Encyclopedia of Film Noir. Greenwood Press, 2007. Print.
Mitchell Corner. “Film Noir as Genre: Problems and Approaches”. Mubi. Web.
“No Country for Old Men – Joel and Ethan Coen (2007)”. Filmsufi, 2009. Web.
Andrew Davies. “Echoes of Noir: An Analysis of No Country for Old Men”. The Noir Zone. Web. < http://thenoirzone.blogspot.in/2011/05/echoes-of-noir-analysis-of-no-country.html>
