Director
The Coen Brothers (Joel Cohen, Ethan Cohen)
Leading Actors/Actresses
Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson
Genre
Crime, Western
Language
English
Awards
Three Academy Awards : Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem)
Date of Release
May 19, 2007
Producer
Scott Rudin, Joel Cohen, Ethan Cohen
Setting and Context
Texas, close to the Mexican border, and Mexico
Narrator and Point of View
The point of view is that of Llewelyn Moss.
Tone and Mood
The tone is almost lawless. The mood is suspenseful and murderous.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Moss is the protagonist, while Chigurh is the antagonist.
Major Conflict
There is conflict between the different people and groups who have been charged with the task of getting the two million dollars back from Moss, and in some cases, killing him too.
Climax
Moss is shot and killed by Chigurh and his wife arrives to see him in a pool of blood in the parking lot.
Foreshadowing
Moss finds a briefcase containing two million dollars in the desert, amid a scene of carnage where there has clearly been a shoot out. He decides to take the briefcase and this foreshadows his demise because he has put his life in danger by taking two million dollars from men who will kill to get it back.
Understatement
Ellis tells Bell that the border region has always been violent which is in many ways an understatement; Chigurh is not just violent but sadistic and the violence that he causes is designed to please him psychologically.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
The movie was shot in a way that made the landscape appear as sparse as possible. A volume of 250,000 feet was shot rather than the more standardized million feet of film because every scene was storyboarded out rather than letting the landscape dictate the filming.
Allusions
The real-life dangers of the border towns are alluded to in the film.
Paradox
The good guy - Moss - is also in some ways the bad guy, in that he has stolen money, but he has stolen money from criminals which still makes him a good guy who has done a bad thing, rather than a person with criminal tendencies himself.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between Bell's getting older and his feeling that he is being outplayed by the criminals he is trying to catch.
