The+Counselor


 * Film Title- **
 * The Counselor **

This film revolves around a lawyer who decides to make a one time drug deal that goes south very quickly. The films storyline is all over the place, and the plot was not actually the main focus of the film. It essentially starts out with the Counselor (whose name is never revealed) in bed with his girlfriend, Laura, before he flies to amsterdam to buy a ring for her. The Counselor then meets with Reiner to discuss a drug deal, where the mexican cartel will cut them both in in return for their help. The Counselor then proposes to Laura and she says yes. The Counselor then meets with Westray, another player in the drug business who gives him advice. The Counselor meets with one of his clients in prison, who asks him to bail out her son who was caught speeding. He agrees and leaves. Things go downhill when the son who the Counselor bailed out was killed, and it turns out he was connected to the mexican cartel. The Counselor tries to fix his problem by going to Reiner and Westray, however nothing seems to help. Eventually Reiner and Westray, who the mexican cartel believed to be involved in the son’s killing, were killed. The Counselor tries to escape with Laura, however Laura is captured by the cartel, and later the Counselor receives a DVD and although it is never shown it is implied that Laura was brutally murdered. The theme of the movie is the futility of our actions, that no matter how smart we are our whole entire worlds can come crashing down on us all because of a simple speeding ticket. The tone is very cold, it appears as though there is no escape from his situation.
 * Plot- **
 * Theme- **
 * Tone- **

**Non- Diegetic Element 1.** When Westray dies there is suspenseful music playing, that is not in the world of the film, it was instead used to let the reader know that something bad was coming.

**Non- Diegetic Element 2.** When the Counselor and Laura are together in bed at the beginning of the film there is serene music playing that is not in the world of the film as well, it is simply there to express their love for each other.

**Non-Diegetic Element 3.** After the sceen with Laura and the Counselor, there is another scene with Malkina and Reiner together watching cheetas in the wilderness, which is interspersed with scenes of the drugs being prepared in the truck. These two scenes have random opening credits between shots. Also this text was cool. Just saying.


 * Non-Diegetic Element 4. **This shot of the bridge has a text that is non-diegetic, however this is the only time in the entire film that the location of the scene is shown to the view (in non-diegetic form).


 * Mis En Scene Example 1: ** An example of Mis En Scene would be the cheetas as the beginning of the film. The Cheetas represent Malkina, the woman who appears to be simply Reiner's girlfriend, however it is later revealed that she is actually an antagonist. The Cheetas represent how ruthless and powerful she is.

**Mis En Scene Example 3:** Laura's dresses during the days before she was captured were consistently white, although on the day she was caught she was wearing a vibrant red dress with a white coat on. The white represented her innocence. To the Counselor, she was wholly pure, perfect for him, so much so that he was willing to make a drug deal simply to live with her for the rest of his life. When we first see them they are under the covers surrounded in white. The red symbolized her blood and foreshadowed her demise. The way she was so perfect made her death that much more jarring and harsh, how the mistakes of one man broke something so innocent in such a horrific fashion. _
 * Mis En Scene Example 2:** Another example of mis en scene is the diamond that the Counselor proposes to Laura with. When the Counselor talks with the diamond seller, he has a discussion about the purpose of adornment, and he says that that is to "to enhance the beauty of the beloved is to acknowledge both her frailty and the nobility of that frailty. We announce to the darkness that we will not be diminished by the brevity of our lives. That we will not thereby be made less." This is ironic, as I said before the theme of the movie is the futility of our actions. The diamond itself is imperfect; as all are. It is a symbol of the brevity of our lives, not, what the expert believes, a message to the "darkness that we will not be diminished by the brevity of our lives". Laura in the end was killed, due to the Counselor's small mistake our lives; Laura's life was diminished by the brevity of her life. There are "meaningful" conversations throughout the whole film that make one seem to think that the characters are in control, but Cormac McCarthy's purpose was to show that no matter how meaningfully you can speak, our lives are very frail. The diamond was the symbol of that idea.
 * Mis En Scene Example 4:** Malkina often wears clothing with the pattern of a cheetah on it, she even has a tattoo of one on her shoulder. In this example they combined clothing and tattoos with actual cheetahs to strengthen the anthropomorphism. The tattoo and her cheetah patterned clothing make her, as i mentioned before, ruthless and powerful. Malkina is the one that set everything into motion against the Counselor, the anthropomorphism helps us understand her character by giving us a symbol that we can attribute characteristics to. We can tell at the beginning of the movie that she has had a harsh life and that she has lost many loved ones. We can tell that although she has a relationship with Reiner, she doesn't love him as he loves her. She is lonely. Like a cheetah she was raised in very tough environment and she is conditioned to kill for her own personal safety and wellbeing.
 * Mis En Scene Example 5:** This film has many deaths, but most murders are done with beheadings. Both beheadings are orchestrated by Malkina. Both times she could have easily used a much more simple method of killing, but instead she cuts off their heads. Westray and the Counselor actually have a discussion about the ruthlessness of people in the drug business and talk about beheadings. Ironically, Westray is warning him about the danger but he himself is beheaded. The beheadings are a symbol of not only the power of evil but the audacity, how far they will go even when it seems like they don't need to. One thing that Ridley Scott did was he had someone set up a line across a road, and before that that man measured the height of a motorcycle at a dealership. It seems obvious but I actually did not know what it was for. But while he was setting it up I kept thinking through what it could mean. This film was more than just mindless action, it was thought-provoking. The close up of the wire foreshadowed the death of the motorcyclist. (HUGE SPOILERS)
 * Mis En Scene Example 6:** This disk is the most horrifying example of violence throughout the entire film. It's ironic that something so arbitrary with text that is actually cheerful could be horrifying but what it represents is enough to make the view nauseous, and the reaction of the main character is even more heart-wrenching. Earlier I mentioned that when Westray and the Counselor had a discussion Westray, as an example of how ruthless the cartel is, told the Counselor about how he heard that once a girl was taken captive and put in front of a camera, where she was killed and raped. The shot of the disk lasts a while, as it takes the viewer a time to realize what happened. I didn't want to believe it for a good 5 seconds. The actual death is never shown. Ridley Scott combined foreshadowing with mis en scene to come up with something this gruesome. In a later shot we see a landfill, and something is tossed into it. If you look closely it appears to be red, the color of the dress Laura was wearing when she was captured. It's like everything ties back together in a horrific knot.