Fargo (film)

Fargo
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen (uncredited)
Produced by	Ethan Coen Joel Coen (uncredited)
Written by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Starring	Frances McDormand William H. Macy Steve Buscemi Harve Presnell Peter Stormare
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Editing by	Roderick Jaynes
Studio	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Working Title Films
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date(s)	March 8, 1996
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue	$60,611,975

Fargo is a 1996 American dark comedy crime film produced, directed and written by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Frances McDormand as a pregnant police chief who investigates a series of homicides, William H. Macy as a car salesman who hires two criminals to kidnap his wife, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare as the criminals, and Harve Presnell as the salesman's father-in-law.

The film earned seven Academy Award nominations, winning two for Best Original Screenplay for the Coens and Best Actress in a Leading Role for McDormand.^[1] It also won the BAFTA Award and the Award for Best Director for Joel Coen at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.^[2]

Plot

In 1987, Minneapolis automobile salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is in severe financial trouble. After being introduced to criminals Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) by Native American ex-convict Shep Proudfoot (Steve Reevis), a mechanic at his dealership, Jerry travels to Fargo, North Dakota and hires the two men to kidnap his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrüd) in exchange for a new car and half of the $80,000 ransom. However, Jerry intends to demand a much larger sum from his wealthy but antagonistic father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell), and keep most of the money for himself.

Meanwhile, a financial company has been threatening to withdraw a loan they made to Jerry, and Jerry has been trying to raise money by promoting a real-estate deal to Wade. Jerry tries to call off the kidnapping after Wade agrees to the investment, but he is too late, and, as it turns out, Wade intends to buy the property himself, leaving Jerry with only a finder's fee, which is not enough to pay off his debts.

Meanwhile, Carl and Gaear kidnap Jean, but on their way through Brainerd, a state trooper stops them because of the car's license plates. When Carl's attempt to bribe the trooper fails, Gaear shoots the trooper. He also kills a couple who happen to drive by and see Carl dragging the trooper's body.

The deaths are investigated the next morning by local police chief Marge Gunderson (McDormand), who is seven months pregnant. She quickly deduces the chain of events and follows the leads that arise, interviewing two prostitutes who serviced the criminals and tracing the license plates on the criminals' vehicle to Jerry's dealership. After being informed that they telephoned Shep Proudfoot, she drives to Minneapolis, but she acquires no information in interviews with Shep and Jerry.

Meanwhile, Jerry contacts Wade, claiming that the kidnappers insist on dealing only with Jerry. Wade accepts this arrangement at first, but later changes his mind. When he meets with Carl at a parking garage, he refuses to give him the money until his daughter is returned. Angered by his demands and unexpected appearance, Carl starts a shootout and kills Wade after Wade shoots him in the face, then kills the garage attendant on his way out. Jerry arrives at the scene after Carl leaves, and opens the trunk of his car, presumably to take Wade's body. On his way to the backwoods hideout on Moose Lake, Carl discovers that the bag he took from Wade contains a million dollars and buries most of the money by the side of the highway. At the hideout, Gaear has killed Jean, and, in a dispute over the car, he kills Carl with an axe.

Before leaving town, Marge questions Jerry again, asking him about the car used in the murders, but he provides no information. When she asks to see Wade, who is the owner of the dealership, Jerry makes an excuse to leave the office and drives away from the lot. Marge phones the State Police to find and arrest him, then, following up on a tip, she drives to the lake, sees the kidnappers' car, and arrives at the hideout just in time to see Gaear pushing the last of Carl's body into a wood chipper. Gaear tries to flee, but Marge shoots him in the leg and arrests him.

Jerry is later arrested in a motel outside of Bismarck, North Dakota. In the final scene, Marge and her husband, Norm (John Carroll Lynch), sit in bed together discussing his artwork, which has been selected as the design for a postage stamp.

Cast

• Frances McDormand as Marge Olmstead-Gunderson, the seven-month pregnant chief of police in Brainerd, Minnesota, investigating the murder of three people near her city. Throughout the film, Marge is portrayed as the only competent character, and comes across as polite, likable, and intelligent.
• William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard, a Twin Cities car dealer who is heavily in debt and hires two men to kidnap his wife so he can collect the ransom from his wealthy father-in-law.
• Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter, a talkative small-time crook who is hired by Jerry to kidnap Jerry's wife. The people who run into him invariably describe him as "kinda funny-lookin'" in a "general kinda way".
• Peter Stormare as Gaear Grimsrud, Carl's partner. He is mostly silent and is a heavy smoker. He kills five of the seven characters that die in the film.
• Harve Presnell as Wade Gustafson, the wealthy father of Jean Lundegaard and owner of the Oldsmobile dealership where Jerry works.
• Kristin Rudrüd as Jean Lundegaard, Jerry Lundegaard's wife, who is kidnapped.
• Tony Denman as Scotty Lundegaard, Jerry and Jean's son.
• Larry Brandenburg as Stan Grossman, an accountant and business partner of Wade Gustafson.
• Steve Reevis as Shep Proudfoot, a Native American ex-convict and mechanic at the car dealership. He puts Jerry in contact with Carl and Gaear.
• John Carroll Lynch as Norman "Norm" Gunderson, husband of Marge Gunderson, and a wildlife artist vying to have his work selected for use on a postage stamp.
• Steve Park as Mike Yanagita, a high-school classmate of Marge.

Production

Fact vs. fiction

Fargo opens with the following text:

THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.

Although the film itself is completely fictional, the Coen brothers claim that many of the events that take place in the movie were actually based on true events from other cases that they threw together to make one story. Joel Coen noted:

"We weren't interested in that kind of fidelity. The basic events are the same as in the real case, but the characterizations are fully imagined...If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept."

The Coens claim the actual murders took place, but not in Minnesota.^[3] The main reason for the film's setting is the fact that the Coens were born and raised in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis.^[4]

On the special edition DVD's trivia track for Fargo, it is revealed that the main case for the movie's inspiration was based on the infamous 1986 murder of Helle Crafts from Connecticut at the hands of her husband, Richard, who killed her and disposed of her body through a wood chipper.^[5] A Japanese woman, Takako Konishi, who died in 2001 outside of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, was falsely rumored to have been searching for the missing money in the film.^[6]

The end credits bear the standard "all persons fictitious" disclaimer for a work of fiction.^[7]

Locations

The unseasonably mild winter of early 1995 forced the crew to move locations frequently to find suitably snow-covered landscapes. Fake snow had to be used for many scenes. Pools and streams of meltwater are visible in many scenes.

Locations used during production include:

• King of Clubs, a bar shown at the beginning of the film was located in Northeast Minneapolis on Central Avenue.^[8] It has since been razed to make way for housing for people who are HIV-positive.^[9]
• The Pillsbury Ave. Minneapolis home of Doug Melroe and Denny Kemp includes the kitchen of the Lundegaards' house.^[10]
• The "Wally McCarthy Oldsmobile" car dealership located in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, located 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 Interstate 394 in St. Louis Park. The location is now out of business and the building has been razed. It is now the location of an office building.
• The kidnappers' hideout cabin is located north of Stillwater, Minnesota.
• The Edina, Minnesota Police Station was used for interior shots of the Brainerd Police Station.^[11]
• The Lakeside Club where Marge interviews the hookers is in Mahtomedi, Minnesota.
• Carl steals a license plate from the parking lot of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
• Chanhassen Dinner Theatres was used for the José Feliciano concert.
• The Minneapolis Club Parking Ramp (located on 8th St. and 3rd Ave, Minneapolis, Minnesota) was used for the scene where Wade delivers the money to Carl. The end of the scene where Carl exits the parking garage was actually shot at a different garage – the Centre Village Parking Ramp (down the street, located at 8th St. and 5th Ave.).
• West of Bathgate, North Dakota on Pembina County Highway 1 was the location of the statue of Paul Bunyan.^[11]
• The home of Mr. Mohra was filmed on the corner of 3rd Street and Bryan Avenue in Hallock, Minnesota.^[11]

Accent

The film's use of "Minnesota nice" and a "singsong" regional accent are remembered years later, with locals fielding requests to say "Yah, you betcha", and other lines from the movie.^[12] According to the film's dialect coach, Liz Himelstein, "the accent was another character". She coached the cast using audio tapes and field trips.^[13] Another dialog coach, Larissa Kokernot (who appeared onscreen playing a prostitute), notes that the "small-town, Minnesota accent is close to the sound of the Nords and the Swedes", which is "where the musicality comes from". She also helped McDormand understand Minnesota nice and the practice of head-nodding to show agreement.^[14] Most rural Minnesotans speak with an accent similar to that found in the film, but the strong accent of Jerry and Marge is less common in the Twin Cities, where over 60% of the state's population lives. Speakers from Minneapolis and St. Paul are more characterized by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, which is also found in other places in the northern United States such as Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo.

Reception

Critical response

Fargo was met with universal critical acclaim.^[15][16] Film critic Roger Ebert named Fargo as his fourth favorite film of the 1990s (he also named it 'best of 1996').^[17] In his original review, Ebert called it "one of the best films I've ever seen" and explained that "films like Fargo are why I love the movies".^[18] Many prominent critics named it 'best of the year' including Joel Siegel, Lisa Schwartzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, Gene Siskel, and Leonard Maltin. Fargo has the honor of being one of the very few films to ever receive a unanimous 'A' rating from the critical mass of ratings at Entertainment Weekly.

The film was ranked #84 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movies" list in 1998 (although it was removed from the 2007 version) and #93 on its "100 Years...100 Laughs" list. The character Marge Gunderson was ranked #33 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains. In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", currently one of the only five films to make the Registry in its first year of eligibility, and is one of the leading examples of the neo-noir and comedy genre. It is also the most recent film to receive the honor of being inducted into the National Recording Registry.

Film festivals

Fargo was screened at many film festivals. It was in the main competition at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prix de la mise en scène prize (Best Director). Other festival screenings included the Pusan International Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Naples Film Festival. On March 1, 2006, for the film's tenth anniversary, the annual Fargo Film Festival showed Fargo by projecting the film on the side of the Radisson Hotel (the city's tallest building) in downtown Fargo.

Awards and honors

Wins

• Academy Award for Best Actress - Frances McDormand
• Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay - Joel and Ethan Coen
• BAFTA David Lean Award for Direction - Joel Coen
• Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director - Joel Coen^[2]
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film
• National Board of Review for Best Actress - Frances McDormand
• National Board of Review for Best Director - Joel Coen
• Screen Actors Guild Awards for Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Frances McDormand
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - Joel and Ethan Coen
• 2006 National Film Registry

Nominations

• Academy Award for Best Picture - Ethan Coen
• Academy Award for Directing - Joel Coen
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - William H. Macy
• Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Roger Deakins
• Academy Award for Film Editing - Roderick Jaynes
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture - Joel Coen
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Frances McDormand
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture - Joel and Ethan Coen
• Palme D'or

Other honors

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #84
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #93
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Marge Gunderson, Hero #33

Soundtrack

Fargo/Barton Fink: Music by Carter Burwell
Soundtrack by Carter Burwell
Released	May 28, 1996
Genre	Film score
Length	43:15
Label	TVT
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Movie Music UK
Coen Brothers film soundtracks chronology
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998)

As with all the Coen Brothers' films except for O Brother Where Art Thou, the score to Fargo is by Carter Burwell.^[19]

The main musical motif is based on a Norwegian folk song^[20] called "The Lost Sheep", or natively "Den Bortkomne Sauen".

Other songs in the film include "Big City" by Merle Haggard, heard in the Fargo bar where Jerry meets with kidnappers Carl and Gaear, and "Let's Find Each Other Tonight," a live nightclub performance by José Feliciano that is viewed by Showalter and a female escort. In the diner when Jerry is urging Wade not to get police involved in his wife's kidnapping, Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" can be heard faintly in the background. The restaurant scene with Mike Yanagita is quietly accompanied by a piano arrangement of "Sometimes in Winter" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. None of these songs appear on the soundtrack album.

The soundtrack was released in 1996 on TVT Records, combined with selections from the score to Barton Fink.^[19]

Track listing

1. "Fargo, North Dakota" – 2:47
2. "Moose Lake" – 0:41
3. "A Lot of Woe" – 0:49
4. "Forced Entry" – 1:23
5. "The Ozone" – 0:57
6. "The Trooper's End" – 1:06
7. "Chewing on it" – 0:51
8. "Rubbernecking" – 2:04
9. "Dance of the Sierra" – 1:23
10. "The Mallard" – 0:58
11. "Delivery" – 4:46
12. "Bismarck, North Dakota" – 1:02
13. "Paul Bunyan" – 0:35
14. "The Eager Beaver" – 3:10
15. "Brainerd Minnesota" – 2:40
16. "Safe Keeping" – 1:41

Home video releases

• The film has been released in several formats: VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, and iTunes download.
• A special edition VHS release came in 1996 that, along with the video tape, included a snow globe which, when shaken, stirred up both snow and "blood".
• The film was first released on DVD on July 8, 1997 in a bare-bones edition and widescreen transfer.^[21] A "Special Edition" DVD was released on September 30, 2003. The opening titles stating "This Is A True Story" have been changed in this edition from the actual titles on the film print to digitally inserted titles. Also, the title preceding Jerry Lundegaard's arrest "Outside of Bismark, North Dakota" has been inserted digitally and moved from the bottom of the screen to the top.^[21]
• A Blu-Ray version was released on May 12, 2009.

Television spin-off

In 1997, a pilot was filmed for a television series based on the film. Set in Brainerd, it starred Edie Falco as Marge Gunderson. Directed by Kathy Bates, the episode was shown during Trio's 2003 "Brilliant But Cancelled" series of failed TV shows.

References

External links

• Fargo at the Internet Movie Database
• Fargo at Allmovie
• Fargo at Box Office Mojo
• Fargo at Rotten Tomatoes