Fargo (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Fargo (Special Edition)
Movie Review: You Betcha!
Summary: 5 Stars
Whenever I rave about a movie I've recently seen, there's the inevitable question "What's it about?" With regard to this film, I recall responding that it's about a pregnant police chief who eventually solves a series of brutal murders somewhere in the Upper Midwest. (Brainerd, Minnesota? Fargo, North Dakota?) It is always a pleasure to observe Frances McDormand's performance in a role for which she received an Academy Award for best actress in 1996. The film was directed by Joel Coen who co-wrote the screenplay with brother Ethan. This film effectively combines some of the most dead-on (albeit affectionate) cultural satire of Scandinavian Americans in "Small Town U.S.A." with severe physical violence as when one victim is stuffed upside-down in a wood chip machine. (When I first observed "Margie" methodically gathering information, I was reminded of Colombo whose keen mind is also underestimated.) The basic story involves Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a desperate swindler. After his wealthy father-in-law Wade Gustafson (played by Harve Presnell whom I did not recognize) refuses to become involved in a real estate project, Lundegaard hires Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimstad (Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud) so that he can use most of the ransom to cover his debts and thereby conceal his crimes. Of course, his plan fails and several lose their lives as a result. As the film ends, the camera focuses on Chief Gunderson as drives her police sedan across the bleak winter landscape (think of the surface of the moon beneath three feet of snow and ice), with one of the two kidnappers in custody. She claims not to understand how anyone could behave badly in such a "beautiful" world.Yes, this is a nasty film...at times severely violent. It also has a number of delightful comic moments, notably during Chief Gunderson's conversations with her husband Norm (John Carroll Lynch) as well as with Lundegaard. The acting by all members of the cast is consistently brilliant under Coen's crisp direction. After numerous viewings, what I still enjoy most in this film is McDormand's performance. Chief Gunderson may have a trusting heart but also a remarkably sharp mind. She wants so much to believe in goodness, to think the best of others, but she is by no means naive. As played by McDormand, she invests this film a warmth which is all the more remarkable, given the physical setting and time of the year.
Movie Review: On the nature of evil
Summary: 5 Stars
It is a rare occurance to find a piece of popular entertainment that rises to the level of high art and genius. Yet the film Fargo, by the Cohen Brothers, certainly is a classic superb work of art.
The film is a wonderful essay on the nature of evil, the levels of evil, and the lack of control human beings actually have of Evil once it is let loose upon us.
William H. Macy plays the role of a stupid man, a used car salesman, who trys to cover up his debts by having his wife kidnapped and splitting the ransom, which will be paid by his rich father-in-law, with the two criminal kidnappers.
Macy's acting is superb as he portrays the nervous insipid frantic actions of a man of mundane evil who through his stupidity lets loose great evil.
The two kidnappers, one played by Steve Buscemi, reveal two layers of evil also. Both are evil but one is a killing machine, devoid of any empathy or connection to human emotion. This is the killer that stalks the land of the average mundane citizen of Minnesota and Norht Dakota.
To sort out this crazy plot and put the forces of evil back into the box is certainly one of the strongest heroines in all literature and cinema. Frances McDorman is totally superb as the pregnant female sherriff who must take on the forces of evil with only her smart persistent innocence to guide her. I once read an essay on the great achievement of Jane Austin in her character of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. This essay indicated that prior to Austin's Elizabeth Bennett, most heroines were frail and did not trust their inner instincts and sensibilities. Yet Elizabeth Bennett adheres to her internal values and judgement and triumphs in a world dominated by men. The character of the Sherriff played by McDormand follows this line of development to a pinacle. She trusts her internal strenghts, judgement, sense of justice,and knowledge of human frailty and with these tools she confronts a killing machine of demonic proportions.
With dark humor combined with human tragedy, this film eventually allows persistent and intelligent innocence to triumph over random and stupid evil; which we all know from history is a rare occurrance. However, we end the film realizing that it is innocence that is the natural combatant for evil and in the end is the precious part of our existence for which the fight against evil is absolutely necessary.
Movie Review: Another Jewel from the Coen Brothers
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie opens with the words "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." I never challenged these words, but apparently no such incidents as depicted in this film ever occurred. The movie plays out quite believably - A middle-class car salesman gets in over his head financially by embezzling from his employer, thinking that the business deals he is making with the money will allow him to replace the stolen goods before he is detected. When his schemes don't pan out he must find a way to replace the money. The salesman's father-in-law is wealthy but distant and indifferent towards him, so he hatches a plan to fake his wife's kidnapping with the help of two felons he doesn't know at all who are "vouched for" by an ex-con mechanic that works at the same dealership he works for. He figures his father-in-law will pay the ransom, he'll split it with the felons, and his problems will be solved. This is not to be the case. It turns out that these felons are more violent and uncontrollable than the salesman counted on, and they leave quite a body count that in the end includes the salesman's wife, his father-in-law, and several innocent bystanders. Also, in another clever twist, what becomes of the ransom money over which so many greedy people in the film have fought and died is quite ironic to say the least. Although I wouldn't exactly say we read this story in the paper everyday, we all have read something similar - someone who has lived an ordinary life for several decades suddenly gets tempted into some criminal activity that quickly escalates out of control.
The person who unravels the mystery of the crimes is the most unstereotypical of police officers - Marge Gunderson. She is the extremely pregnant chief of police in the small town where the first murders occur, and her combination of brains and folksy charm masterfully handle witnesses and trace the crime back to the car salesman and his dealership.
I've never been to Minnesota, but if the Coens' rendition of that state and its people was as spot-on as their parody of the American southwest in "Raising Arizona", then they have really done their research. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: Enjoyable film.
Summary: 5 Stars
Fargo was a great film, everything in this film worked from the dark humor to the script and acting and the way it was shot in the cold snow. The Coen brothers have made a masterpiece the film is more like a crime/thriller that happens to be based on a true story and of course this turned out to be a joke cause its not based on anything. The film is about a car salesman named Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) who meets a pair of thugs (Steve Buscemi and another actor forgot his name) to discuss the kidnapping of his wife. Its pretty obvious that Jerry is a total loser who is deep in debt and likes to cheat his customers at the car dealership and not to mention his father in law has no respect for him, so out of desperation Jerry is forced to go with a plan that might force his father in law to pay a ransom to the kidnappers. The film has alot of dark humor to it as the two thugs aren't to bright and they have left a trail of dead bodies along the way and thats when Marge Gunderson (played brilliantly by Frances Mcdormand who won an oscar for this role) arrives she is the tough and pregnant local police chief who is determined to solve the case and expose the lies from Jerry so she might uncover the truth. This film probably has one of the best and most original scripts I have ever seen, everything from the dialogue and the way the people talk was just brilliant and the humor at times is laugh out loud funny especially when the two thugs keep screwing things up and need to retrace their steps. Steve Buscemi steals all his scenes as the weasly criminal that has a temper and is always neurotic, although the film won't appeal to alot of people because of the violence especially with the scene involving a woodchipper but it was quite good and I consider this to be one of the best movies of the 90's. Frances Mcdormand was great as her character who was pregnant and yet still determined to work was great and obviously has an exaggerated accent from Minnesota saying stuff like "Aw jeez, Darn tootin" and "He was funny lookin, oh yah" was a bit annoying but still made things alot more fun to watch as she played a great and hilarious character, I cannot recomend this film highly enough check it out.Movie Review: Funny as hell
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know if this is the best movie the Coen brothers have made, but it has to be one of them. I think everybody will come away from this movie with different perceptions. Like all great art, you'll either love it or hate it.
While I doubt they had "one single message" in mind while making it, the general boredom, desperation and absurdity of every possible event in life leaks heavily from every scene of this movie. The characters are sketchy cretins who we can feel very little sympathy with, except the leading lady sheriff, and even she can get annoying with that accent. The plot isn't even really that important, any more than understanding logically how a car accident happened while you're watching it occur. The mood is what makes this film. Steve Buscemi and his really creepy partner buy into this weak little goofball's scheme to kidnap his wife to get money from her stingy father (the only figure in the film who seems to have some emotion along with the sherrif). Needless to say, it doesn't go to well, and call me jaded, but I found all the gruesomely violent scenes cause for chuckling. When a cop pulls Buscemi and his sociopathic companion over, the Coen brothers refuse the normal "outs" in the typical the-criminals-are-caught film situation:somehow the cop doesn't notice, you think he does but he doesn't, etc. No. He just gets shot in the head. And the kids driving by who witness Buscemi trying to hide the cop's body are simply run down and shot too. No commercial breaks, no outs. Stark realism only for the really real.
The world the Coen brothers create is one of dead greed and disconnection with barely a glimmer of hope, and with this description it seems odd that others find this so amusing, but it is. Even though we get attached to Buscemi's scumbag character in a weird way, there is tremendous hilarity in him being shoved down a wood chipper by his quiet buddy when the two have a minor disagreement over how to split their ill gotten funds. This is an incredible movie, but if your taste in movies is standard (another word for limited), don't watch it and get all high and mighty about the violence.