"No Country for Old Men" is the pinnacle of the Coen brothers' 25-year journey into Hollywood, and it is also this work that makes them enter the Oscar hall and can be called an excellent masterpiece.

There are two narrative threads in the film: The main line is a story of chasing and fleeing, the plot is tense and exciting, and the auxiliary line is the helplessness of an old police officer in the face of social chaos, this clue seems to be outside the plot, but it strings together the basic elements of the whole film and the rhythm of the whole film, the main line of the crime scene arranged by Mark has been tightly attracting the attention of the audience, so that the audience maintains a high degree of tension, and then Mark re-controls the tense rhythm, and the film cleverly intersperses the relatively slow-paced auxiliary plot in a timely manner to regulate the audience's emotions, so that the rhythm of the two clues complements each other to form a harmonious and unified whole。

At the same time, Mark skillfully uses the narrative structure of two parallel lines to show the audience the completely different life situations and ways of doing things faced by the main and secondary characters, so as to form a strong contrast and enhance the main theme. On the one hand, in the extremely aggressive pictures and plots of the main plot, the chaos, disorder and crime of a group of people symbolized by Ziggy are shown, and the wildness and impulsiveness of individuals in the context of this impetuous era are very vividly displayed.

On the other hand, relying on the auxiliary line to portray the old police officer from all aspects of image, style to heart, thoroughly reveals the temperament and style of the characters that are not consistent with the times, and expresses the creator's true sympathy and compassion for this generation of marginal people.

And this hotel scene is even more applauded, it is dominated by gloomy cold tones, in this film the gloomy tone in the pathos of the plot, it seems very frustrating and sympathetic, and the familiar use of light and shadow in the film's indoor scenes also makes people feel mysterious and nervous, the film's cold overall tone highlights the film's black, low, The theme of loneliness, cinematographer Wally perfectly understands Mark's philosophy, contrasting the bright outdoors with the dark interior scenes, coupled with the desolate landscape, makes the whole film present a nightmarish world.

It is worth noting that the photographer shows the different living environments of the two worlds through the contrast between the inside and outside of the house, and the strong outdoor light symbolizes this era full of scramble and fighting, this world is full of human desires and obsessions, and this is the world that the old police officer Bell cannot adapt to and face, so his predicament is just like the dimly lit hotel house portrayed by the director, full of loneliness and helplessness left by the times.

And the film has almost no soundtrack from beginning to end, accompanied by those people and those things are only the sound of the wind above the desert, the endless wind blows silently, except for the noisy noise left by the noisy world, there is no beautiful note worthy of nostalgia, Mark contrasts the silence of the main soundtrack with the restless killing sound, portraying the killer's arrogance and the helplessness and pathos of the old police officer in the face of fate.

The use of more sports photography in this film plays a crucial role in the formation of the overall style of the film, when Morse is cautiously looking for a live mouth at the shootout scene, the comprehensive use of push-pull panning lenses makes the plot always full of dangerous feelings, the audience can't help but worry that someone will suddenly attack Morse, Morse in the scene of the fierce battle in the hotel, the slightly shaky follow-up camera makes the audience feel the tension of the atmosphere at that time more truly, it can be said that this scene adjusts the audience's emotions to the highest point.

At the same time, Mark shows the struggle and persistence of the old police officer when he chases the killer with all his strength through the alternating switching of camera movements, and also shows the lonely and pathetic actions and affection of the old police officer when he finally feels powerless about the incident through close-ups and close-up shots.

In addition, through the portrayal of the life-and-death struggle between Morse and Ziggy, intertwined with the Mexicans, drug dealers, The endless competition between private detectives and the police also faintly conveys the metaphor behind a story in the whole film, that is, in the cultural model of rice society, life is a competition of survival of the fittest, whether it is the characters in the film or in the real life of the rice people, everyone is a participant in such a competition, some people are turned away, some people are unimpeded, which is both cruel and sympathetic.

In the film, Mark continues the original book's concern for the living conditions of border people and tragic thinking about life forms. On the basis of a good grasp of the overall artistry of the film, Mark deepened the discussion and reflection on social issues and the helplessness of fate, it can be said that this film can be called an excellent classic in terms of image and theme.

The key to this film is the understanding of the director's philosophy, this is a work full of directorial style, Mark does not worry about the performance of the actors, the old is the old actor, the best of the young generation, they can perfectly meet Mark's requirements, but more importantly, they must understand Mark's ideas in order to create that unique charm.

This work is the work of the Coen brothers for more than 20 years, and in many details you can see their consistent black violence style.

In terms of camera usage, the slow emptiness of the first western shot is the same as the emptiness of the heavy snow in "Ice and Snow Storm"; everyone in the movie feels that they can control the development of things, and things are not controlled by anyone, and the plot that always gets out of control starts in the first "Blood Labyrinth";

The tone of the characters' speech and the style of their words, "No Country for Old Men", like any Cohen movie, is neither in life, nor in any family will use it in writing, only in the Coen brothers' films, it is best to let the outlandly shaped actors perform it;

The rhythm of the photographic style likes to be slow, except for the noisy "Raising Arizona", "The Three Kings Who Escaped from Prison", and "Hudsak's Agent", there are basically no exceptions, even if these three are noisy, there is no shortage of scenes in the middle of the noise, recently David Fincher's "Zodiac", Paul Thomas Anderson's "Blood is Coming", are all this slow look, slow is not for sensationalism, but to prolong the desolation and dazed helplessness.

This kind of slowness may be regarded as a tributary of Hollywood, walking on the back of the Hollywood tide, as for the bleeding is not as sparse as American horror films, but it looks more terrifying than American horror films, and it is also the result of learning from Sam Raimi movies and sublimating the bloody scenes in them.

Those who are familiar with Mark's traditional style will find that this is completely opposite to Mark's style, Mark has always been as cool as he is, how to shoot with visual impact, editing preferences are fast and sharp, tricky, standard commercial blockbuster routines, and there is no lens language to speak of.

The cinematographer, editor, and art director were the first to notice Mark's near-subversive transformation, and Heath and Blake, who were used to working with Mark, soon discovered it, and they were struck by Mark's changeable style shift.

They are knowledgeable people, each of them has their own directing style, and when they direct a lot of works, they will naturally form their style, like the four famous directors and James Cameron, who have very fixed style preferences and form their own lens language.

Mark's debut film "This Man Comes from Earth" is amazing; the subsequent "Chainsaw", "The Hangover", and "The Wedding Guest" followed the path of a fist-and-pillow R-rated film, and many people thought that he would eventually become a generation of R-rated film masters; he made superhero blockbusters like "Batman" profound and connotative, subverting people's perception of superhero blockbusters, and then transformed into a textbook-like commercial blockbuster like "Iron Man"; not to mention, he also made "Twilight" Such a girl's movie completely subverts his previous understanding.

And this "No Country for Old Men" is another subversion, even if people who think they are familiar with Mark's style will be at a loss, Mark shows a completely different ability to control this time, making a completely different kind of film from the past, its profound connotation and lens language make Heath and Javier very fascinated and fascinated.

Javier plays Anton, which allows his acting skills to be fully played, this is a different villain, the initial nothingness of pure human nature, and the projection of "unscrupulous" and so-called "evil" in people's hearts.

Obviously, Anton is the antagonist of this film. But his symbolism is difficult to define, it can be said that the killer Anton is a very successful classic image, tall, slow and depressed, with a strange mushroom head, a pale face and slightly protruding eyes, quiet, ghostly, full of gloom, using a weapon like an oxygen cylinder, usually people use him to kill cattle. Coins of all sizes will be prepared to open screws, and a person's life and death will be decided by guessing coins.

's ugly hairstyle, cold expression, and ruthlessness from the bones revealed in his eyes have successfully created a classic image on the screen, and many years later, the Anton he portrayed was called one of the top ten perverted killers on the screen.

He has no feelings and empathy as a human being, and only the consciousness of fighting for survival as an animal. Of course, the person who obstructs himself and the person who witnesses his crime must die, the owner of the car needs to change cars, and the owner of the car gets in the way and dies, it doesn't matter if the person in front of him dies or not, then throw a coin and let the other party guess, guess wrong, and die, or even a crow on the side of the road, well, shoot a shot. He doesn't even want to kill for fun like other murderers, he just ignores all the rules and emotions of the world, and faces the life and death of others, like stepping on a fallen leaf, and occasionally delegating the power to decide to give coins. At the same time, he has a very cool head and strong combat effectiveness, he is as careful as going to the next room to check the thickness of the wall before the shootout, and he is as tenacious as causing an explosion and then going to the pharmacy to get medicine to heal himself. Murderous maniacs to this realm can also be described as otherworldly.