Fargo

Fargo is considered a bonafide classic from the mid-nineties and it seems like everyone has seen it. Add to that a successful television series that debuted in 2014 and is still running and you get the impression this picture was a major blockbuster. Yet that’s not what Fargo was when it released in 1996. Fargo was a modest hit at best, earning just $60 million at the box-office, a number that big hits these days earn in their first week of release. Fargo took a little while to find an audience, most of whom came to it on home video. Co-directors Joel and Ethan Coen were not new on the scene at the time, either, although their filmography had not yet exploded in popularity. Films like Raising Arizona and The Hudsucker Proxy were well received critically but took a while to find an audience. Even The Big Lebowski was just an underground hit until it exploded on the home viewing market. In 1996 I was not seeing new movies and missed out on trailers, critical reviews, or even word-of mouth on it. I didn’t finally see Fargo until the early 2000’s when all of a sudden everyone was talking about this hilarious crime film set in Minnesota but named after a city in North Dakota. I knew nothing about the plot beyond that and so when I saw it everything was a surprise. That’s just the way it needs to be seen, as blindly as possible.

Fargo tells the story of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), an executive sales manager at a Minneapolis car dealership owned by his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harvey Presnell). Jerry is in a bad position of his own making, having embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the dealership and is getting desperate. He has a plan to develop some land into a parking lot but needs a significant amount of capital to buy into it which he hopes he can get from his father-in-law. But Wade has other ideas, wanting to jump on the deal for himself and leave Jerry with a measly finders fee. 

As a back-up plan, Jerry hired a man recommended to him by a dealer mechanic, Shep Proudfoot (Steve Reevis), to kidnap his wife and hold her for ransom for $1 million, more than enough to pay back the embezzled money and buy into the lot. When he goes to meet up with the man instead there are two men, Gaear (Peter Stormare), the initial hire, and a second man named Carl (Steve Buscemi), whom Shep doesn’t know and can’t vouch for. Things go off the rails immediately during the kidnapping which leads to three murders. These murders get the police involved who don’t take very long tracking down witnesses, phone calls and other clues that lead them right back to Jerry. Police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) leads the investigation and it is her who eventually tracks down the kidnapped wife, Jean (Kristin Rudrüd) and puts it all together.

Francis McDormand, longtime collaborator with The Coen Brothers, and wife to Joel Coen, has been a staple of their films right from the beginning. She got her start in their debut picture Blood Simple and went on to several prominent television roles before making a big splash in the 1988 drama Mississippi Burning, earning her an Oscar nomination for her role as Mrs. Pell. She lost that year to Geena Davis’ work in The Accidental Tourist but she was not a one-trick pony. She would be nominated again eight years later for Fargo, playing a small town police chief with a deliciously thick Minnesota accent. This accent is exaggerated, for sure, but it is so perfectly presented in the film that some native Minnesotans have adopted some of it, including some of the phrasings she uses, into their interactions with out-of-state travelers. A dialogue coach was employed specifically for this accent and a special award should have been given to them for this because it’s done perfectly here and never seems to slip. It may be exaggerated but it feels like it could be a legitimate Minnesota accent, albeit one not heard much around the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

The plot of the film reminds me a little of A Simple Plan, a 1998 Sam Raimi thriller where what seems like a very straight forward plot spirals out of control very quickly. Here things should be very simple. Hire someone to kidnap your wife and hold her for ransom. Give them a car from the car lot you work at to use for the job. When the ransom is paid, split the take with the two guys and everyone goes their own separate ways. Almost immediately things do not go according to plan. The wife is captured after a bit of a struggle, knocking herself out when she falls down the stairs in an attempt to escape. While leaving town to their hideout in the countryside they are pulled over by a cop who noticed their car had no plates. The cop takes offense to being offered a bribe and they end up killing him alongside the road. Then a passing vehicle sees them disposing of the body so those two people have to be killed, too. Carl, who is often described by the many witnesses who have seen him as small an generally weird looking, is in constant need for prostitutes which ends up being a key element to leading the cops directly to them.

These two kidnappers are polar opposites and a lot of the comedy in this film comes from their clashing personalities. We get a glimpse of this in the car as they are driving away with their victim in the back. Carl is a nervous chatterbox and gets unnerved by the stoic Gaear. Carl keeps yapping, trying to engage Gaear in conversation to no success. When the two get pulled over by a state trooper it is Gaear who takes action as Carl is floundering and making the situation worse. We’re told early on that Shep is the contact that put Jerry in touch with Gaear and that he has no idea who Carl is. This is a flaw in the film as we never find this out either. Where did Carl come from and why is he even working with Gaear in the first place. Gaear does not come across as the kind of guy who wants, or even needs, a partner so none of this makes any real sense. Not explaining it just makes it a frustrating aspect to an otherwise tightly written film. 

Jerry is the quintessential screw-up whose ideas are guaranteed to fail, even something as seemingly simple as this bone headed kidnapping plan. Apparently his rich father-in-law feels the same way as he has relegated Jerry to a menial job selling cars. Jerry has done nothing to prove himself to Wade, either, showing little inclination for his work and he doesn’t seem to care. We get one scene of him forcing a service on a buyer, trying to clumsily strong arm a $500 add-on. He is terrible at his job and at his life. It’s no surprise when he makes arrangements for the ransom hand-off that Wade refuses to let him handle it. He insists on doing it himself, a monkey wrench Jerry failed to anticipate. He’s so bad at planning that he even failed to anticipate that giving the kidnappers one of the lot cars could be traced back to him. Late into the picture Chief Marge pays him a visit at the dealership with some questions he doesn’t want to answer and the best idea he can come up with is to flee the scene. 

The Coen Brothers have a style and a feel to their movies that is refreshing and unique. It is disappointing that they have gone their separate ways in recent years as their solo work isn’t nearly as fun and quirky as their joint projects were. Fargo is no exception to this. There are some dark moments to this film that should be revolting but because of the way it is handled and shot it is more humorous than nasty. The way Gaear dispenses with Carl is a perfect example of this. It’s extremely violent and it’s not off screen, either. The fatal blow is cut away from but what he does afterwards is very gory and gruesome but you don’t wince away from it the way you might in a Saw movie. The camera doesn’t shy away from the violence but it doesn’t revel in it either. 

This is a fantastic crime comedy that has a deliciously offbeat sense of humor that showcases the Coen Brothers at their absolute best. The film is credited as produced by Ethan Coen and directed by Joel Coen but they shared both duties. The crediting was thanks to an obsolete guild rule that was eventually modified to allow dual credit for teams that consistently share directing duties. Fargo would not be the last time they would get recognized for their work behind the cameras but it wouldn’t be for another decade until they finally got a Best Picture and Director Oscar win, this time for No Country for Old Men, a Cormac McCarthy western masterpiece. Fargo may not have taken the top prize but it is consistently funny, suspenseful and masterfully acted all around. Even William H. Macy, who is generally playing himself most of the time, is great here in a role he had to fight for. It remains to date one of the best Coen Brothers films and one of the most widely accessible films in their catalog.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Ethan Coen

Best Director: Joel Coen

Best Actress: Frances McDormand (won)

Best Supporting Actor: William H. Macy

Best Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen (won)

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins

Best Film Editing: Roderick Jaynes

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Release Date: March 8, 1996

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rated R

Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Presnell and Peter Stormare

Directed By: Joel Coen