Analysis of 'No Country for Old Men' Opening Scene

Before we made our thriller opening we wanted to look at different openings of real thriller films to get a better understanding of what they include. Here I am going to analyse 'No Country for Old Men' a 2007 crime Thriller, directed by the famous Coen brothers.

The film starts with just simple white on black credits where the name of the film first appears. Then just thirteen seconds into the clip i have chose, a voice over comes in which is a man with a deep voice telling a story about his past career and people he knew. This voice over lasts for a minute into the film as there is no other dialogue going on at this point. Whilst he is talking there are many different still establishing shots of an open dessert, starting from early sunset with each shot getting lighter as the scene progresses through the day. These shots show that the film is set in the dessert and as there are no people in these shots it is quite an empty place. The audience also knows this because the first line that the voice over says is "I was Sheriff of this county when I was 25 years old". He says the word sheriff which is used more in American dessert countries and also his accent is a strong 'cowboy' accent, these all set the scene of where the opening is taking place. At 1.28 the still establishing shots stop and it changes to a pan where a car is revealed and a sheriff is taking a handcuffed man to his car. Here is the first time the audience see any aspect of the crime thriller genre because there is a sheriff arresting a man and there is also an unusual gas tank put into the front of the police car which will make the audience suspicious. The audience don't actually see the criminal's face as he has his back to us and then he's in shadow in the back of the car, this is also suspicious as he is purposely being left in the dark and the audience are unaware of why he is being arrested. There is then another wide establishing shot of a long single road which is in the middle of nowhere and the policeman drives off into the dessert. This is where the voice over stops and it then cuts to the police station where the officer is talking to perhaps another colleague on the phone about the arrest. Here there is depth of field used as the officer is in focus and the criminal is out of focus sitting in the background. At this point the criminal silently stands up and slowly creeps towards the officer. Here the audience can sense his danger and are left feeling anxious about what he will do to the officer. As soon as the officer takes the phone from his ear the criminal is already behind him and straight away attacks him by putting his handcuffs around his neck. They then both struggle on the floor whilst he strangles him and ends up cutting his throat and brutally killing the officer. This is a significant part in the opening as it definitely portrays the thriller genre and shows how dangerous and violent this character is going to be throughout the film.