Have you ever seen the Coen brothers’ movie No Country for Old Men? It’s great. I mean, maybe a little unsettling, but great. It’s an adaptation of a novel by Cormac McCarthy, a writer known for a distaste for punctuation and his bleakly pessimistic and spare worldview. The movie takes place primarily in West Texas in 1980, and the film, like all Coen brothers films, is very carefully produced and crafted. There’s almost nothing anachronistic in the film, with wardrobes and scenery and everything very painstakingly selected to be appropriate to that time and place.
That includes, of course, the cars.
The movie is full of great and mundane mid-Malaise-Era iron. There’s very little flashy about these cars, mostly midrange domestic family cars and trucks. There are hardly any imports, hardly anything fancier than a Buick. It’s pretty much what you’d have seen on a rural West Texas street in the summer of 1980. It’s clear the car casting was taken seriously.
I think that’s why this detail is so fascinating to me, because it shows how important the filmmakers felt the car-casting should be, and the lengths they’d go to make sure everything was just right. But at the same time, it’s also hilariously half-assed. It’s in this scene; see if you can spot what I’m talking about: [Ed note, and spoiler alert: feel free to stop the video after Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) gets out of the patrol car, if you’re averse to mild screen gore – Pete]
It doesn’t have anything to do with the white Ford Granada with the one broken reverse lamp; I think a smashed reverse lamp was a factory option for those. It has to do with the Chevrolet Caprice cop car behind the Granada. Take a look at the cop car; does anything look sort of … off? 
Here, let’s get a little closer. Computer! Zoom and enhance!
See it now? Look that the headlights; what’s going on with those lights? Why is the outboard light about, oh, 10% bigger than the inner one? And, wait a minute – are those even two separate headlights? Why do their borders look kind of wonky?
There’s shenanigans happening here. Shenanigans involving what appears to be black gaffer’s tape, being used to visually disguise one wide, rectangular composite headlamp into what appears to be two rectangular sealed beam headlights! But why?
Well, the reason why is pretty straightforward: anachronisms.
You see, this generation of Chevy Caprice – the third generation – lasted from 1977 to 1990, but during that healthy lifespan, the car received three facelifts. The first sub-generation was from 1977 to 1979, then tweaks were made for the 1980 to 1985 cars, and then one final refreshing in 1986, continuing until that generation ended in 1990.
That means for the movie to be accurate, only the first sub-generation and the very first year of the second could be used. Those wide composite headlights didn’t appear until the final facelift in 1986, well after the scope of the movie.
For reference, here’s a 1981 Caprice’s face:
…and here’s a 1990 one:
There’s some other minor differences – grille size, shape, mesh pattern, and so on – but arguably the most readily noticeable difference are those headlights. The wide composite lamps just change the look of the car a surprising amount, and they just feel like something of the 1990s, not 1980s, at least in America.
So, this is what we have going on:
They had a 1986-1990 Caprice police car, and they needed to make it look like a 1980 (at latest) Caprice police car. But the headlights were too big a giveaway, hence the gaffer’s tape.
According to the sleuths over at the Internet Movie Car Database, the No Country for Old Men Caprice cop car is a 1990, based on the door-mounted seat belt. They also note other attempts to make the car look older, like the removal of the CHMSL from the rear package shelf.
That car above there is an example of a 1980 Caprice police car. There’s a good bit different from the No Country for Old Men car, but I think the prop people made the right call in that the headlights are the most important element to try and reconcile. But even then, I have to wonder why they just did it with gaffer’s tape?
I mean, if it was important enough to change at all, and it clearly was, why didn’t they try and find a period-correct car? The car isn’t just a background car, it’s used by one of the main characters for an extended period of time. It seems like it’d be worth getting the one you actually want?
Maybe finding a good cop car with a more rural Texas-type livery – not a classic big city black-and-white – was harder than they expected. Maybe that was the only car they could use. If that was the case, why not actually change out the headlight units?
It wouldn’t have been hard or expensive; the size and shape of the housings between the two types of lights are basically the same. One should bolt right into place of the other. They could have picked up the older headlight bezels and inner headlight buckets for probably, what, $150 total? They’d bolt right in! These are daytime shots so they wouldn’t even need to wire anything up!
But instead they picked tape?
I’m just baffled. If this is important enough to do something about, why did they do something so half-assed? I mean, they could have at least measured and put the damn dividing line in the center!
I know all those gaffers have tape measures on them. It’d have killed someone to measure this? The fact that the size difference is noticeable even at a distance is ridiculous.
I’m not entirely sure what to think about all this – it’s such a strange contradiction or maybe juxtaposition or contrast or one of those words about how two things relate to one another where incredible care was paid to the idea, but less so in the execution.
It doesn’t hurt the movie at all, though, and I never even realized it until the Bishop pointed it out to me today, so I suppose in the grand scheme, it hardly matters. Still, I can’t stop thinking about it, and I’m kind of delighted to know it’s A Thing.
Also, if I’m honest? The tape basically works. It’s probably good enough.
Maybe if the Coen brothers decided to release a re-mastered version, they’ll use CGI to superimpose the proper headlights over those goofy taped-up ones. Seems like a good use of money.
Top graphic image: Miramax
Is it really a Coen brothers film without a blue VW beetle in the background?
Now that you mention Coen Universe Cop-Car Antics, let’s talk about the Chrysler B-bodies in the second season of Fargo.
Gran Fury…hardtops!?!?
I didn’t notice that but then again if I had I would not know what I was looking at. For me I question the double bubble red lights and the siren. Pretty sure it was a single bubble and the the siren s were either on or off and didn’t have the modern woo woop. But I was never arrested in texas in the 50s.
’80’s
Fifties should have been a Federal rotary siren.
“Cormac McCarthy, a writer known for a distaste for punctuation and his bleakly pessimistic and spare worldview”
Yeah, he might’ve been a good writer but it behooves one to take into consideration how 40-something McCarthy had a, uh (ugh, rather), relationship with his 16-year-old “muse” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/20/cormac-mccarthy-began-relationship-with-16-year-old-while-42-and-married
Worked for Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Woody Allen.
This is bad up there with plot spoilers, Ive yet to watch this movie, now I cant watch it without thinking about how they used gaffer tape on this is a 3rd gen to make a 1gen Caprice. JK! Good catch
Fixing anachronisms in otherwise period-correct movies is one of the few approved uses for CGI/AI reimagining that comes to mind. And yeah, stuff like this should be at or near the top of the list.
Well, I didn’t notice the headlights. I thought it was going to be something about not having a non-exempt license plate. But I don’t know what protocols Texas state and local law enforcement agencies followed back in 1980.
The LAPD black and white definitely has an inaccurate (normal non-exempt) plate by California standards. Marked units always have an exempt plate. They had an “E” inside of a vertically stretched octagon back in the day. Now there’s “CA EXEMPT” in all red letters at the top of the plate. I was a news photographer back then and had cool press photographer plates that had “PP” arranged inside of a triangle. Nostalgically, I regret not pulling the plates off my car when it was rear-ended, totaled and towed. I don’t know whether those plates saved me any tickets and some colleagues chose not to have them, thinking they would be targeted by thieves. Issued to me in 1980, mine were blue with the embossed yellow PP icon and numerals.
I have noticed press (not just photographer) plates in New York with the letters NYP in a smaller font. I also saw plates from New Jersey with that notation, although in a different format. I don’t whether neighboring Connecticut offered them as well.
When I moved from CA to western NY and Ohio, in the early 90s, I was surprised to see the red light bars volunteer firefighters were allowed to have on their personal vehicles. I understand the rationale, but I think the potential for abuse was there.
Anyone can buy lights.
Criminal use will still get you trouble.
NYP plates are primarily so you can get the city to put up a sign saying NYP parking only, places like the courthouse, Madison square garden. The photo lab I used had a couple NYP spaces. Also NYP plates get waved through police blocks at news events.
For avoiding parking tickets there’s a media placard you display in your windshield,
There is some arcane definition of what counts as press. Weekly publications didn’t count as I recall.
I had to turn off the movie when I saw that. /s
I know right? How could this movie win best film with these kinds of flaws? I’ll never watch it again.
Looking closely at a still, of course it is wrong. In motion, on film it likely passed. Job well done.
I absolutely noticed this when I saw it for the first time. The tail lights are 1986-1990 specific too.
Yes the early were fully chrome framed squares. Gawd I’m getting old.
The older Caprice they’d gotten for the role didn’t have a SAG card and they had to roll with this Chevy-Come-Lately at the last minute or blow up the expensive shooting schedule.
Lotta 90’s Town Cars, W140 and newer S-Classes and Range Rovers with SAG cards, but they weren’t right for the part.
The cop car would probably have been an Impala, not a Caprice, and you can see where they appear to have covered much of the turn signal with body color brown, leaving only the thin strip where the side light on the 80-85 Impala would have been. But you can’t just swap light modules – the whole fascia is different.
The Caprice from the auction site is wearing early S-10 base model hubcaps t
Yeah the fact that it is a Caprice and not an Impala with dog dishes is the thing that sticks out much more to me.
What is Mr Tailight doing up front, anyway? Get thee behind me, Torch!!
“It’s an adaptation of a novel…”
If anyone has seen the movie and is thinking of reading the novel I will save you some time. The movie follows the book EXACTLY. I have never seen a more faithful adaptation. If you really want to read the book; just flip through and read the italicized monologues in the bookstore quickly and put it back down.
Similar error in Fargo. The Oldmobiles have the later, round window and roofline, not the year proper straight roof and vertical rear window.
I’ll allow it, far from the worst Hollywood car anachronism. I give it an 7 of 10 for realism.
Looking at the “Tan Ciera” with plate DRL, it has a the vertical rear window, and Wade’s 98 also has the vertical rear window. Which Olds are you speaking of?
IIRC most on the lot were more current ’90s models. TBF, I have not seen the film since release. I’m getting old.
It was filmed in what, ’95 or ’96? The Ciera was still in production (!) at that time so they could have probably just used a regular Olds dealership…
Yes, but it took place in 1987 or so. Still the old flatback. No crtiscism, only a true car nerd would notice.
I’m just as much of a nerd as you so I get it…I’d be more annoyed if the main Ciera wasn’t of the right vintage.
I’m more incensed by a vintage car with clearly modern attibutes. I’ll submitt “The Iceman”, a ’70s hit man driving a new Lincoln with plastic Walmart hubcaps. I’d rather see the damn bare steelies. You couldn’t spring for a set of the crap wire wheel covers my dad used?
But did they have TruCoat?
You don’t get it, you get oxidation problems…
That costs extra.
You’re a g-d liar.
Go back and look at the actual 1986-1990 Caprice. The composite headlights were NOT 50/50 like the sealed beams were. Putting tape down the center would have made each inboard element look like half a light. Their choices were to either mimic the 1980 light dividers for period accuracy but have a glitchy-looking light on each side, or follow the 1986 light dividers to match the car they were actually using, but have Torchinsky complain about it. Who’s to say if they made the correct decision…
not just complain about it: complain about it almost 20 years later!
Bingo, the low ranking guy was told to make the lights look like two separate lights on each side so they just followed the existing division spot.
Those damn gaffers!
Did they use gaffer tape?
Gauranteed, what else will support the princess?
Anton Chigurh my boy! Holla’!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfKe_DEOdFg
The one that jumped out at me was the ’83+ Crown Victoria taxi…
This was absolutely a thing that was discovered on-set by the Cohen’s who demanded it be fixed far too late to get a correct vehicle, or even swap out the headlights for the correct ones, so some poor grip did this to shut everyone up and stop wasting the $10,000/minute they aren’t filming.
One of the worst I saw was “The Iceman”, a stone cold ’70s hitman driving a new Lincoln with Walmart plastic hubcaps. This rates FAR lower on my rage scale.
Yeah, sometimes I wonder if they even bother to include car people in period pieces, I think we know the answer.
As a computer person, watching people use computers in movies is 10x more infuriating, until recently they couldn’t film actual computer screens so the actors would just mash they keyboard emphatically, and it never matches what’s actually on the screen. The Net starring Sandra Bullock was quite possibly the worst offender, given that it’s supposed to be about computer hackers.
I understand, I’m a mechanical engineer with about 30 year’s industrial maintenance experience. I see things in film that make me want to die. Suspension of disbelief.
Watch “Swordfish” sometime, just get in a good mental place first.
Enough people have told me to watch it, usually with lines like “You’ll love the tech stuff” that I know I absolutely won’t. I prefer old monster movies 😀
So you know what is coming… My movie tastes run older too.
The first year of my career I was Joker in Full Metal Jacket. They taught me just enough not to fall in a hole and kill myself, the rest I had to figure out.
I rose up from shift supervisor, day supervisor, planner, scheduler, engineer, mtc manager over about 6 years and a few companies.
I now lead all mtc operations for my entire corporation.
And now all the people in all those positions hate you and think you don’t know what you are doing.
It is simple evolution Sorry
Sigh, most experts were at least my dad’s age. Put up, or shut up. I vowed to learn from each of them. The largest mistep I saw was there was nobody on the floor between between 25 and 55. A full generation looked over.
The generation that was told almost from birth that you HAVE to get a 4-year college degree.
THIS, I’ve been doing this for decades. A few are old hands and see right off the bat that I’ve seen it all. I worked in steel mills for 20 years.
OMG lol
My wife and I were watching a Gordon Ramsey documentary and NO ONE in his construction crew was wearing safety glasses. I literally felt like I was having a panic attack at one point and had to pause the show.
When your TV world intersects with your “real world” the feels can be extreme…
Man – I wear earplugs running my gas lawnmower. I regularly wear safety or reading glasses. I won’t wrench without long sleeves and full pants. Gloves are a sore spot for me – I lose all detail feel, even with just latex.
Yeah, I do wear gloves a lot, weirdly not always when welding (small TiG jobs). Safety glasses constantly, I need glasses anyway, so “reader” safety glasses are glorious.
The Americans was great in many regards (especially car casting and music selection) but got the office equipment so wrong. I guess there weren’t any prop houses that felt like hanging on to giant 1980s copiers.
Also, the first season with lower production budgets had a lot of 21st century street parked cars that they couldn’t do anything about
They could have just visited the newspaper I was working at and rented our newest equipment.
Wait, do you mean these computer things that we’ve all been using daily for the past many decades and are all very familiar with, don’t actually make beeping, buzzing, and whirring noises every time something gets clicked on or appears on screen?
Also you ever noticed that they never take long to load and never freeze up?
And everything is controlled through an overly elaborate custom GUI for absolutely no reason
(Jurassic Park excepted, that one was real, impractical, but real)
I got to try out IBMs version of the Xerox future interface, and it was easy and flawless, as was the expected standard then. Of course it was running on a mainframe, so not an easy home system.
Well actually in the early 90s hard drives were noisy, as were floppy dries, and sometime starting an application would cause a drive to take off and whirr, modern machines; not so much.
Not the exaggerated electronically generated noises added in movies and TV shows. I was there, I’m familiar, I wasn’t exactly dropped off by the turnip truck after the turn of this century
This made me laugh out loud, your initial comment sparked a memory, my best friend had much nicer computers at home than I did, so he had access to Windows 95 at launch, whereas I was still running a 386. So we sat down to fondle his step dad’s brand new Windows 95 machine, and were both aghast when the hard drive just started randomly spinning while the machine was just sitting there idle, as we were used to it only being accessed on command when launching something.
***NON SEQUITIR ALERT***
Man I kinda miss the melodic purr of my old SCSI RAID humming away in the background while I slept.
See this is why I try to remain ignorant about all things. (According to the folks here I do a good job at that) But nothing ever ruins my viewing of a period movie or TV Show.
Of course you try to remake the Beverly Hillbillies with Oswald from the Drew Carey show as Jethro and Carney as Uncle Jed then we have a problem.
If you have no expectations, you’ll never be disaapointed.
“No Expectations” is a mantra for some people
Bladerunner gave people the idea that pictures could become high resoloution just by yelling enhance at the screen.
Best part was when they actually looked around a corner in a still frame.
Subtle, but that’s what they did, and made it look believable!
Often the cars rented for film are accompanied by owners so they could ask for details if they are interested.
In my head, a movie production is barely wrangled chaos, so I’m sure everyone does their best, but unless it’s absolutely critical to have something right it might get missed.
It can be.
You certainly feel pressure to be efficient.
And it would be greatly affected by how much the director cares.
Roger Donaldson, who filmed Burt Munro for a documentary early in his career, was making his first feature film in New Zealand, Smash Palace, on a very tight budget.
At one point, two villagers follow the two stars mocking them in a live shot.
It’s in the final cut. That’s ruthless shooting!
He emphasized how costly even a retro racing film is nearly impossible to fund and shoot, and that’s after he has contacts and funding as a successful director.
Many of the cars in the background of World’s Fastest Indian are now priceless restored museum relics. At least one ran again during shooting!
Those conversations are fun!
I too noticed this immediately and wondered why they couldn’t just find an older box-body Caprice cop car.
They even went to the effort of removing the CHMSL from the package shelf, so this wasn’t a last second on-set update.
https://imcdb.org/vehicle_117256-Chevrolet-Caprice-1990.html
That goes a step further than Stranger Things where they just black taped over the one on Mike’s mom’s Colony Park.
Some commercial vehicles were exempt from chmsls, plus police cars are often modified.
The car was playing a role, why are you picking apart its performance?
No the car was an example of cartural appropiation.
The accurate model car wasn’t dei enlightened enough.
I bet the reason they used tape instead of changing the headlights, is they didn’t figure out the mistake until they were there filming. At that point, they didn’t have time to order parts, they just had to figure out a way to make it work. I credit them for even making the effort. I didn’t catch that.
But what I did catch, and I may be wrong about this, is I don’t think those hubcaps came out until the final facelift as well. That’s what stood out to me. I think in 1980, a cop car would have just had little dog dish hubcaps.
I could be wrong though. An even bigger nerd than me will have to fact-check that.
Beat me to it, on the last minute on-set change. Yeah those hubcaps are wrong for the car. I had a 79 and it had full-face hubcaps, but they just used the dog-dish hubcaps on the police cars.
A buddy of mine also had a ’79 with full hubcaps, but they were more “finned” for lack of a better description.
His parents bought that car new. It had 450,000 miles on it, and was correspondingly rusted out (Illinois car).
If I recall during that time it was just steelies never hubcaps or custom rims.
But then again never arrested in Texas in the 50s.
I believe the cops cars of the late 70’s/early 80’s had dog dishes. The full smoothie hubcap came later.
They also could have used shiny tape. Maybe a narrow strip of chrome tape over a wider strip of black.
Such a great movie.
Tiny, baffling, fascinating details have to be like 40-50% of Autopian content. And 80-90% of Torch posts.
Content like this is the reason this website is the best on the web.
Why no uniform on the cop ?
Spoiler – he’s not a cop
Go and watch it now. It’s an amazing film
2nd’d. This movie is fantastic.