Parallelism In Fargo

The foils of everyday life make for surprisingly quality entertainment. This concept may appear quite counterintuitive, but it is constantly proven true in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 film Fargo. Beyond the film’s oddball subject matter lies a surplus of middle class misfortunes and simpleton fodder. These seemingly extraneous components of the film are actually extremely crucial to the atmosphere the Coen brothers created. Despite having such a lack of regard for human life, the film still is extremely relatable to the common man and blue collar USA. This is exactly what Joel and Ethan Coen were aiming for with this film. They were trying to create as relatable and real of an atmosphere as possible. This persistence to creating a believable

Most notably the film uses parallelism quite a bit. The characters that are deemed evil often have a more aggressive or even organized demeanor than those who are good. In this sequence we do not really encounter any evil characters, but the good characters all are easily comparable. Norm and Marge Gunderson are pretty in-sync as characters. We can see this through their talk most notably. The distinct way people talk in the film actually can link most of the characters together. But unlike Jerry, Marge and Norm use their dim witted small talk for innocent purposes rather than manipulation. Even in their silence, Marge and Norm just seem so at peace with each other. When a character like Jerry is silent in this film it is usually to pressure or uneasiness as highlighted when Marge confronts Jerry later in the film. Regardless, it is clear despite Norm’s sloppier way of life, Marge clearly matches well with him due to their calm and easy going demeanors. The same thing can be said about her coworker Lou. The constant use of the phrase “Oh yea” is a motif that is used between the two characters. It is very stupid, but when dealing with the murders of three people it actually is a pretty funny contrast. Anyways, this fodder is another form of parallelism because clearly Lou is just like Marge in her easy breezy way of chatter. The difference between Lou and Norm though is that Lou is a more

As I mentioned earlier, the clutter in the Gunderson’s home does speak volumes about who they are as people. Well very proud and honest people, they are very flawed and blue collar. This clutter is continued on in the kitchen. The shelf behind the kitchen table is filled with pictures and other nick-nacks. This clutter is eerily reminiscent of the middle class household portrayed by the MacGuff’s in the film Juno. These families both are not going to make sure everything in their home is pristine, but their way of life is really not too uncommon. It really does embody a lot of blue collar America. Another good use of mise en scene in this sequence was the very gray and desolate skyline during the murder investigation. Murder obviously is not a light topic, so the dark atmosphere in the sky very much fits into the theme of this scene. The last thing I’d like to mention about mise en scene and staging takes me back to the opening zoom of this sequence. Along with the visual theatrics zoom, the sudden appearance of nondiegetic music also insinuates this is quite an important scene in the film. Once we hear the dramatic strings, we know something dramatic is about to happen, especially because the music is clearly not coming from something on the screen. This nondiegetic sound can be a useful tool to setting a scene and properly utilizing mise en scene and at the end of day, setting the scene is key in a naturalistic