Opening

• Beginning with establishing shot of the western environment: this slow, empty and desolate landscape
• The west has become a forgotten genre, western films typical of Hollywood mainstream genre.
• The non-diegetic voiceover from Sherrif Bell = Nostalgic.

  Spatial temporal alignment with him through his voice being fed to the audience: sense of comfort in the warm raspy voice.
• Opening with the narration of Sheriff Bell places him and his ideologies as central to the films narrative: neo conservatism
• 'can't help but wonder how they would have operated in these times.'
• Bell romanticises a past America of safer and happier times
• Introduced to Anton Chigurh through his black bowl cut, a modern interpretation of the 'black hat', and black costume: the antithesis to Bell who we are introduced to later.
• His face is not revealed until later at the Sherif department where a slow zoom is used twice.
• The camera slowly zooms into a MS of the Officer on the phone, centre framed yet the composition of Chigurh in black costuming in the background draws the audience's attention towards him rather than the Sherriff.
• Use of dramatic irony as the sheriff comments ‘everything is under control’ seconds before Chigurh begins to chock him with his handcuffs – brutal introduction to the violence of the film.
• There is a critique of neo-conservatism here though the masculine competition and the gap between the rich and the poor has led to a culture of individualism where people have to compete with each other and take what they want in order to survive.
• Second slow zoom focuses on brutal violence, Chigurh brutally choking the sheriff to death, his eyes staring up into the camera, lacking a sense of remorse / emotional pain in his actions: rather pain from the force on his wrists. Using Propps narrative theory of characters, Chigurh has been established as a villain through violence being his defining feature.
• The Coen brothers almost force the audience to watch the violence, slow zoom moving you towards the violence rather than aware: face it head on. 
• The ambiguous introduction to C (represented through silhouette + weapon) juxtaposes Bells', Chigurh is given no backstory or motivation represents his absence of morality and plays into his nihilistic ideology (the rejection of all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless).
• Chigurh is a narrative enigma: allegiance against him
• The diegetic wind blowing as the visual of dawn breaking is shown signifies something having changed; Bells narration supported from the time passing as the new dawn promises a significant change taking place in America's ideological system.
• captive bolt stunner = weapon
• Police car rather than horses makes this a neo-western
• We are aligned with Bell through his voiceover rather than Chigurh - despite not seeing Bell.