Thursday Minute
No. 65 | April 1, 2010

“City” Flickers

Our theme this week
Films named after U.S. cities

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   San Francisco (1936)
Tuesday         —   Nashville (1975)
Wednesday    —   Atlantic City (1980)

Fargo (1996)

The city
Founded:  1871
Named For:  Wells Fargo founder William Fargo
Nickname:  Gateway to the West
Population:  99,000

The movie
Release Date:  1996
Cast:  Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Harve Presnell
Director, Writer:  Joel & Ethan Coen
Oscar Summary:  7 nominations, 2 wins

Don’t miss the beginning of Fargo or you’ll miss Fargo.  The North Dakota city is a bit player in this black comedy from the Coen brothers.  The main action takes place across the state line, in Minnesota, partly in the Twin Cities, partly in Brainerd.  Why the title Fargo then?  Well, it is the setting for a key scene where car dealer Jerry Lundegaard arranges for the kidnapping of his wife.  From that beginning the entire story flows.  But the title does get people asking, Why Fargo?  That seems intentional.  The answer may be this simple:  because it works.

Why things work or don’t work is always a bit of a mystery.  Fargo works, and in my opinion, works better than any other Coen brothers movie.  I’ve read various explanations about why, and it often comes down to Marge Gunderson, the pregnant and pleasant police chief of Brainerd.  She investigates a murder, solves the crime, and is the hero of the story.  She’s the most sympathetic, and among the most competent, character in this or any movie from the Coen brothers.  She’s one of their few female roles with major screen time that could be described as admirable.  The performance by Frances McDormand, wife of Joel Coen, doesn’t miss a beat.  Her pitch perfect timing adds up to one of the great comic acting jobs of the ’90s.  Yet I think there’s more to it, and the success of the movie owes as much, if not more, to William H. Macy, as Lundegaard.  It’s hard to be so likable and so despicable at the same time.  He’s dishonest, he’s conniving, he’s cowardly, and he’s so damn chipper you want to knock that phony grin off his face.  Yet you feel for him.  Part of you wants him to succeed.  You know he deserves better than the treatment he gets from his wealthy father-in-law, owner of the dealership.  Until Marge enters the picture, Lundegaard is the only one worth rooting for.  He drives the action from the first scene to nearly the last, and it’s Macy as much as anyone that makes the film so memorable.  The rest of the cast ain’t bad either.

Joel and Ethan Coen are talented filmmakers.  They certainly know how to write and direct, and entertain.  Yet I have my gripes.  In some films they go beyond the satiric, into the misanthropic.  Still, the Coens are almost always worth watching.  (Much of my beef is really with critics, who often would rather swoon than do their jobs.)  In Fargo, the Coens seem to have struck the right balance.  The film works.  Not all their films do, which just goes to show, that’s no easy feat.

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Fargo
Trailer

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Fargo
Marge Gunderson at Work

“He was funny-looking.  More than most people, even.”

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Fargo
Jerry Lundegaard at Work (and more)

Would you buy a car from this man?

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Quote of Note
“Big John, do you think this boy is a hustler?”
—Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), The Hustler (1961)

…58…59…60.

1. KarmaSartre says:

   April 1, 2010 at 2:06 pm

   “He’s so damn chipper”!