Fargo (film)

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Fargo

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 film created by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It is set in the Upper Midwest (the opening and closing scenes are set in North Dakota and the rest in Minnesota, USA) and tells the tale of a car salesman (William H. Macy), who has hired two hit men (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife (Kristen Rudrud) for a ransom of $1,000,000 that sets off a chain of murders in the region, and of the pregnant policewoman investigating the crime (Frances McDormand).

Fargo won two Academy Awards in 1996 — for Best Screenplay and another for Best Actress for Frances McDormand. The film also won the British BAFTA Award and several other international film awards, including the Award for Best Director (Joel Coen) at the Cannes Film Festival of 1996.

The film was ranked #84 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movies" list and #93 on its "100 Years...100 Laughs" list. In addition, Marge Gunderson was ranked #33 on the AFI's list of greatest film heroes.

The film was released on DVD initially on July 8, 1997.[1] The Special Edition DVD was released on September 30, 2003.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in 1987, Fargo tells the "true" story of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), an Oldsmobile car salesman from Minneapolis, Minnesota with financial troubles. Taking place before the film's beginning, Jerry has hatched a simple plan. He turns to a small-time criminal, Shep Proudfoot, and enlists the service of two hit men to kidnap his wife. Jerry meets with the two hit men, the "funny looking" Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and the laconic Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), at a bar in Fargo, North Dakota to stage a pre-arranged kidnapping in which his wife, Jean (Kristin Rudrüd), will be returned unharmed for a payment of $80,000. However, Jerry's plan is to tell his wealthy but antagonistic father-in-law that the ransom is $1,000,000 intending to use the large difference to settle debts and enrich himself.

Gunderson examines the dead state trooper.
Gunderson examines the dead state trooper.
The shootout on the parking lot.
The shootout on the parking lot.

The plan falls apart.

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 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 quickly figures out the chain of events and, while seven months pregnant, follows leads through Minneapolis and the backwoods of Minnesota. Marge displays a combination of Minnesota nice and a clear aptitude for police work, quietly piecing together clues and moving towards the two hired thugs despite nearly every witness being unable to describe Carl beyond his being "funny-looking."

Jerry's plan spirals further out of control both on- and off-screen. Carl calls Jerry up to tell him he's stopping in Minneapolis to pick up the money. Marge meanwhile discovers that Shep is linked to the murderers through phone records. After Marge interviews him, Shep flees and goes after Carl and beats him up for getting him in trouble. Carl is now very angry and demands Jerry deliver him the money in thirty minutes or Carl shoots Jerry's wife and son. Wade decides to get involved and unwisely tries to apply his business-world bullying when he attempts to deliver Carl the money. Wade is then shot dead by Carl, but not before the former 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 Jean. 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 in the head with an axe.

Gaear tries to dispose of Carl's body.
Gaear tries to dispose of Carl's body.

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, going by the alias "Anderson", is staying at a remote motel outside of Bismarck, North Dakota where he finds police knocking at his door and 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 her husband, Norm, sit in bed together watching television. Norm comments that the results were announced. Marge enthusiastically demands, "So?" Norm diffidently shares that his duck painting got the 3-cent stamp, but that it's not a very popular denomination. Marge disagrees, supportively assuring him that people use the 3-cent every time the postage goes up. The couple contentedly murmur, "two more months" in anticipation of the baby, thus sharply contrasting the evil that Marge has seen. In the end nobody gets the money.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Primary cast

William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard.
William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard.
Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter.
Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter.
Peter Stormare as Gaear Grimsrud.
Peter Stormare as Gaear Grimsrud.
Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson.
Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson.

[edit] Production

The unseasonably mild winter weather of early 1995 forced the crew to move locations frequently to find suitable snow-covered landscapes. Fake snow had to be used for many scenes. Pools and streams of meltwater are visible in many scenes. Fargo was also shot very cheaply after the Coen's recent box office failure, The Hudsucker Proxy.

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.[2] It has since been razed to make way for housing for people who are HIV-positive.[3]
  • The Pillsbury Ave, Minneapolis home of Doug Melroe and Denny Kemp includes the kitchen of the Lundegaards' house.[4]
  • 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.
  • The Edina, Minnesota Police Station was used for interior shots of the Brainerd Police Station.[5]
  • Carl steals a license plate from the parking lot of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
  • 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.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Wins

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Fact Vs. Fiction

Fargo begins with the opening 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 Coens claim that many of the events that take place in the movie were actually based on true events from other cases that they all threw together to make one story. Joel Coen said, "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." He later noted, "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 main reason for the film's Minnesota setting was based on the fact that the Coens were born and raised in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis.

On the Special Edition DVD's triva track for Fargo, it is revealed that the main case for the movie's inspiration was based off the infamous murder of Helle Crafts from Connecticut by the hands of her husband, Richard, who killed her and disposed her body through a woodchipper. [1]

The end credits to Fargo bear the standard disclaimer for a work of fiction.[6]

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Not a single scene of Fargo was filmed in or near the city of Fargo, North Dakota. The King of Clubs bar shown at the film's opening was actually filmed in Minneapolis.
  • The Coens named the movie Fargo because it was a better title than "Brainerd."
  • The Paul Bunyan statue used in the movie was not the real Paul Bunyan statue in Brainerd, Minnesota (in fact it the statue scenes were not even filmed in Brainerd, but in fact South of Grand Forks, North Dakota). The real Paul Bunyan was the world's largest animated statue located at Paul Bunyan Amusement Center in nearby Baxter. The amusement park closed in 2003 and has sinced moved a few miles east of the town to This Old Farm.
  • 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,[2] and has worked with the Coen brothers on other movies as well.[3]
  • 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 have been circling the Minneapolis skyline along 94, heading south then east. Minneapolis residents joke that they must have stopped at the Mall of America on their way in (which would have provided the view along the 35 W North to Highway 65 exit as it appears in the film), but it would have 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 immediately need to slow down as the road curves and slows to a stoplight at South 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, North Dakota, where with the help of a scrawled map and due to the inherent language barrier, police deduced that she must have been in search of the lost cache of money that was buried in the film. She was found dead in the woods six days later near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, possibly due to a combination of drugs and exposure to the cold.[7] However, three weeks after her death, her parents in Japan received a suicide note that she had sent several days before she died -- the story of her searching for the cache was, ironically, fictional.[8]
  • Kristin Rudrüd, who plays Jerry's wife, is from Fargo, North Dakota.
  • 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.
  • Carl says he's in town for "just a little of the ol' in-and-out," quoting a line from the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange.
  • Fargo is set in the year 1987. This was the same year as the release of the Coens' movie Raising Arizona.
  • Film critic Roger Ebert named Fargo as his 4th favorite film of the 1990s.
  • On March 1, 2006, the city of Fargo, North Dakota, celebrated the film's tenth anniversary by projecting it onto the side of the Radisson Hotel, the city's tallest building, as part of the opening to the annual Fargo Film Festival.
  • Bear Cat wood chippers are made in Fargo, North Dakota.
  • The ending credits list the "Victim in Field" with a symbol almost identical to the old Prince symbol Image:prince symbol.svg rotated 90° clockwise. This was purportedly done as a private joke between the Coen Brothers and J. Todd Anderson, the individual playing the brief role. Anderson was actually the storyboard artist for the film.[6][9]

[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 Mike Yanagita 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 in 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, "Quiet or I'll eat your head. Is that enough words for you?". This was inspired by a scene in Fargo between Buscemi and Stormare.
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, while Homer is singing his "I love to walk" song, he sees Steve Buscemi, who introduces himself. Homer then enthusiastically responds, "the guy who got fed into the wood chipper in Fargo?"
  • An episode of King of the Hill has Dale Gribble steal Bobby's ventriloquist dummy and feed him into a wood chipper because of a bad experience he had had with a dummy as a child.
  • Pam Beesly, a character from the TV show, The Office, lists the film as one of her five favorite movies.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b IMDB Fargo DVD Information
  2. ^ http://www.cgstock.com/894 (stock photo with location)
  3. ^ http://www.ccht.org/At_last_a_real_home.html
  4. ^ http://startribune.com/1641/story/70938.html
  5. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/locations
  6. ^ a b Fargo from the Urban Legends Reference Pages
  7. ^ Winter, Deena. "Coroner unable to find cause of death of Japanese woman", Bismarck Tribune, January 8, 2002.
  8. ^ Berczeller, Paul. "Death in the snow", The Guardian, June 6, 2003.
  9. ^ IMDB Fargo Full Credits

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


Films directed 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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