The Coen Brothers' Films

No Country for Old Men is an old-fashioned 2007 American western thriller directed, written, and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen (the Coen Brothers). It is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name.  Fargo is a 1996 American crime-black comedy, also written, produced, edited, and directed by the Coen brothers 12 years before No Country for Old Men was released.  

 

I found that the main criminals in both films are extremely similar. In No Country for Old men Anthon Chirgurh was a criminal/hit man, and in Fargo Carl and Gaear are both criminals.  The plots of both films are crime/thriller. Both films had very disturbing murders – in No Country for Old Men, the movie started off Anton Chigurh murdered an innocent man driving his car with a captive bolt pistol. In Fargo, Gaear kills Carl with an axe then feeds his body into a wood chipper. The protagonists in both films are very similar as well; both Sheriff Ed Tom Bell from No Country for Old Men and Marge Gunderson from Fargo have very similar jobs with both working in law enforcement. I also noticed that films have very similar settings with both being very rural – Fargo was filmed in the snowy plains of Minnesota and No Country for Old Men was primarily filmed in the deserted desert in Texas. It was interesting to see the Coens chose settings that are very different but similar at the same time.

In my opinion, I found Fargo slightly more interesting than No Country for Old Men because I feel as though the comic relief in the old fold town accents the characters portrayed, particularly Marge’s made movie more engaging.