How Black Widow Was Inspired By No Country for Old Men

Director Cate Shortland revealed how Black Widow was inspired by the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men. Starring Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin, No Country For Old Men was one of the Coen Brother's most acclaimed films to date after its release in 2007. The film went on to score four trophies at the 80th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film has been heralded as one of the greatest modern Westerns to be released, a genre that rarely crosses over with the mega-franchise Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Now, fourteen years later, Black Widow will herald Marvel's return to the big screen and finally deliver the solo film audiences have been waiting for. Natasha Romanoff will take center stage for the first time, eleven years after Black Widow's debut in Iron Man 2. Early reviews for the film have praised the action at the film's center thanks to Shortland's directing. That action seems to fall in line with much of Marvel's typical bombast, but Shortland took inspiration from a much quieter film, one that could be considered the antithesis to the MCU.

In an interview with CNet, Shortland revealed that the movie she watched the most was No Country For Old Men. The director doesn't even consider the Coen Brothers' film an action movie, but she says that she appreciates the suspense that the movie builds through "stillness and the rhythm of it." This was particularly influential, according to Shortland, when it came to the character of Taskmaster and the way he operates during his fight scenes. Read Shortland's full thoughts below:

The film that I watched the most was No Country for Old Men, even though it isn't an action movie. But it's so beautiful how the Coen brothers create suspense in stillness and the rhythm of it. That was really influential for the Taskmaster moment when he pulls up on the bridge and he's walking towards her.

Natasha and Yelena standing amongst the ruins in Black Widow

The comparison may seem strange - how much can a film like No Country For Old Men really inspire a blockbuster like Black Widow? Still, there is something to be learned from the Coen Brothers' film, one that takes its moments of action as seriously as it does its quieter, more intimate moments. This will be important in Black Widow, especially as the film explores Natasha Romanoff's mysterious past and the family she left behind when she was younger.

Shortland's comparison is also reminiscent of Eternals director Chloé Zhao being inspired by The Revenant. Those two films likely have little in common, but both auteurs excel in their craft by finding these similarities and putting a unique stamp on what can be a formulaic franchise according to some of the MCU's detractors. It's these inspirations, though, that keep many of these films fresh for audiences. How No Country For Old Men manifests in Black Widow remains to be seen, but it will certainly be interesting to see Shortland's unique directorial perspective within the Marvel machine.

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Source: CNet