CCJ 314 Analysis #2 Questions 2024

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Northern Arizona University *

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314

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Sociology

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Feb 20, 2024

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CCJ 314 Hollywood and Crime: Analysis Guidelines Use the readings and movie to answer the following questions. Please utilize APA style in-text citations and references. Do Not simply summarize the movie or readings. Failure to follow directions carefully will result in a reduced score. Only use theories from that weeks reading to answer the questions. You can number the questions if that helps you be more organized. All of your answers together should add up to 2-3 pages in length. Answers that are 2-3 sentences in length will receive a significantly reduced score. Do Not Use Quotations . Every answer must be in your own words. 1. How does the movie challenge stereotypes about race or gender? How the movie challenges stereotypes in the film is for one to have a woman cop who is not overly sexualized, is a genuine good cop and has good instincts. Marge is pregnant throughout the whole movie and she does not slow down with her being pregnant she is never overly emotional and still goes down and hunts the criminals and follows every lead. While her partner Lou is a man who is truly just there to tell her that she's doing good and to agree with her, he does not have much knowledge of being a police officer, and it's clear when Marge and he are looking at the three dead bodies and Marge is giving theories and connecting the dots while her partner Lou is just blindly agreeing with her. Another example of how this movie challenged stereotypes is that the main character Jerry is not the typical demographic when thinking about someone who would commit crimes; he has a stable job as executive sales manager of a Minneapolis car dealership owned by his father-in-law Wade. Even though he has this high position at the car dealership he needs more so he hunts out a way to get more money by plotting a plan to have his wife kidnapped so he can con his father-in-law out of 1 million dollars because he was taking out loans on cars that never existed. Jerry was digging himself a deeper hole and trying to get himself out by committing more crimes, and this is not something that goes against the origins of strain theory how people who are a part of a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to commit crimes compared to people who are in the middle class (Brown, Rafter, 2011 p.87-88). 2a. How are law enforcement portrayed in the film “Fargo”? Which police stereotype do they fit into? Law enforcement was portrayed as more competent than seen in other law enforcement films. The main cop Marge is portrayed as more competent than her partner and on top of her career. By making Marge pregnant they follow the Female Cop as frumpy and competent, arguably the most competent in the movie. She is taken out of the male gaze as the movie makes it so her husband is always in the majority of the scenes with her and other men, and all the male characters know about her and her husband. Marge being pregnant restores a certain balance that these movies want to portray so she is not as powerful as a character(Brown, Rafter, 2011 p. 96-97). At the same time, they portray Marge and her husband as a gentle and healthy relationship which is a nice change from other films. Fargo challenges the stereotypes that are seen in most movies as Marge is the chief of police and the most competent character compared to all the males. However, the stereotype Chivalry Factor is seen a bit as Marge is given a little more leniency with her being pregnant. This is especially seen through her and her partner. In

the scene where Marge is investigating the three-person homicide, she bends over and almost pukes. Her partner asks if she's okay and that morning sickness is affecting her. Thinking about it if this was reality if she did puke it would ruin the quality of the crime scene which would have very catastrophic results. This at times shows films although they might challenge certain stereotypes that they still feel the need to follow others. 3. How do the characters demonstrate the concept of strain? What is going on in their lives to cause strain and how do they cope? Jerry Lundegaard who is considered one of the main characters in Fargo is a car salesman who is trying to get his father-in-law to invest in a real estate deal but can’t get funding from anyone. Because of this, he is having serious money issues so he decides to hire two men to kidnap his wife so he can get his father-in-law who is very wealthy to pay her ransom and he will split the money with the men who took her. Next Carl and Gaear the two men hired to kidnap Jean. The movie didn't explain why they needed money but the real strain was caused after they kidnapped her and got pulled over and the cops heard Jean in the back whispering. At this moment they had to choose to either leave and risk the cop arresting them or kill the cop so he could tell what happened. They choose to kill the cop and drive away. when they killed the cop a car drove by and crashed down the road and they chose to kill the two passengers as well. After they called Jerry and told him he needed to pay them the full $80,000. After this they take Jean to a cabin to hide her and when they think the cops are onto them Gaear puts Carl through the woodchipper. strain theory can explain why these characters act this way. They may feel isolated and the only way to feel more normal is to get rid of the people who saw them in another way (Brown, Rafter, 2011 pg. 87). 4. How do some of the characters make strain and circumstances worse? From chapter 6 of the textbook, “Criminology Goes to the Movies: Crime Theory and Popular Culture” strain theories are the main topic in both the textbook and film Fargo. Strain theories are defined as individuals that turn to crime when they cannot cope with the strains and stresses of life through legitimate means (Brown, Rafter, 2011 pg. 83). In the film Fargo, Jerry Lundegaard is one of the main characters, he was making circumstances worse by his decision making, the more strain he was feeling the more the situation was turning into a catastrophic problem. He had met up with two people, Gaear Grimsrud and Carl Showalter to kidnap his wife Jean Lundegaard for money. Even though the film doesn’t mention why he was desperate for money, he showed that he needed money. Jean's father was a very wealthy man and knew that if he asked he would not receive the money. Jerry was very insecure about his father-in-law. So he came up with a plan to get the money by giving a new car to the kidnappers and giving them some money, while he receives the majority of the money. Jerry didn't plan for the situation to get out of hand but from the moment Jean was kidnapped, he was a part of a financial fraud, questioned by police officer Marge multiple times, and Jean's father got involved with delivering the money when it was supposed to be Jerry. His lying was not the greatest in his situation, so it was getting progressively worse. When he was found he was trying to escape, he was then arrested. Overall, Jerry shows strain with the situation he is in because he gets deeper and deeper into the problem and it causes the circumstances to get worse.

Another character that stood out to me from the film Fargo was Gaear Grimsrud, he was seen as a silent person throughout the film. He would stare off into the distance and ignore what was being said to him by his partner or he would hear things around him. For example, when Grimsrud and his partner Carl Showalter were driving back from just kidnapping Jean Lundegaard they were pulled over by a state trooper. Grimsrud was sitting in silence while smoking and he then shot the state trooper in the head because he didn't want the trooper to find Jean in the back. He was also trying to get his partner out of the situation, but he just stays quiet with a stare and doesn't say anything after the fact. He is known to get violent in certain parts of the film, he is seen staring off and not saying anything, and then the next second he is killing someone. He is showing that he is under an amount of strain and he gets stressed so he resorts to violence. Overall, Grimsrud shows strain with the situation he is in and he makes the circumstances worse by killing people when he is more and more overwhelmed by the situations he is in. References: Rafter, N., & Brown, M. (2011). Criminology goes to the movies: Crime theory and popular culture. New York University Press. Coen, J., & Coen, E. (1996). Fargo. Gramercy Pictures (I).

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