First impression of film, "No country for old men"

September 24th, 2018

Today was the first day we were watching the film, “No Country for Old Men”.

Film Synopsis:

While out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds the grisly aftermath of a drug deal. Though he knows better, he cannot resist the cash left behind and takes it with him. The hunter becomes the hunted when a merciless killer named Chigurh (Javier Bardem) picks up his trail. Also looking for Moss is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), an aging lawman who reflects on a changing world and a dark secret of his own, as he tries to find and protect Moss.

Opening scene:

In the opening scene,  a criminal named Anton Chigurh is arrested. He chokes the deputy to death with his own handcuff chain and escapes. (Carries around some homemade weapon)

Our next scene involved a man named Llewelyn Moss. He's out hunting antelope in the desert, but something else catches his eye: human corpses and abandoned vehicles. It seems a drug deal went wrong, and everyone died, leaving behind the drugs and the money. Llewelyn takes the money and finds one wounded drug runner still alive. The man asks for water but doesn't have any on him. Llewelyn takes the money home to his wife, Carla Jean, but he returns to the scene of the crime later that night with a jug of water.

His decision turns out to be a mistake. Dangerous men chase Llewelyn and try to kill him.  They shoot at Llewelyn, who abandons his truck and runs. He realizes that these guys will be able to identify him from his vehicle, so he tells his wife to stay with her mother, and he too makes a run for it. Llewelyn stole about 2 million dollars and now the drug runners are after him.

We end the day with the fugitive going back to the original drug deal scene where he sets off to find the missing money.

In class this week we are preparing for our test on Mise-en-scene elements. We our analyzing the film in class for Mise-en-scene elements and then applying our knowledge of it to an essay we will write in the future comparing the book we read in the summer to this film. Us watching this film and learning more about how each mise-en-scene element is used will help us understand the film industry's better and allow us to understand how anyone involved in a major film would use these techniques to improve the quality of their film.