Fargo: Crime Thriller

Conventions: 
Fargo is a dark crime thriller that tells the story of a man with financial troubles creates a plan to get some quick money - to have his wife kidnapped, and his father-in-law to pay the ransom which will actually be given to him. Obviously, this type of thriller has different convention to our earlier posts, we will be describing the crime thriller conventions here.

Firstly, it involves criminals/villains through the two thugs which are hired to kidnap Jerry's wife. However, they don't follow the conventions of normal villains as they were convinced into doing it, and they were confused as to why Jerry wanted his own wife kidnapped. But they did have an interest in the money and car that Jerry offered them in return.

There is a criminal event, such as the kidnapping in the film, but it could be a murder or some other violent act. Jerry's wife is kidnapped and this shows another convention of an innocent victim, that is a binary opposite of the criminals.

The location was cold and snowy area which adds the feeling of the cold-heartedness of the lead character, as it plans for his wife to be kidnapped.

The crime doesn't go to plan, as the kidnapping was quite difficult for the two criminals. Jerry also has problems as the finance he was sorting out to pay the criminals for the kidnapping, and also for his own debts, was turned down by his father-in-law. It is fairly common for the lead male character to have personal problems in a crime thriller, like the debt Jerry has.

Although, unconventional is the way he solves his problems. Each time he tries to get a loan or find money, he almost makes it worse for himself. This deepens the plot line and confusion for the audience, this also enforced by the variety of details that are key to the plot.

Characters:

The first character we see in the film is Jerry Lundegaard, a car-salesman who is severe debt and hires two criminals to kidnap his wife in an attempt to gain money from the ransom which his father-in-law will pay. Carl Showalter who is a talkative small time crook who hired by Jerry to kidnap Jerry's wife, His partner Gaear Grimsrud who is quiet unlike carl. These follow conventions of a partnership where one is small but is seen as the smarter one and the other is seen as the thug who does most of the dirty work. Not much is leaned about Jerry's wife, Jean Lundegaard who is represented as a stereotypical housewife.

Editing/Filming Techniques:
The editing quite conventional because it was parallel editing, shows two different events happening at the same time. There are a lot of conversation shots (180 degree rule), showing how the film develops through the conversations, and is an important element of the film. The shots increase in pace during the scene of the kidnapping. There are many shots on the face of the characters, particularly when the criminals chase another car, pace is important again here as the shots from character to road increase. Like other thriller subgenres we see dark lighting, and emphasis on the cold and unknown.