Symbolism In Film

No Country for Old Men, set in rural Texas follows three story lines. Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell are the central characters of the three story lines. The film follows Llewelyn and Anton through their ‘cat and mouse’ chase, with Sheriff Ed Tom following close by. Throughout the film Anton is made to appear immortal and viewed as an angel of death, whom shows no empathy for others and decides the fate of those he encounters. The themes of fate and destiny are depicted through the techniques of symbolism and characterisation. Numerous scenes and props seen throughout the film symbolise these themes, for example Anton’s coin, a device witnessed to be used to decide one’s fate. Characterisation is also a tool utilised for

An example of symbolism being utilised for the depiction of the themes, Anton’s coin, a device witnessed by the audience to decide ones fate. Anton believes that destiny will decide your fate, an example of this is at the petrol station “And it’s either heads or tails…Call it…You stand to win everything. Call it” Anton’s views about destiny and fate are all put in perspective for the audience to see. Another example of symbolism are the camera shots of stretches of roads, portraying a characters choice and fate for example, scenes of long bending roads represent the unknown and long straight roads represent a known destination. Specific roads relate to a specific character, long straight roads tend to relate to Sheriff Ed Tom as he knows what he is in for and through his past experiences has a sense of what is going to happen. Long straight roads also relate to Anton as he is seen throughout the film finding Llewellyn even after the tracker is destroyed, the long straight roads also demonstrate how confident the character is about what to do. Bending roads, where the audience cannot see the location at which the road ends relate to Llewellyn, who in most cases is seen going where the road takes him in hopes of shaking Anton off his tail, so to speak, the bending roads also relate to his lack of experience in such scenarios. The film depicts the themes of fate and destiny through symbolism throughout the film, multiple scenes and props symbolise the main themes of the