Introduction to Sheriff Belle

• Beginning on an ELS with Bell + his horse: the sheriff costume, white hat and horse are all traditional symbol of Western genre.
• White hat = symbolic code of the hero in Westerns.
• Recognition of his voice forms a subconscious comfort with him, he was there before the violent, immoral, and criminal activities began.
• Background reveals the poverty that fills the West: he is living in a bungalow, rundown and isolated against the widespread landscape of the dry land.
• Poverty links to the anti- neo - conservative ideology that critics believe led to high unemployment.
• Loretta: ‘when’s the county going to start paying a rental on my horse’ establishing the anti-capitalist ideology, although small, the horse acts as a symbol of the corruption of capitalism and the higher powers taking advantage of those below them. active female role
• ‘Be careful. Always am. Don’t get hurt. Never do. Don’t hurt no one. If you say so.’ This quote sums up Sherriff Bells role as the strongest hero, but he is struggling to keep up with it, the sense of violent behaviours everywhere.
• Cut to MS of Winston and Bell filling opposite frames: they represent the old vs new that Bell was talking about in the voiceover in the beginning of the film.
• Winston = youthful, inexperienced, innocent

  Bell = old, experienced, being a sherif is his life
• LS Winston ‘they even shot the dog’ – sense of using the popularity of dogs as loving pets to establish the sheer cruelty in the film. Murdering of innocents.
• 'age will flatten a man windell;'
• Slow pan down as Chigurh enters into the home - SRS eyeline match as he clocks the mess on the bed (Stanton's 2+2 theory) telling the audience that C has figured out they left not long ago.
• In a MS, Chigurh sits in the centre of the sofa with a bottle of milk before intensely staring straight forward - looking at nothing, Mirrored by Bell: a tightening MCU as he drinks the milk, sat in the same place C once sat, and staring at the same spot C once stared: forming a link between the two in their alienation in society.
• Chigurh takes the milk from Moss’s fridge and leaves it on a coffee table: before he is seen reflected in the TV in a MCU.


  Mirrored by Bell, The reflection could convey Sheriff and Chigurh are literally reflections of each other, seeing as they are both the cat in this cat and mouse game.
• Minutes later, Sheriff Bell and partner mirror Chigurh: taking a much more haughtily approach to entering the trailer.
• Sherrif notices the milk: 'now that's aggravating, it's still sweating.', and that's what makes them realise they just missed Chigurh.
• The Sheriff does not pursue Anton here because he does not want to. It's implied throughout the whole movie that he is terrified of Anton and doesn't actually want to come across him, because at the end of the day he is an old-timer who cannot comprehend the twisted crimes he is witnessing now.
• He has no experience to help him prepare for the level of cruelty he will face if he finds Anton, and he knows that he is completely helpless against him.
• HA MS As he sits down and pours the glass of milk - his slow, calm performance holds an air of relief at Chigurh not being there
• Mirroring reflection shot: Bells hat duplicated in the shadow + lit showing the white of it in comparison to C's black hair: genre convention of white hat vs black hat.
• The old style tv and the traditional milk bottle help establish nostalgia... a feeling of loss for a time we think we remember. 
• Insert shot of milk (enigma?) left on table: Chigurh doesn't not care about the milk, it's a power move.  He's showing Sheriff Bell that he's in control of the entire situation and that he moves at will, without the usual fear of the authorities.
• Sherriff appears to dismissive the typical behaviour of a sheriff - he is scared and reluctant, and actually does not want to catch up to Chigurh.
• Sheriff knows anybody as professional as to use compressed air to blow out a lock doesn’t care if he leaves prints. He’s never been processed and he’ll die before that happens. Nobody in prison is tough. They all gave up and got manhandled. The tough guys get away or die trying