Some of you may have seen this film “No Country for Old Men”. It was made by the Coen Brothers for a 25 million dollar budget with Miramax. So a Hollywood financed movie but slightly outside of the normal range for Hollywood.
The story is sparse, very little dialogue, the dialogue that there is drifts from the everyday to the reflective and philosophical. There is a large reliance on visuals and atmosphere with deliberate cutting between characters that never actually meet in the film. What sources then does such a film draw upon? What is the screenplay based on? The Coen brothers are well known for being meticulous in their preparation of dialogue and storyboarding. The whole of their films are storyboarded before any shooting begins. The dialogue is set and precise. They say they do this in order to justify the budget they are asking for. They don’t run over budget or time.
One of the brothers studied film at NYU, Ethan went to Princeton to study Philosophy at undergrad. They both made films together on super 8 from the age of eight.
All of their films draw upon a wide range of sources: literary, poetic, paintings, mythology. In No Country for Old Men the literary references range from the 14th Century through to the contemporary American writer Cormac McCarthy. They reference films from Bergman to Sam Peckinpah.
The title of the film is taken from a line from a W B Yeats poem called Sailing to Byzantium.
The first stanza of which is :
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations – at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unaging intellect.
If you read just the first stanza carefully you will pick up the theme and stress on the centrality of death even in life. “Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.”
If you want to read the poem more closely then look, for a starting point, at the wikipedia entry.
Also have a look at the entry for Cormac Macarthy whose novel they began with to base the screenplay on.
So we haven’t even got behind the title and there is already a diversity of sources that are being drawn upon. If we focus on the literary then two older stories crop up and can be tracked in various scenes in the film. The influences are not used as direct copies but, like Picasso said I don’t use other peoples work I steal it.
They steal and re cast the evocative elements of the stories that influence them. They intellectually engage with the ideas and themes of the story and re translate it through their own obsessions and concerns. The translation happens in the process of visualisation and cinematography that we all recognise as signatures of the Coen brothers work.
Two predominant stories crop up as important in the construction of the film and the motivation of characters: Chaucer’s Pardoners Tale:
A precise of which is:
The tale is based on a folk-tale of Oriental origin, although many variations exist. Three drunken and debauched men set out from a pub to find and kill Death, whom they blame for the death of their friend, and all other people that previously have died. An old man they brusquely query tells them they can find death at the foot of a tree. When the men arrive at the tree, they find a large amount of gold coins and forget about their quest to kill Death. The three men draw straws to see who among them should fetch wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. The youngest of the three men drew the shortest straw. The two men who stay behind secretly plot to kill the other one when he returns, while the one who leaves for the town poisons some of the wine with rat poison. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him and drink the poisoned wine — also dying as a result. A short analysis of the Pardoners Tale
Lets re look at the clip that we first saw of No Country for Old Men:
The other important influence was a story from Leo Tolstoy called How Much Land Does a Man Need? A description of the story.
Both of these stories have at their heart greed and the influence that money has on motivation. Both authors also play with the idea of chance and unpredictability of life in the world.
Carla Jean Moss: You don’t have to do this.
Anton Chigurh: [smiles] People always say the same thing.
Carla Jean Moss: What do they say?
Anton Chigurh: They say, “You don’t have to do this.”
Carla Jean Moss: You don’t.
Anton Chigurh: Okay.
[Chigurh flips a coin and covers it with his hand]
Anton Chigurh: This is the best I can do. Call it.
Carla Jean Moss: I knowed you was crazy when I saw you sitting there. I knowed exactly what was in store for me.
Anton Chigurh: Call it.
The figure of Chigurh is similar to figures like death in Bergmans The Seventh Seal or indeed some of the figures in Sam Peckinpah movies.
Research
Why am I dwelling on the importance of sources and influences. Any media producer that is worth their salt, has something to say or show beyond the mechanical cranking out of tawdry nonsense draws on multiple sources that don’t just exist within the limits of their own chosen art form.
Stuff that lasts engages with the things that have gone before be it from literature, poetry, painting, music, etc.
You need to show us that you are working in a similar way. Your blog should show us the range of sources and research that you have engaged with over the course of the first term. Your initial assessment will be based upon the work on your blogs and the three artefacts that you have made.
We want you to round off your work this term by reflecting on what you have done and thinking about what you are going to do in developing your ideas for your final project that is the culmination of your degree.
It is really important that before the end of the term, December 18th, you:
Look back over your three pieces and other stuff you have done during the course. Look at it altogether. What things do you notice?
Reflect on what you have done…………….how might you develop some of your interests, approaches for your final project.
Be ambitious but realistic. Don’t try and make a feature film……….don’t try and make a thirty minute soap. Don’t try a remake of Tarantino or your favourite Zombie movie. Look at stuff outside of your normal range of influences…………
Music, galleries, events, radio.
Use the image below as a guide for your refelections and what you are going to develop during the new year.
