Speaking of the Coen brothers, their classic work " No Country for Old Men " is absolutely indispensable.
The film swept through the major awards ceremonies that year, and eventually won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and many other awards. As a wonderful graft of American western movies and crime movies, the Coen brothers reshaped the genre mode and element characteristics of western crime movies with their own genre characteristics, and brought these classic genre elements back to life. How to shoot the story of a cold-blooded killer chasing and killing a greedy cowboy, the Coen brothers not only polished the script meticulously, but also made a big fuss on the sound effects .
A good movie is absolutely inseparable from good sound effects. If you turn off the sound when watching a movie, the charm of the movie will be drastically reduced, and its emotional impact will also be greatly weakened. The sound design of a film mainly includes three types: dialogue, sound effects and soundtrack . Movie music can help establish the location and atmosphere of the story, add psychological and emotional connotations to a scene, fill the background, establish continuity, and draw the audience's attention to the climax passage and ending.
In "Old Nowhere", the Coen brothers broke the tradition of using a lot of music to create tension and excitement in suspense thrillers. They followed the principle of less is more . Not only did they fail to score the two main actors in the film, the cowboy and the killer, but also provide background filling and emotional connotation for the characters.
Even in some traditional climax passages, high-volume soundtracks and sound effects were not used in the fierce battle scenes. Uncharacteristically, they used sound effects that people could not easily detect as background music -such as the sound of wind through the forest and the roar of engines. The soundtrack has abandoned traditional musical instruments, instead using bowls that are used in Zen meditation rituals as musical instruments to beat continuous tunes.
When the killer in the film talks with the old man at the gas station, the frequency of the bowl is consistent with the noise frequency of the refrigerator in the gas station, creating a weird and full of tension atmosphere, making the audience nervous, for fear that the killer will be absent in the next second Early warning of the killing. Similar sound effects are designed throughout the film, making the silence and ambient sound create the tension created by traditional film soundtracks. The Coen Brothers did not use complex sound effects, complex mixing and a large amount of music, but went against the trend and created a simple, pure and sophisticated design map. Many scenes of the movie do not have any dialogue, and only rely on the picture and sound design for performance. The most exciting of them is a scene that took place in a dark hotel.
The cowboy took the account and fled all the way to the hotel, wondering why the killer could find him. When he found the tracker with the cash box, it was too late, and the killer came again. The cowboy was sitting on the side of the bed with the money without turning on the light, listening nervously to the movement outside the door. This scene is similar to Hitchcock's "Rear Window". Some key, vague sounds reveal the fact that the killer is quietly approaching. For example, the sound of the friction of the chairs in the lobby, the constant ringing of the telephone of the front desk staff in the distance, and the sound of footsteps gently stepping on the floor outside the door. The sound made when the light bulb was removed in the corridor, the final end was the muffled noise made when the killer shot the lock cylinder on the door from outside the door.
In this scene, sound design is used to promote the narrative , and the gaps in the plot are filled by sound. The atmosphere is strong, and it is a classic among the classics. This small but sophisticated design allows the audience to lean forward and listen to all clues involuntarily, just like the cowboy sitting in the room, with a high concentration of energy and near-breaking nerves. In many films nowadays, grand narratives and endless sound details are pursued. This is the exact opposite of the silent environment and individual noises used to create tension and enhance the atmosphere in "Old Nowhere". Sometimes, being loud is a manifestation of guilty conscience, in order to cover up the lack of narrative skills and the emptiness of the story. "Old Nowhere" is used to give power to the picture with sound , which strengthens the extraordinary charm of the picture itself. The use of this kind of sound montage even surpasses the content of the picture, allowing the audience to have a more profound association in thinking and emotions, and actively participate in filling the gaps in the narrative.
Of course, as a classic film, "Old Nowhere", like most films of the same type, attaches great importance to the text level and depth of the dialogue. For example, in the last two scenes of the film, the two dialogues surrounding the old sheriff can be described as the point of the whole film. Why the film is called "Old Nowhere" and what the theme it wants to express can actually be concluded through the dialogue of the two dramas. In the first scene, the old sheriff discusses his impending retirement with his paralyzed retired colleague. Colleagues were disappointed that he took the initiative to apply for retirement. At the same time, he believed that there was a general malicious and unmotivated murder in society. He thought this was hell.
In the last scene, the retired old sheriff sighed in a monologue that he was about to step into the grave and follow in his father's footsteps, but the strange thing was that he looked older than his father in his dream, and his father remained young, but he was very old. He couldn't keep up with his father's footsteps, and was awakened in a dream after being left behind. Pure evil and endless desires have made society worse than before. The body of his soul has been left behind by the times and will be forgotten. The old sheriff was disappointed at his inability to stop the spread of malice , and felt helpless at the end of his life. "Old Nowhere" is about this kind of helplessness, as well as the unstoppable aging and evil expansion.
Therefore, the classic of "Old Nowhere" comes from the perfect fit of all aspects of the film. Not only the stars and the script, but the sound effects and editing also played an indelible role. What is chilling is that recently, the chairman of the Academy, John Bailey, previously announced that in order to reduce the broadcast time of the Oscars and increase the ratings, four "small" awards will be awarded during the commercial advertising period . This move caused an earthquake of public opinion in Hollywood. Netizens and celebrities criticized this as a lack of basic respect for the winners.
Alfonso Cuaron, who was nominated for ten nominations for "Rome" this year, said indignantly: "Masterpieces in film history can exist without sound, color, story, actors and music, but there is no one. The film does not exist without photography and editing. " Fortunately, because the protests from all sides were too loud, the college once again regretted it and announced that it would not do this. The film is a comprehensive work of artistic expression, and all elements are indispensable. Can you imagine the soundless "Old Nowhere" and the stereotyped picture without editing?
Narrative can never leave those "invisible" things, sometimes they are the movie itself.
View more about No Country for Old Men reviews
