Fargo (1996)

Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

Directors:

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (uncredited)

Writers:

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Stars:

William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi

Top Rated Movies #175 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 81 wins & 57 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William H. Macy	...	Jerry Lundegaard
Steve Buscemi	...	Carl Showalter
Peter Stormare	...	Gaear Grimsrud
Kristin Rudrüd	...	Jean Lundegaard
Harve Presnell	...	Wade Gustafson
Tony Denman	...	Scotty Lundegaard
Gary Houston	...	Irate Customer
Sally Wingert	...	Irate Customer's Wife
Kurt Schweickhardt	...	Car Salesman
Larissa Kokernot	...	Hooker #1
Melissa Peterman	...	Hooker #2
Steve Reevis	...	Shep Proudfoot (as Steven Reevis)
Warren Keith	...	Reilly Diefenbach (voice)
Steve Edelman	...	Morning Show Host
Sharon Anderson	...	Morning Show Hostess

Storyline

Jerry works in his father-in-law's car dealership and has gotten himself in financial problems. He tries various schemes to come up with money needed for a reason that is never really explained. It has to be assumed that his huge embezzlement of money from the dealership is about to be discovered by father-in-law. When all else falls through, plans he set in motion earlier for two men to kidnap his wife for ransom to be paid by her wealthy father (who doesn't seem to have the time of day for son-in-law). From the moment of the kidnapping, things go wrong and what was supposed to be a non-violent affair turns bloody with more blood added by the minute. Jerry is upset at the bloodshed, which turns loose a pregnant sheriff from Brainerd, MN who is tenacious in attempting to solve the three murders in her jurisdiction.

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Plot Keywords:

black comedy | neo noir | americana | original story | fargo north dakota | 

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Taglines:

An ordinary place, an extraordinary thriller

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, language and sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 April 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fargo

Filming Locations:

Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, Chanhassen, Minnesota, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$730,265, 10 March 1996

Gross USA:

$24,611,975

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$60,611,975

Company Credits

Production Co:

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Working Title Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

William H. Macy and Kristin Rudrüd - the Lundergaard couple - also appeared in Pleasantville (1998).

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Goofs

When Marge encounters Geaer at the lake, her weapon is a snub nose revolver with a barrel of 2 inches or less, but subsequent shots show it to be a weapon with at least a 4 inch barrel.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jerry Lundegaard: I'm, uh, Jerry Lundegaard.
Carl Showalter: You're Jerry Lundegaard?
Jerry Lundegaard: Ya. Shep Proudfoot said...
Carl Showalter: Shep said you'd be here at 7:30. What gives, man?
Jerry Lundegaard: Shep said 8:30.
Carl Showalter: We've been sitting here an hour. He's
[motioning to Gaer]
Carl Showalter: peed three times already.
Jerry Lundegaard: I'm sure sorry. Shep told me 8:30. It was a mix-up, I guess.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits list production companies, main cast, and the title. The crew is not listed until the ending credits, starting with a director credit.

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Alternate Versions

Polygram Filmed Entertainment sold most of its film library to MGM in 1999. As a result, when the video and DVD were re-issued by MGM video, the MGM lion logo was added to the beginning of the film.

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Connections

Featured in Nostalgia Critic: Maleficent (2018)

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Soundtracks

Johnny's Theme
Written by Paul Anka and Johnny Carson
'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson' Audio Supplied Courtesy of Carson Productions Group

User Reviews

Internally Frayed

The Coens are masters of the tease. By that I mean they'll find a closely embroidered dress and then goof with its perfection. They'll pull this and that element of the colored threads out so that its frayed, disturbing the scene so carefully constructed by the original craftswoman. Superficially it looks more homemade, more genuine this way. But if you look closely you'll see that what they've done is a matter of orchestrated destruction. Things defined by their distance from other things.

Past that point it is merely a matter of whether the teasing engages or not.

Their previous movie was not well received. The original garment was a combination of a mild Capra screwball and a 30's newspaper fold of a sassy woman detective. The noir mechanics were made explicit, as were the cinematic components.

The audience — by this I mean the general paying audience — stayed away. They just weren't in the mood for clever deconstruction, no matter how polished.

This is a reaction. Its a wonderful project, just wonderful in its way, but also sad in the implied tightness behind the decisions you see.

What they've done is frayed the garment on the inside. Everything is sparse, bleak. All the camera setups are overly simplified, all the emotional mechanics understated. Most of it is buried in the snow.

If this movie were made by anyone else, it would just be amusing, a calm sketch of a deliberately uncaffeinated selling itself as if it were a chain of simple products.

But it isn't. Its a suppressed visit by extremists pretending to not be extreme. Its Lynch doing "Straight Story" and not asking us to know that over every dusk hued horizon is one of his ragged unreal movies.

Because of this, we see small gateways into the world of the Dude, or the Sirens. The unborn child will enter a different world. The postage stamp will fly to a different world (when the rates change).

Watch it for the simple garment, a dress covered by a coat. Watch it for the fraying and teasing on the inside, and imagine the colorful embroidery disturbed on the out.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.