GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “No Country for Old Men”

For our next GITS Script Reading & Analysis, the screenplay is No Country for Old Men, screenplay by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.

You can download the November 28, 2005 draft of the script here. It is 122 pages long.

With this script, we cover two areas: The Coen brothers and noted novelist [and recently turned screenwriter] Cormac McCarthy.

The schedule:

Monday, June 25: General discussion
Tuesday, June 26: Structure
Wednesday, June 27: Characters
Thursday, June 28: Themes
Friday, June 29: Dialogue

Also note we will have a live Tweet-Cast on Wednesday, June 27 at 8PM Pacific. You are invited to get your DVD or Netflix set to play the movie at precisely 8PM, then join professional screenwriters Tom Benedek [@TomBenedek], F. Scott Frazier [@ScreenWritten], John Gary [@johngary], and myself on Twitter for live commentary. This interactive approach to analyzing a movie in real-time is a lot of fun and led to some great insights into the films we have reviewed.

In anticipation of our week-long foray into the script, please post any interviews you find with the Coen brothers or features about the film. Here is an excerpt with Joel and Ethan talking about adapting the novel into a screenplay as well as the shooting they did in West Texas:

Joel makes an interesting point, how the story starts out like a genre piece, then “pulls the rug out from under you.” Something to keep in mind as we read the script.

So download. Read. Then prepare to analyze it the last week of June.

NOTE: THE USE OF THE SCREENPLAY IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

UPDATE: The download URL has now been fixed with a clean version of the script.

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