Blog Entry #9: The Coin Toss Scene from No Country for Old Men

In my opinion, one of the best scenes from No Country for Old Men is the coin toss scene between Anton and the gas station attendant (unnamed). Anton proved himself to be more psychologically twisted than I had originally thought. Because of Anton’s strange rationale and the surprised reaction of the attendant, it was funny to watch the interaction between the two characters-even though I felt like the attendant was about to be blown to smithereens at any moment.

The nature of the “coin toss” game (which helps Anton decide if the attendant should live or die) shows that Anton is someone who kills with no rhyme or reason. For Anton, life is a game. In this way, he acts as fate-what he believes to be the driving force of life. And of course, fate has no explanation.

Anton also tries to make the attendant feel as mentally uncomfortable as possible, before he decides whether or not to make him as physically uncomfortable as possible with his cattle gun. When the gas attendant tries to start a polite conversation, Anton acts offended and questions everything the attendant says by twisting around his words:
Attendant: “Will there by something else?”
Anton: “I don’t know, will there?”
With these mind games, Anton creates a great deal of fear in the attendant without even showing his weapon.

I felt like Anton was “testing” the attendant in a way and forcing him to provide details and explanations-Anton did not really care about these in the least, though. He was going to use the coin toss alone to decide whether the attendant would get to live or die.

I think the Coen brothers include this seemingly random scene in the film because it explores and explains Anton’s character to the audience. He is not just psychotic killer, but he is very philosophical (and crafty) about his work and he seems to feel justified in what he does. To him, things are the way they are. Period. No fluff, nothing more. I also think the filmmakers use this scene to depict Anton as a character who questions the accepted, challenges the norm, and fights the system-like a rebel. He is clearly an extremist, but a smart and successful one (this is clear from the number of people he is able to kill throughout the film).

Blog Entry #8: First Impressions of No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is an interesting movie so far. I like how it seems to combine the western genre with the thriller/suspense/mystery genres. The film also includes very little music or sound at all. This production decision adds to the suspense and takes away any preconceived notions about music from other thrillers (such as how the music often changes to a recognizable tune every time the killer is going to appear). You really never know when Anton is going to strike until you see him on the screen.

While watching, I felt as though I was on the run with Llewellyn and feared for my own life along with his. The sequence of events in the movie really reinforces the idea of “the chase” or “the hunted” as we talked about briefly in class. It is no surprise then that one of the taglines for the movie is “There Are No Clean Getaways.” As Llewellyn was always looking over his shoulder waiting for the other shoe to drop, so was I. In my opinion, the Coen brothers do a good job of involving the audience in the film (perhaps without said audience even knowing it is happening). The involvement and strong character-to-audience relationship (how close or distant the audience feels from the characters they are watching) seems to be done through cinematography decisions such as camera angles. In the scene where Anton is strangling the police officer, all you see is the officer’s shoes scraping against the floor. This scene characterized Anton as psychotic and unpredictable right from the get go. Because I only saw the officer’s shoes, it was as if I could not save him even if I wanted to. This made Anton scary and prepared me to witness more of his unstoppable and unorthodox killings in the following minutes.

I also noticed how the three major characters, Sheriff Bell, Llewellyn, and Anton all seem to be telling their own separate stories -they have their own motives, although all of these are related to the central plot. They have yet to share any screen time together…

The filmmakers choose to portray the passage of time in a unique way with a start and a finish to the day, but really no middle-day to night, night back to day. It was like there was no time for Llewellyn to do anything but run and always focus on being one step ahead of his chaser. He was no longer a free man, but a fugitive. He could never relax and take a breath all because he decided to keep the money rather than turn it into the police.

Blog Entry #7: "I'll be right here"

I have been interested in film since I was very young. I used to go to the movies with my parents and wonder why the teenagers sitting in front of me would rather make out than take in the incredible medium that is film. To this day, I still prefer going to the movies to watch and analyze instead of fooling around with my date in the back row. Maybe this makes me weird. Some of my favorite movies include E.T., Psycho, 10 Things I Hate About You, Gattaca, and Brokeback Mountain, among many others. I especially enjoy the work of director Steven Spielberg. As I mentioned in class, E.T. was the first movie that I “really felt connected to.” The film was remarkable to me because it presented aliens in a different way than other sci-fi alien movies before it. Although E.T. can be classified as a science fiction film, it goes beyond that label by presenting deeper levels of meaning within the sci-fi element of extraterrestrials. I believe the film explores human emotions in a way that few sci-fi films successfully do.

By the end of the film, most people see E.T. as a cute and lovable friend, rather than a scary creature from another planet. Spielberg evokes emotions in his audience that allow them to feel for this alien, to cry for him, as if he were a human. Spielberg tries to show viewers that E.T. is really no different than a human child-they both possess the same emotions, goals, and fears. This alien-human connection is supported through the friendship between Elliot and E.T. The two need each other, they find comfort as their relationship develops throughout the film and they come to see how similar they really are.

I think E.T. was Spielberg’s best film because he used a lot of ideas from his own life, like the divorce of his parents, which helped add to his creative insight and provided personal reference.

I was just reminded that I need to get new batteries for my plastic talking E.T. doll! Yes, his finger and heart light up, he says things like, “I’ll be right here”, but he doesn’t eat Reese’s Pieces. Merchandise related to the film proves that E.T. was a phenomenon for many children. The stuffed E.T. doll I also own demonstrates Spielberg’s ability to portray E.T. in a snuggly, cuddly, and lovable way.

Some of my friends think that E.T. is scary, I don’t understand it.