MovieChat Forums > Raising Arizona (1987) Discussion > Callback/Homage to Raising Arizona in No...

Callback/Homage to Raising Arizona in No Country for Old Men?

posted 15 years ago by briar_A
23 replies | jump to latest

This may be a stretch (and I apologize if someone else has already mentioned this), but I noticed a funny similarity between scenes in 'Raising' and 'No Country.'

In 'Raising,' there is a shot of Leonard Smalls(an unstoppable figure of doom, a manhunter almost supernatural in his ability to track down his prey) riding through the american desert toward his target. En route, he notices a small animal (a lizard) on the side of the road. Without stopping, he takes a shot at it with his gun and keeps on going. Total badass.

In 'No Country,' there is a shot of Anton Chigurh(an unstoppable figure of doom, a manhunter almost supernatural in his ability to track down his prey) riding through the american desert toward his target. En route, he notices a small animal (a bird) on the side of the road. Without stopping, he takes a shot at it with his gun and keeps on going. Total badass.

Maybe I'm a Coen brothers nut, but you can't help comparing the two. I hope it was intentional because that would be awesome...

[–] tdl797 12 years ago

The scene with the old man in the gas station is a lot like the one in No Country.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MikeO_64 9 years ago

That is a great catch...
Here's a couple more:

1) The protagonist and his wife live in a trailer.

2) The protagonist and his wife have southern accents.

3) In the trailer, someone else mentions one (or both) of the protagonist's parents
being dead (Llewellin's mother in NCFOM, both of Hi's parents in RA)

4) Protagonist getting into a pick-up truck driven by someone he doesn't know, with
stolen money, and someone shooting at them.

5) Antagonist puts feet up while/after being intimidating: Smalls puts his feet up on
Arizona's desk; Chagur puts his feet up on the bed after killing Wells.

[–] sami-18 8 years ago

I don't know why we always call these kinds of potential references as "homages". What makes it an homage when it's the same filmmaker(s). An homage means there's some sort of endearing referential celebration of a previous idea. A respect or praise for something. Why would filmmakers praise their own work with a thinly veiled repetition of the same? There's no homage here. This is simply an example of filmmakers repeating an visual and narrative motif that is signature to their style. Every filmmaker does this.