No Country For Old Men Opening Scenes

 The opening scene of No Country For Old Men contains a voiceover from Sherriff Ed Tom Bell. We never see him in this scene, and while we see Chigurh getting arrested, we do not see his face either. This makes the viewer feel like a spectator rather than that we are aligned with Sheriff Bell, as rather than seeing the context of the event play out on screen, we are having it explained to us via exposition, as told by voiceover by Bell. This is furthered by the fact that he is talking to the audience very casually, in his Texan dialect and rambles rather than giving a clear, concise explanation of the event that is taking place, as if he knows who the audience are, and is being personal with them. The overwhelming sentiment of this scene is that of the thought that "the world was better back in the day". This infamous thought and the sentiment of it is often associated with older generations, with it often being used as a punchline to stereotype elderly people. Bell's main concern with the changing of times is that crime's are becoming harder to combat, and much more unpredictable and complicated, by stating how "some old time sheriffs never even carried a gun" and that he "doesn't know what to make of", the crime that he describes. This brings forward some of the main conflicts of the film; tradition vs modernity, chaos vs order, simplicity vs complexity, pacifism vs violence.

After Bell's monologue,  in the remainder of this scene, we are better introduced to the character of Chigurh, although the audience are not aligned with him either. This is because we still do not get a clear view of his face at the beginning of the scene. The blocking of the first shot puts the officer who arrested him in the forefront of the scene in clear, bright lighting, while we only see Chigurh in the corner of the shot, in the far background, with a dark shadow cast over him. Even when he approaches the officer from behind we still do not get a clear view of him, as he is still in dark lighting, on the side of the frame, out of focus and far from the camera. When he does eventually get close to the camera and put in focus, his face is cut off due to his height. When he eventually begins to choke the officer with his handcuffs, the editing becomes very fast paced, and we still do not get a clear view of his face; and that which we do see is very brief and unclear. Also, due to the struggle of the murder, the brief glimpses we do get make him look deranged, due to the faces the struggle causes him to pull. The first time we do get a clear glimpse of his face, it is a close-up after he has finished choking the officer. He looks to his side as if he is looking directly at the camera, and sighs. Due to the brutal and shocking nature of the murder he has just committed, this sigh alienates the audience, as it appears he has recovered from it as soon as it was over, while the audience are still recovering. His appearance will also subtlety shock and alienate the audience, as due to the act we have just seen him commit, we expect him to look like a stereotypical hardened criminal, which he does not. The next few shots are of him preparing to leave the station, although these shots are very unconventional. They look as if they should be POV shots, however the camera is flipped. We do not see directly from his point of view, but the camera is facing him, rather than being aligned with him. We then see him commit another murder. While we could at least see the previous one was for a specific purpose (to escape from the police station), as far as we know this one was completely senseless, and if it was not, we know nothing about his motive. His demeanour stays completely calm and collected, and he does it with a smile remaining on his face. This reinforces Bell's point in his monologue earlier in the scene, as we can't understand the nature of Chigurh's crimes; we may agree that, at least within the context of this film, chaos is taking over, the law is losing control of keeping peace and order.  This is presented to us metaphorically when Chigurh chokes out the officer, due to his dominance and the officer's helplessness. We see a man in the shadows emerge and take control.