Fargo (1996)

Are we square?!

THE SUMMARY: A car salesman with financial troubles orchestrates the kidnapping of his wife to extort his father-in-law for money, but the whole scheme goes awry in a classic case of ‘80s midwestern hoax hate. Some pieces of Fargo are absolutely legendary. Other pieces are just clumsy ‘silly for silly’s sake’ reaches. Overall though, it’s a very quotable and enjoyable black comedy.

NO MOVIE-PICKER COMMENTARY: Fargo is a random IMDb top-rated selection (ranking #170 all-time), after Blonde’s nominations were rejected by audience vote.

THE BEST:

• The absolute upper-midwestern-ness: What’s for supper? Arby’s? Oh, you betcha! Aw, jeez… Fargo absolutely nails its cultural setting, right down to the Old Dutch chips. It’s a setting for which I have a lot of personal love, admittedly, but it’s easy to appreciate even if you have no personal attachment. The setting is so rarely used, it makes this movie fresh, fun, and memorable. In a strange way, the otherwise drab, dreary, flat environment of a Minnesota winter makes a great palate for blood loss, too. Or in the movie’s most famous scene, blood spray.

• Keep calm and fight the forces of evil: My greatest admiration for that upper-midwestern-ness actually isn’t a joke or mockery at all, though. It takes a hearty jovialness to survive those winters, or at least it did in settlement times, and I think those personality traits carry on today. Even when everything is drab and bitter cold, you have to find the joy and purpose. Marge, despite all her silliness, does exactly that. She’s investigating a horror show, but she never breaks down about it. She never loses her cool. She never even gets angry, really. She just gives Grimsrud a classically polite talkin’-to. Doncha know there’s more to life than money? Doncha know there are better things to do on a beautifully grey day? And in the end, she returns right back to where she started: to her bed, with her husband, to encourage him on the supposed excellence of his mundane paintings. As though none of the horror show happened at all.

  No matter how horrible, no matter how grey, no matter how dreary your metaphorical winter may seem, remember your purpose, keep cool, and stay committed to its pursuit. This is the way, doncha know.

• The wood chipper: Of course I have to give necessary credit to the scene for which this movie is remembered. Even if you hate every other piece of Fargo, you will never forget this moment. And you won’t avoid its cultural relevance, either. Whenever someone suggests that some degenerate should ‘get the wood chipper,’ that’s Fargo.

• I’m from Chaska too, actually: One of the ‘call girls’ in the movie tells Marge she’s from Chaska. That’s where my family lived and I grew up until about the time of this movie’s release, 1997. I rank far down a long list of public personalities from that town, though. I think the proper order is Mike Lindell, Kris Humphries, the prostitute from Fargo, and then maybe me. Okay… maybe a few more, including the actor kid who played Jerry and Jean’s son Scotty in the movie, and then me.

Even if you hate this movie, you’ll never forget this scene

Doncha know that?

THE WORST:

• Marge’s long lost love side plot: This piece of the story absolutely loses me. It’s irrelevant to the plot, which I understand is surely intentional, but for some ‘wacky,’ ‘weird’ side plot to have purpose in a comedy, it must be actually funny. This scene isn’t. Oh wow - Mike the Asian guy is an unhappy liar who has made poor choices in life. Hilarious.

  There are those who defend this scene as having some ‘thematic’ or ‘metaphorical’ relevance to the story as a whole - that Mike’s happy, friendly presentation is a cover for his lies and misery, a point that applies to many characters in the movie.

  Nah. I don’t need an additional metaphorical representation of a theme that is already abundantly present in the movie and has no relevance otherwise. The point Mike is supposedly making is already apparent throughout. Meaning at best, this scene is redundant. At worst, it’s irrelevant entirely. Delete.

• Why does Jerry need the money?: I know - I’ll be accused of needing the story ‘spoon-fed’ to me, a point to which I always respond, yes, I like to hear a good story, not to have to invent one in my head. But we never learn exactly what financial trouble Jerry is in, and how he got into it. The circumstances of his debt are likely significant in judging his character and behavior. Granted, there’s no debt that justifies abusing your own wife and accidentally getting her and many others killed, but we would still judge Jerry’s behavior differently, depending on whether he was victimized into this debt, or if the whole situation is all his fault in the first place.

Unnecessary - delete

THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. Even if it indulges in its own quirks a little too much, Fargo is an unforgettable movie, and for that it deserves credit.

YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇

NEXT WEEK: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

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