The Minimal Score of No Country For Old Men

There's minimal film scoring - and then there's No Country For Old Men. As far as I can tell, there's 40 seconds of music played at the end of the opening monologue, and apart from a handful of "tones" (as described by Carter Burwell) that's it. This presents an interesting concept. On a first watch of the film, unless the viewer already knows the film is virtually without a score, this moment is like many others in film, a monotone pad, starting airy and gradually dripping bass in to create a textured drone, forming a IV - I resolution with the introduction of the bass/sub. This accompanies a car, carrying the antagonist - Anton - down an iconic, desert highway in Texas. However, upon seeing the film again, the prescence of music in this scene adds a monumental amount of weight - given that it doesn't make an appearance in the rest of the film.

The lack of score also gives weight to something else in the film, something that helps to create the legendary tension created by the Coen brothers - the transponder. Anton carries with him a transponder that beeps quicker the closer he is to Llewelyn Moss. The beeping almost becomes a score for some scenes - and could be argued to be more tension-building than any music could have achieved. And than it itself brings about the real lesson for film composers to take from No Country For Old Men.

It's an absolute masterclass in when not to add music to a scene. It's such a common feature of newer composers to overcompose a scene/film/show - and whilst it unquestionably helps to have a film so expertly created that music is not required, any composer can take a lesson from the decisions made to create the iconic, memorable experience that No Country For Old Men provides.