IHWO Activity Pack - Level C2

Reading 6

‘I can recognise different stylistic means and appreciate and evaluate their function within the text’

Not For Old Men

Aim: Learners recognise the meaning and use of irony, sarcasm, hyperbole and metaphor within
texts.

Topic: Film review

Time: 60 minutes

Concept: The learners are asked to explain the function of the above components within two film
reviews. This activity is designed to be used before C2 Writing 4 where learners are asked to
write a film review using these stylistic features.

Suggested Procedure:

1 Ask the learners if they have seen the film “No Country for Old Men”. Get those who have seen the
film to tell those who haven’t something about it (i.e. the plot, the directors, the actors, the style in which
it is made etc.).

2 Give the learners the titles of the two film reviews and get them to predict the content.

Despicable Snuff Film with Pseudo-Intellectual Pretensions. (Text 1)

Expect the Unexpected as the Coen’s Deliver a Pneumatic Jolt to the Head. (Text 2)

Learners then quickly read each text to match it to its title.

3 Learners read text one again and then discuss the questions in pairs.

4 Learners read text two again and discuss the questions in pairs.

5 Reaction to text. If Sts have seen the film, they can discuss which review best reflects their own
opinion. If not, they could discuss if they would now like to see the film based on either of these reviews.

© International House World Organisation C2 Activity Pack

IHWO Activity Pack - Level C2

Reading 6

‘I can recognise different stylistic means and appreciate and evaluate their function within the text’

Text 1

Read Text 1 again and discuss the following questions with your partner.

a. How does the writer reinforce the idea that the film is “pseudo-intellectual”?

b. What is the writer trying to convey when he says:

i. He is Frankenstein. He is Max Cady from Cape Fear.
ii. displaying the supple sinuosity of a Cirque du Soleil contortionist
iii. scene after scene after scene
iv. Guess Chigurh couldn’t get hold of a Texas chainsaw.
v. “What is Woody Harrelson doing here?”

c. What do you notice about the last sentences of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3? Why has
the writer done this?

Text 2

Read Text 2 again and discuss the following questions with your partner.

a. What is the writer trying to convey when he says:

i. There’s very little “good” in No Country for Old Men”
ii. a spit in the eye to the noble ones
iii. the game of cat and mouse
iv. the Coens weave a web of dangled threads that one can’t help but expect
to be neatly tied together at the story’s end, only to tie them up in ways that
buck the storytelling norm

b. Based on the 2003 novel by Cormac McCarthy, the movie unfolds in the dusty
Texas borderlands in text 2 is a sentence beginning with a participle clause. Find
more examples of these in text 2. Why has the writer used these?

© International House World Organisation C2 Activity Pack

IHWO Activity Pack - Level C2

Reading 6

‘I can recognise different stylistic means and appreciate and evaluate their function within the text’

Text 1 Answer key

a. How does the writer reinforce the idea that the film is “pseudo-intellectual”?

"No Country for Old Men" is for the kind of film fan who remarks, "Gee, wasn't that murder a clever
mise-en-scene?"

Tommy Lee Jones, whose ear lobes appear to be metastasizing as he ages, wanders aimlessly
through the film as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, delivering corny, homespun, cowboy poet ruminations that
are more or less opaque in meaning.

Visit internet discussion boards devoted to this movie and you will find fans asking, not "What is
fate?" or "What is the role of a good man in a bad world?" but questions like, "If Hannibal Lector
and Anton Chigurh were locked in a room, who would come out alive?"

b. What is the writer trying to convey when he says:

i. He is Frankenstein. He is Max Cady from Cape Fear.
Here the writer uses hyperbole to reinforce the fact that Chirgurh is an
exaggerated, archetypal film bad guy. He may also be saying the character is
unoriginal.

ii. displaying the supple sinuosity of a Cirque du Soleil contortionist

The writer uses a sarcastic simile to reinforce the fact that the scene is
implausible.

iii. scene after scene after scene

This repetition is used to show how the writer feels the film is a repetitive
sequence of murder scenes with little else.

iv. Guess Chigurh couldn’t get hold of a Texas chainsaw.

This is a sarcastic comparison to the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The
writer is trying to say that despite it’s “pseudo-intellectual pretensions” the only
difference between this film and a standard horror film is the choice of weapon.

v. “What is Woody Harrelson doing here?”

This is a rhetorical question suggesting that the addition of a Hollywood star in
this film is pointless and that the character has no real role in the film. It is put
in inverted commas to give the idea that the writer thought this, or said it out
loud when watching the film.

c. What do you notice about the last sentences of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3? Why has the writer
done this?
The writer has used short, simple sentences to clarify his opinion following all the sarcasm
and exaggeration. By doing this he also reinforces his idea that the film is ultimately very
simple.

© International House World Organisation C2 Activity Pack

IHWO Activity Pack - Level C2

Reading 6

‘I can recognise different stylistic means and appreciate and evaluate their function within the text’

Text 2 Answer Key

a. What is the writer trying to convey when he says:

i. There’s very little “good” in No Country for Old Men”

This is an ironic statement as it is clear the writer thinks the film is very good. It
also serves to point out the dark, evil nature of the film.

ii. a spit in the eye to the noble ones

“A spit in the eye” is a standard metaphor meaning an insult to. “ones” here
refers to the elements of the soul.

iii. the game of cat and mouse

Another standard metaphor to describe a prolonged chase sequence.

iv. the Coens weave a web of dangled threads that one can’t help but expect
to be neatly tied together at the story’s end, only to tie them up in ways
that buck the storytelling norm
In this extended metaphor the writer has played with a standard metaphor of
tying film “threads” together to show how the film does not follow traditional film
conventions.

b. Based on the 2003 novel by Cormac McCarthy, the movie unfolds in the dusty Texas
borderlands in text 2 is a sentence beginning with a participle clause. Find more examples
of these in text 2. Why has the writer used these?

Bearing little in common with pretty much any previous Coen film…
Switching back and forth between the game of cat and mouse…
Succumbing to temptation…

The writer uses these structures to cram a lot of information into one sentence. This is an
example of the cohesion that is often lacking in student writing.

© International House World Organisation C2 Activity Pack

IHWO Activity Pack - Level C2

Reading 6

‘I can recognise different stylistic means and appreciate and evaluate their function within the text’

Text 1

"No Country for Old Men" is for the kind of film fan who remarks, "Gee, wasn't that murder a clever
mise-en-scene?" and who asks, "What kind of lens do you think they used in that strangulation shot?"
The skeleton of "No Country for Old Men" is a cheap, 78-minute, gun-monster-chase B movie. Javier
Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, the monster. He is Frankenstein. he is Max Cady from Cape Fear. He
may be death personified.

One of many completely implausible scenes: an arresting officer, defying any logic, turns his back
on Chigurh. Chigurh, displaying the supple sinuosity of a Cirque du Soleil contortionist, slips out of
his handcuffs and, in real time, strangles the young police officer to death on camera. This is the payoff
for "No Country for Old Men": watching one human being kill other human beings, in scene after scene
after scene, using various weapons, including a captive bolt pistol usually used on livestock. Guess
Chigurh couldn't get hold of a Texas chainsaw. This is a slasher flick for the pretentious.

Tommy Lee Jones, whose ear lobes appear to be metastasizing as he ages, wanders aimlessly
through the film as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, delivering corny, homespun, cowboy poet ruminations that are
more or less opaque in meaning. No doubt the film's fans are even now feverishly compiling a
companion volume that decodes Bell's dreams and conveys their depth. Woody Harrelson shows up for
a completely pointless half-hour role that yanks the viewer right out of the movie. "What is Woody
Harrelson doing here?" The narrative flow is truncated and yet the movie keeps going; viewers ask
themselves why the movie is continuing -- sometimes out loud, even in a movie theater -- this is
supposed to be a deep, intellectual experience. It is not. It is merely annoying.

Visit internet discussion boards devoted to this movie, and you will find fans asking, not "What is
fate?" or "What is the role of a good man in a bad world?" but questions like, "If Hannibal Lector and
Anton Chigurh were locked in a room, who would come out alive?" Given such reflections, one is safe in
concluding that the appeal of this film is its emphasis on graphic violence, rather than on any more
advanced intellectual or artistic merit.

© International House World Organisation C2 Activity Pack

IHWO Activity Pack - Level C2

Reading 6

‘I can recognise different stylistic means and appreciate and evaluate their function within the text’

Text 2

There's very little "good" in No Country for Old Men beyond the mesmerizing acting and viciously dark
screenplay. Instead, the unholy trinity of temptation, cynicism and pure, dark, evil take center stage in this
modern western directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.

Based on the 2003 novel by Cormac McCarthy, the movie unfolds in the dusty Texas borderlands as
hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the remnants of a desert drug deal gone bad,
complete with a case containing two million dollars. Succumbing to temptation, Moss makes off with the
money setting in motion a chain of events that leaves a trail of blood spattered carnage across the state
as he is pursued by the ruthless, coin tossing hit man Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) among whose
killing weapons of choice is a pneumatic air gun.

Bearing little in common with pretty much any previous Coen film, No Country for Old Men is a dark,
bleak, ode to the baser elements of the human soul, and a spit in the eye to the noble ones as well.

With a structural trademark hinging upon breaking the conventional norms of predictability, No Country is
a movie that will unsettle you at successive turns - in the way deaths are dealt out; by its palpable
tension that can almost be cut with a knife, and its periodic deviations from the narrative norm.

Switching back and forth between the game of cat and mouse being played out by Moss and Chigurh
and the investigation of unfolding events by cynical aging Texas Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), the
Coens weave a web of dangled threads that one can't help but expect will be neatly tied together
at story's end, only to tie them up in ways that buck the storytelling norm and manage to be both
unsatisfying and true to their nature at the same time.

As unhappy as I am that the Coen's screenplay defiantly refuses to cater to the audience's inherent
desire for satisfaction, I grudgingly have to admire them for opting for the unpredictable.

Consider the movie akin to one big coin toss – will it be heads or tales? Call it - you've been calling it
your entire life.

© International House World Organisation C2 Activity Pack