DP
No Country for Old Men
Every single scene in this movie is absolutely amazing, but I picked this one for two reasons. The first is that it’s the only time our protagonist (Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin) and antagonist (Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem) come close to meeting face to face. The second reason is the absolute tension in this scene.
The scene starts with Llewelyn hiding out in a hotel room with his stolen money. What we know so far about him is that he is extremely crafty and a little paranoid. Thanks to the film using multiple perspectives, we also know that he is being followed using a tracking device in the briefcase. When he finds the tracking device, it sets up an emotional mechanism used in this film often of tension, relief, and then the realization of a greater danger. The tension is him being tracked, the relief is him finding the tracker, and the greater danger is Chigurh being there (I apologize for this part being left out of the clip above, it was incredibly difficult to find a clip that matched the exact moment I wanted, and this was the closest).
The moment with the shadow under the door, it walking away, and then the lights going out is by far my favorite moment of this movie. It is an even better example of tension, relief, greater danger. While I mentioned multiple perspectives earlier, this scene works so well because it never goes to Chigurh’s perspective. At first, we don’t know who is behind that door, and when they walk away it seems like it was just the hotel clerk, even though his death was implied by there being no response on the phone, another great tension builder. Brolin’s acting in this scene is amazing. Without a single line of dialogue we can see him experience the changes in tension during this event. The lighting is also crafted so that once Llewelyn turns off the lights, we only see the important things: him, and the window he is going to jump out of in a moment.
After the realization that it is Chigurh there, we get a brief pause. One of the hardest in film history. As the camera pans up to the doorknob, we know what’s about to happen. We’ve seen Chigurh open doors with his cattle gun before, after all. Nevertheless, when watching this scene, every cell in your body is hoping that it won’t happen. There’s no cue when it does, the lock just shoots out, and we are surprised as Llewelyn. From here the action accelerates, with quick reactions from Llewelyn. What this movie does extremely well is allowing the protagonist to escape (almost) every situation, yet the tension never drops, as his escape always lead to some setback. Here, he barely dodges a bullet but hurts his leg.
Now for some final notes on this scene: It is set in the dead of night in a hotel room, which gives it this feel of isolation that a scene in the daytime definitely wouldn't have. Also the score, or complete lack thereof, is an important part of this whole movie, and this scene. Not only does it add to the tension by making you uneasy, but it also eliminates audio cues and motifs that lead to an understanding of what is happening. This movie keeps itself surprising and unpredictable, and a score would greatly take away from that.
