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Fargo (film)

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Fargo
Image:Fargo.jpg
original film poster
Directed by Joel Coen
Produced by Ethan Coen
Written by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring William H. Macy
Frances McDormand
Steve Buscemi
Harve Presnell
Peter Stormare
Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Editing by Joel and Ethan Coen
Distributed by Gramercy Pictures
Release date(s) March 8, 1996 (U.S.)
Running time 98 min.
Language English
Budget $7,000,000 (est)
IMDb profile
Fargo is a 1996 neo-noir film created by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It is set in the Upper Midwest (the opening scene is set in North Dakota, and the rest in Minnesota, and tells the tale of a car salesman (William H. Macy), a pregnant police chief (Frances McDormand), and two hit men.

Fargo won two Oscars in 1996 — one for its screenplay and another for McDormand's performance. The film also won a BAFTA Award and several other international film awards.

The film was released on DVD on September 30, 2003.<ref>Fargo DVD from the MGM website</ref>

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie tells the story of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a Minnesota car salesman with financial troubles who hires two men, the "funny looking" Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and the laconic Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), to kidnap his wife (Kristin Rudrüd). Jerry hopes to use ransom money paid by his wealthy and contemptuous father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell) to pay off large, unspecified debts. In exchange, Carl and Gaear are to receive a new Oldsmobile Ciera and "half of the ransom." (Actually, Lundegaard is swindling the kidnappers: he tells them the ransom is $80,000, while telling his father-in-law the amount is actually $1 million.)

The plan falls apart, however.

Jerry's financial troubles are not explained; he is shown receiving progressively angrier phone calls demanding that he provide Vehicle Identification Numbers for cars he used to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in GMAC loans. Even after the kidnapping plan is afoot, he even resorts to attempting to get extra money out of one customer by adding an unrequested weather-proof sealant to a car.

The kidnapping plan takes a dramatic turn for the worse when a state trooper pulls over the kidnappers near Brainerd, Minnesota. After an unsuccessful bribe attempt by Carl, Gaear murders the trooper and two witnesses who happen to drive by.

The deaths are investigated by local police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) who, while seven months pregnant, follows leads through Minneapolis, the backwoods of Minnesota, and nearby North Dakota. Marge displays a combination of Minnesota niceness and a clear aptitude for police work, quietly piecing together clues and moving towards the two hired guns despite nearly every witness being unable to describe Buscemi's character beyond his being "funny-looking."

Jerry's plan spirals further out of control both on- and off-screen. After a botched ransom delivery in which Wade unwisely tries to apply his business-world bullying, Wade is shot dead by Carl and Wade manages to get off a shot that tracks along the edge of Carl's face. In leaving the parking garage, Carl also shoots and kills the lot attendant, in contrast to his previous disgust at Gaear's cold-blooded triple murder. Carl buries the money by the side of the highway, and returns to the shack where Gaear is staying. Gaear has in this time killed Jerry's wife. Carl, bleeding and frantic over being shot, wants to leave as soon as possible and says that he's taking the car. Gaear, in a rare use of speech, says that they'll split the car as one will pay the other for his half. Carl angrily tells Gaear that he's been shot in the face and the car is therefore his for his trouble. As Carl walks to the car, Gaear runs up behind him and hits Carl square in the chest with an axe.

Marge, after investigating various leads, and after Jerry flees her questioning at the auto lot, gets an idea of where the kidnappers are holing up and comes on the property just in time to see Gaear pushing the last of Carl into a wood-chipper. As Gaear flees, Marge shoots him in the leg and arrests him. On the drive back to the station, Marge tries to talk to the clearly sociopathic Gaear, unable to comprehend how he can do what he does "for a little bit of money." And, as Marge says, "it's a beautiful day."

Jerry, staying at a remote motel, finds police knocking at his door, seizing him. As Jerry is being wrestled out of the window and handcuffed on the bed, he bucks and screams like an animal.

In the final scene, Marge and Norm sit in bed together, as Norm proudly explains his success with his duck painting (his duck painting is now on the 3-cent stamp). The couple happily proclaim, "two more months" in anticipation of the baby, thus sharply contrasting the evil that Marge has seen.

Spoilers end here.
Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson.

[edit] Primary cast

[edit] Production

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Unseasonably mild winter weather forced the crew to move locations frequently to find suitable snow-covered landscapes, and fake snow had to be used for many scenes. Pools and streams of meltwater are visible in many scenes.

Locations used during production include:

  • the "Wally McCarthy Oldsmobile" car dealership located in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, off of Interstate 494 and Penn Avenue. It has since been razed, and the site is currently home to Best Buy's corporate headquarters.
  • Ember's, a restaurant just west of the Louisiana exit on the frontage road (Wayzata Blvd.) of Highway 394 in St. Louis Park. The location is now out of business.
  • King of Clubs, a bar shown at the beginning of the film, was actually located within walking distance of downtown Minneapolis. It has since been razed.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Wins

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Trivia

  • Though the film is completely fictional, the opening titles claim that it is "a true story" that "took place in Minnesota in 1987". The end credits bear the standard disclaimer for a work of fiction.<ref>Fargo from the Urban Legends Reference Pages</ref>
  • The scene in the Oldsmobile car dealership where Jerry talks to the couple about the TruCoat on the car is based on Ethan Coen's actual experience with a car salesman.
  • In 1997 a pilot was filmed for a television show based on the film. Set in Brainerd, it starred Edie Falco as Marge Gunderson. It was shown during Trio's 2003 "Brilliant But Cancelled" series of failed TV shows.
  • The piece of music titled "Paul Bunyan", by Carter Burwell, appears twice in the movie. The first time, it's pitch black outdoors, being in the middle of nowhere at night, while the second time, it's blindingly white outdoors, due to fresh snow at noontime. Burwell scored the soundtrack to the movie[1], and has worked with the Coen brothers on other movies as well [2].
  • The scene where Carl (Buscemi) and Gaear (Stormare) are driving into Minneapolis provides a classic view of the city from the south. If Carl and Gaear were coming in from Fargo, they would've been circling the Minneapolis skyline along 94, heading south then east. Minneapolis residents joke that they must've stopped at the Mall of America on their way in (which would've provided the view along the 35W North to Highway 65 exit as it appears in the film). It would have also been impossible for them to visit the mall because it was not built until 1992 and the film is set in 1987. That same scene also has a discrepancy as the camera shows them passing under a highway sign to Minneapolis which would mean they would need to immediately slow down as the road curves and slows to a stoplight at S 10th Street. The scene immediately after shows them continuing to have a discussion and moving a constant speed. The reason they entered downtown is still not very clear in the movie.
  • In November 2001, a Japanese woman named Takako Konishi arrived in Fargo apparently in search of the lost cache of money that was buried in the film. Because of the language barrier, local police were unable to adequately explain to her that the film was fictional. She was found dead in the woods six days later, possibly due to a combination of drugs and exposure to the cold.<ref>Winter, Deena. "Coroner unable to find cause of death of Japanese woman", Bismarck Tribune, January 8, 2002.</ref> However, three weeks after her death, her parents in Japan recieved a suicide note that she had sent several days before she died.<ref>Berczeller, Paul. "Death in the snow", The Guardian, June 6, 2003.</ref>
  • The snowy television show that Grimsrud watches when Carl returns after being shot is a Detroit soap opera starring Bruce Campbell who is a good friend of the Coen brothers.

[edit] Fargo in Pop Culture

  • The film Little Miss Sunshine features a character named Stan Grossman, almost certainly named after the character of the same name in Fargo.
  • In the Venture Brothers episode "Past Tense", there is a character named Mike Sorayama who, besides having a similar name to the character in Fargo, behaves similarly, and is voiced by the same actor.
  • The song Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me For Me) by Blessid Union of Souls makes reference to the film: "She likes me for me / Not because I hang with Leonardo (Di Caprio) / Or that guy who played in Fargo / I think his name is Steve (Buscemi)"
  • On Invader Zim there is a scene on one of the episodes which two aliens are in a ship together and one starts to start a conversation and the other won't talk. Then he says, "You know it wouldn't kill you to talk once in a while" and the other says, "How about I bash your face in? Is that enough talk?". This is similar to a scene in Fargo between Buscemi and Stormare.

[edit] References

<references />

[edit] External links

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Movies by Joel and Ethan Coen
Blood Simple • Raising Arizona • Miller's Crossing • Barton Fink • The Hudsucker Proxy • Fargo • The Big Lebowski • O Brother, Where Art Thou? • The Man Who Wasn't There • Intolerable Cruelty • The Ladykillers • No Country for Old Men
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