"No Country for Old Men"
directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
photographed by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC
I'll come back and drop in the screenshots later...
The first shot here is through the windshield of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell's squad car as returns the scene of Moss's murder. It's a simple establishing shot that tells us not only that we're returning to the hotel room, but that this scene will play out from Bell's perspective. As the scene unfolds, this simple idea that we are experiencing this through Bell's eyes is very important.
Here we see Bell for the first time in a close-up. You can feel the tension and anxiety in his face
Now we return to Bell's POV. Clearly the anxiety in Bell's expression is related to returning to the hotel room, and this shot only brings us closer into that fear.
Again to Bell's face as he stops in front of the hotel. Bell briefly pauses then exhales before exiting the car. There's nothing that exciting about the shot itself, but I think it's important to note that sometimes the best thing a shot can do is not distract from the performance. We don't need any bells and whistles here, the pause and expression from Jones are strong enough to be left alone
Bell steps out of the cruiser and begins his walk toward the door. Deakins frames Bell in a cowboy shot as he exits the cruiser and we end up in more of a traditional medium shot as he walks toward the door. I like that choice because it reiterates the western feel of this movie and reminds us of Bell's position as a law man. Although the color scheme here is not particularly pertinent to meaning of this scene, Deakins does a remarkable job of maintaining a consistent color scheme of blueish /cyans and different shades of yellow. Not only do these colors suit the West Texas landscape and period well, but in color theory, they make one of the most appealing color pairings. Here those colors are incorporated through different colors of street lights.
Now we have a slow dolly towards the doorway as Bell's shadow from the headlights are cast against the door. The color scheme is again reiterated through the yellow police tape and teal door.
Medium CU on Bell
Back to our dolly shot as Bell enters frame.
We get a MCU profile here as Bell comes up to the door. I suspect this is not only to vary or shot selection, which up until now has been mostly shot/counter shot, but to also show Bell literally coming up against his fears about what waits inside.
The XCU of a blown lock only heightens Bell's suspicions about what's inside the hotel room
The reverse of the previous shot shows Bell in a low angle CU. The headlights and flood light illuminating the hallway form add some kick light around Bell's figure. It's a very low-key scheme that adds to the intensity
Lock again. Tensions building.
Now we see for the first time, at least partially, what's inside the hotel room. In the mostly dark frame, orange light spills through the blown door lock and a sliver of light slashes across Chigurh's face. The suggestion is one of uncertainty. To me, the shot is about how our worst fears tend to lurk out in the darkness. I think it's important to remember that we're experiencing the scene from Bell's POV. So are we as viewers simply being privileged to information that Bell is not, or are we seeing Bell's imagination about what's inside? It's one of the more ambiguous aspects in an otherwise very literal movie. I also think that the orange light in the dark room could provide some clues. This image is later described by Bell in a dream he has about his father at the end of the movie, "an orange light out there in all that darkness"
Back to Bell in a CU. As he makes his decision, his narration from the beginning of the film comes to mind. "It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to do to even do this job - not to be glorious. But I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something that I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He's have to say, 'Okay, I'll be a part of this world.'" This is literally that moment, Bell accepts his fate regardless of its relevance in the world. He draws his gun, and pushes his chips forward.
Bust shot of Chigurh.
XCU on the light spilling through the hole in the door.
As Bell pushes the door open, we cut to a reverse wide shot from inside the hotel room. The door swings open against the wall where Chigurh was presumably hiding. This is where the element of uncertainty really starts to become a factor. Was he or wasn't he there? Light spills in across the dark room and Bell is seen silhouetted by his headlights.
We cut to a CU of Bell as we surveys the room. The light in this scene in beautiful in its own right, but what I love so much about Roger Deakins is that you never call into question the authenticity of his sources. The light is always motivated, by the headlights in the this case.
Now we have a slow pan across the room from Bell's POV. Again, the motivated light is actually used to enhance the story. The two headlights from the squad car, cast broken shadows across the room; it's a subtle suggestion of Bell's troubled mindset.
Bell looks down and notices...
...the blood stain on the carpet. The decision to include a cutaway of Bell stepping over the blood stain speaks to his character and his aversion to violence around him.
In a back quarter profile, we follow Bell as he walks through the light from the doorway into the darkness again. We still haven't seen Chigurh, but all of the darkness and shadow suggest that he could be anywhere. With his gun drawn he flips on the bathroom light. He stops and looks down.
The XCU on the window locked still locked. There's a nice balance in the film of simple shots like these (POV's, cutaways, ect) that together tell us exactly what's going from the practical action to the more complex character thoughts. Even without dialogue, we can gather that Bell inspected and decided that no one has left the room. "Show, don't tell"
Low angle wide shot as Bell reemerges and cross through an eerie mix of hotel tungsten lights and outside moonlight.
Again through shot/ counter-shot we can gather what's running through Bell's mind. He sees the screws on the ground and seems bewildered. Bell's gamble may not have cost him his life, but he has ultimately met something beyond his understanding. The CU of the screw on the beige carpet dissolve into the similarly beige Texas landscape. It's one of the only non-cheesey cross dissolves I've ever seen, and I think it works for two reasons: 1) Color and texture are both carefully matched so that the dissolve is so subtle we barely notice it's happening 2) Thematically, the end of the scene ends with Bell in bewilderment of what he's experienced. This feeds right into the next scene where Bell visits an old friend to discuss the changing times.
-Henry
