Fargo

The  movie that I chose was Fargo. This movie was genuinely spectacular, and I am surprised that I hadn’t seen it before this assignment. The general mood of the film was very eerie and dark with the whole movie being about a planned kidnapping gone wrong leading to multiple murders. the director did an amazing job with the setting of the film, and being able to film on days that were extra grey and dreary. I seemed to get colder just watching this movie even though I was in South Florida due to the snow and cold that was readily apparent throughout the film. While it wasn’t a camera specific piece to the film, I think the accents and manners of the characters that were native to the area in the film (which doesn’t include the henchmen) really contrasted the severity of what was going on. All over the place people are being kidnapped and murdered, but the use of language and accents seemed to soften the blood and gore. A perfect example of this would be when Marge comes across one of the murderers putting his accomplice through a wood chipper and hysterically points to the badge on her winter hat as if he wasn’t aware she was a police officer. Another moment would be when Marge and her partner come across the murder scene and are then leaving discussing the license plate and she criticizes his police work ever so politely. That scene was filled with intensity, but the characters voices left me wanting to smile at dead bodies, I thought that sort of interplay throughout the movie was fantastic. The opening shot of the film includes a long shot of a low visibility snow covered road, and the Sierra that at the time is being driven by Jerry comes into view driving towards the camera. At the end of the movie, an almost identical landscape is used, and the shot is framed the same, but this time it is police cars and ambulances that make their way down the snowy road. Another shot that I enjoyed was the overhead shot of the snow covered parking lot where Jerry is parked after meeting with his father-in-law and the other investor. You can see the architecture of the parking lot with multiple potted plants marking what you can assume is medians within the lot, but everything is so covered in snow that none of the individual spaces or roadways are visible. Snow is everywhere in this movie, and it really translates the harsh reality of winter. Any shot that includes Marge and Norm’s bed was I thought important to the film. When they’re first showed, Marge is receiving the call early in the morning about the murder on the road, and Norm insists on making her breakfast before she heads out, it also is present when Marge’s old friend, Mike, calls her and invites her to dinner, and when the bedroom reappears, Marge has just returned from solving the case, and Norm lets her know about how he got his imagery on the 3 cent stamp which she is proud of him for.
Ever since he insisted on fixing her eggs, I became a big Norm fan, and when she finally cuddles up next to him after ditching the weird crying guy I found myself smiling and excited for Norm and their future together. The movie appeared to use a lot of medium shots that switched between characters during dialogue, and there didn’t seem to be many extreme close ups. I prefer cameras allowing more into the frame because as the viewer, it gives me more things to consider in a scene and allows the director the ability to slip more small nuances into the film.