The film ‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007), by the Coen Brothers, is a tangled look into an intense game of cat and mouse between an initially unassuming hunter, who discovers a briefcase full of money from a drug deal massacre, and a psychopathic killer whose ‘morals’ separate him from the civilized world of law and order. This veers the story into what I would define as a modern and dark western. While the story is full of tension, there is no definite score or musical theme during the duration of the story. Without being guided how to feel from music there is a certain proximity the audience has to the characters in the story, both unknowing and guided by fear.

There is no score for the duration of the film aside from a drone that follows the introductory narration, and a closing theme that concludes the storyline along side the credits. This is one of the main reasons why I am choosing to score this film; in an attempt to create a narrative for an original score without infringing on the director’s decision to maintain both ambiguity and proximity with the audience and the characters on screen.

I am currently planning to approach the score through a combination of both musical, spacial, and foley elements; using specific instrumentation including acoustic guitar, lapsteel guitar, maracas, and a collage of static recording and environmental effects. The two scenes I am deciding between include the hunting scene towards the beginning of the film where Llewelyn discovers the briefcase, the scene in the hotel where Llewelyn and Anton come face to face before engaging in a shootout, and the interaction between Llewelyn and the men on the bridge on the Texas/Mexico border.