D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die…
Fargo, 1996.
Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
Starring William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare.
Fargo is the product of the Coen Brothers and is apparently the telling of a true story. Macy plays Jerry, a financially crippled car salesman married to a woman with a rich and tight fisted father. In order to try and resolve his financial difficulties and find investment money for a new business venture he plans to have his wife kidnapped and her father to pay the ransom.
Jerry meets two criminals Carl (Buscemi) and Gaear (Stormare) who agree to kidnap his wife in return for a new car and a cut of the ransom money, but Jerry plans to raise a lot more than the original ransom fee. The two kidnap his wife and on their way into hiding are stopped by a state trooper. When bribing the state trooper doesn’t work Gaear shoots and kills the man.
The following morning the heavily pregnant local Police Chief Marge (McDormand) investigates the killing, puts the pieces together and follows the clues. The bungled kidnapping becomes more and more problematic for everyone concerned and a list of bizarre incidents occur before Marge can get everyone corned and rounded up.
Fargo is a very dark story of idiocy and incompetence packed full of Coen Brothers comedy. The characters and their individual stories are all so randomly bizarre and weird, but work so well to create a simple story packed full of madness. No one else could have told this story better than the Coen brothers and it became not only a cult classic, but earned a huge box office success as well. Fargo must been seen before you die because no other film manages to be so dark, so funny and so stylish. A Coen Brothers classic.
D.J. Haza
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Originally published November 17, 2011. Updated April 10, 2018.
