GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “No Country For Old Men” — Themes

This week we will be analyzing the screenplay for the 2007 movie No Country For Old Men [screenplay by Joe Coen & Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy]. It won an Academy Award and a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

You can download the November 28, 2005 draft of the script here.

Here is a scene from the movie:

Today we discuss the script’s themes.

There are several of them. Which ones do you see at work in the story?

To get things started, what is going on with the motif of coins in the script? We just did a live Tweet-Cast of the movie last night and very clearly there is some intent about the placement and use of coins. One of the participants in our session last night @stuckerboyer sent a link to this article: “No Country For Old Men — The coin-toss scene, as seen by a linguist.

By the way, I will posting a transcript of the Tweet-Cast on Saturday. Screenwriters Tom Benedek, F. Scott Frazier, and John Gary provided commentary along with a whole bunch of other people. Outstanding analysis.

BBC Coen brothers documentary, Part 4:

For Day 1 of our analysis, go here.

For Day 2 on structure, go here.

For Day 3 on characters, go here.

See you in comments to discuss the themes in No Country For Old Men.

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

Comment Archive