Have you ever wanted something so badly that you’d kill a man to get it? Greed is often the key motivator in any good crime movie, and even in everyday life. This movie is simple and lacks deep dialogue but keeps the audience entertained nonetheless. The movie ‘Fargo’ in which Greed is undoubtedly a prominent and dominant character trait explores this theme tastefully and utilises key film techniques to make it all come together. In this movie, ‘Fargo’ which was directed by the Coen brothers in 1996, The Coen’s use film techniques to present the theme of greed. The Coen’s do this by incorporating the film techniques; dialogue, camera shots and finally lighting. In this essay, these ideas will be explored and linked directly to the classic movie, Fargo.

The Coen’s cunning use of dialogue throughout the movie conveys the theme of greed to the audience, they do this by introducing us to the unique character, Jerry Lundegaard. Mr Lundegaard is a bumbling and nervous wreck but he has certain quotes which can be directly related to the theme of Greed. For example, “No, see, I don’t need a finder’s fee, I need a… finder’s fee, what, ten percent? Heck, that’s not gonna do it for me. I need the principal!” Jerry is frantically hoping he can pay off his debt with Wade’s money. This quote shows how Jerry is unsatisfied with the amount of money he is getting and acts on his greed and envy of Wade’s fortune to try and get more to avoid having his wife kidnapped by his own instruction. The director’s purpose is clear with this use of dialogue, by using this scene early on in the movie, the directors are able to suggest to the audience that Jerry’s greed will become a prominent theme throughout the movie.

The directors also use the technique of lighting to illuminate the theme of greed. By optimising the use of lighting the Coen’s are able to subtly give the audience a pre-emptive outlook on Gaear. We get to see this in the bar scene at the beginning of the movie. The directors use the aspect of practical lighting, they do this by carefully utilising the natural bar lighting to light up the entirety of Carl’s face but only faintly lighting up half of Gaear’s face. This suggests that Gaear could be in a way two-faced or untrustworthy or even tyrannical. Two faced people are self-explanatory, they will act a certain way until they want something, in this case, Gaear was Carl’s partner until a dispute which resulted in Carls corpse half eviscerated by the wood chipper. The director’s purpose for this is to reinforce the idea of greed and gives us an example of greed being a key motivator for Gaear.

Camera shots are the most crucial and important part of a film, with camera shots directors can have a heavy influence on the audiences view on a character without them even knowing. When it comes to Fargo, The directors have captured the audience’s attention and used certain key shots such as the low and high angle to portray the theme of greed among characters. The two angles which are most commonly associated with greed in this film are the low and high angles. Low angles are shot at a low angle facing upwards towards a character or object, this is done to give the character or object power. A high angle is just the opposite, it is shot at a high angle looking down to portray weakness in a character. An example of this is in a scene where Carl is burying the remaining cash in the snow. The directors carefully utilise the high angle, in particular, to show how Carl has succumbed to his greed and chooses to keep the money to himself. By using the high angle effectively it portrays carl as weak and powerless character which then shows how he can be easily manipulated by his own greed for money.

Directed in 1996 by the famous Coen brothers, Fargo was undeniably an interesting movie, to say the least. providing the audience with a demonstration of a unique understanding of what film techniques can do, the Coen’s are able to convey to us the theme of greed. They do this by using film techniques such as; dialogue, camera shots and lighting.