No Country for Old Men - Scene Analysis

In No Country For Old Men (NCFOM) all of the items on screen move the story along in one way or another. this is known as 'mise-en-scene' which is another term used for everything in the scene.

In this particular scene the antagonist (Chigurh) stops for fuel in a gas station in the middle of the desert. He tells the store owner to call a coin toss. There are things in this scene that progress the story and change the appearance of the characters.

The peanuts Chigurh eats throughout the scene are the reason he went into the shop in the first place. This could be thought of as the Macguffin. This is something that moves on the story at hand, it could be small an insignificant or it could be a major part of the storyline. Similar to Marsellus Wallace's suitcase in Pulp Fiction.

Chigurh unnerves the audience, which is the same reaction that the store owner has, so this makes the audience empathise with this man's situation. His appearance also makes him him more like the antagonist of the story as he is wearing dark clothes and has dark hair, he has very little that would make him stand out of a crowd, this is the direct opposite to the store owner who wears a bright yellow checked shirt and who's portly appearance gives us the impression of him being friendly. This helps us recognise the characters for what they really are more quickly.

As Chigurh approaches the counter he already gives off a bad 'vibe' as the counter and register are suddenly covered in shadow, darkening the room. He has turned a light friendly place into a dark and unpleasant one. also the cables behind the man also seem "noose-like" giving a subtle impression here this conversation between the two maybe going. Working with the idea of light and dark, one of the main sources of light is behind Chigurh  almost to give the impression that the store owner would have to get through him to get out which he knows wouldn't be an option. The way Chigurh carries on eating his peanuts also increases the tension of the situation as    it throws the shopkeeper off how this man can seem so intimidating and scary yet still be able to carry on eating.

the main piece of mise-en-scene is the coin, obviously as it's known as the coin toss. The coin could represent many things but I feel the main thing it represents is life and death. Both literally and metaphorically the right or wrong side of the coin may cause life or death.Another possible idea is that the coin has two sides just as there are two sides in this scene of good and bad, each character has a side and whose-ever side it land on will live.

The editing of this scene is fairly normal and doesn't vary between two over-the-shoulder shots. This could be misinterpreted as a lack of imagination but I think it boils down to have as little as possible to distract you from what is going on, for instance there is very little non-diegetic sound, if any at all, during the dialogue, this is one of the most tense scenes in all of the film, and I found that in all of NCFOM, scenes can go from quiet to loud very quickly, mostly with the aid of a gun. so the audience is very ready for this to happen again.