Fargo: A Retrospect

I know that Fargo isn't as old as the other films to which I've dedicated retrospective articles to, but hey, I had to have a newest film among my retrospective picks, and I think that the Coen Brothers' 1996 dark comedy has received enough attention from critics and audiences alike for me to look at it in retrospect. To put it simply, Fargo is a phenomenal movie. It's a nearly-perfect snow-covered comedic noir about dumb gangsters, corrupt auto salesmen, heavy Minnesota accents, and one infamous wood chipper, and by the time the credits rolled after I watched it for the first time, it had easily become one of my favorite films. Apparently, it was based on a true story as well, although I imagined the Coens pushed the envelope with that "based on" part a little bit. So, all that aside, what exactly makes this movie so good? What lessons can be learned from the storytelling presented here? What techniques were implemented to make Fargo worth looking at in retrospect?

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, Fargo follows Marge Gunderson, a police officer in Minnesota, Carl and Gaear, two very inept and bumbling criminals, and Jerry Lundegaard, a no-good crook and car salesman, through a twisting, turning, and snow-covered kidnapping hoax involving his wife of all people in snow-covered Minnesota that contains murder, cabins, carjackings, and yes, you read that right the first time, a woodchipper.

First off, I want to bring up the fact that Fargo was probably, as far as the writing tendencies of the Coens, a perfect film for them to make. It's very comedic, quite violent, and it also contains some heavy genre-oriented tones that would be right at home in a classic western. The Coens have been known to shuffle and mix these three genres, namely comedy and satire, action flicks, and westerns, and Fargo is probably their most well-known film that contains all of these elements. The film is a brilliant mix of several seemingly contradictory tones that all remedy the others to avoid letting one tone become completely dominant, and the crazy thing is that this trick works like a charm and really lets this film and all of its clashing elements shine with a weird, wacky, but utterly unforgettable and well-balanced light that's unlike almost anything I've ever seen before, a light that's most comparable and most at-home with weird, dark, and utterly unique satires like "Jojo Rabbit" and, to a lesser extent, Quentin Tarantino's films. This movie made me laugh, it made me cringe, and, more importantly, it focused on the characters of the film and really made me care about what they cared about and held near and dear. Unless it was money. Because there's plenty of scheming surrounding money in this movie, and that's mostly Jerry's fault. But hey, these are villainous tales, you've got to have a villain in those kinds of movies.

Beyond surface-level observations about Fargo, the characters in this film are all fantastically written, with no exceptions to this rule whatsoever. And more importantly, they all have a distinct voice that immediately makes them memorable. The fantastic writing and plotting of the film probably had something to do with this, as even the lesser characters in the film feel unique as a result of it. Marge has to be my favorite character in this movie and, frankly, one of my favorite movie characters ever. She's obviously a hilarious caricature of your stereotypical Minnesotan on the surface, but as the film progresses, she's revealed to also be an infectiously likable and dynamic character on top of being quite wise. In many ways, Marge is Fargo if it were a person, and I think that more movies should have a character that so perfectly and wholly embodies everything the movie is about, even and especially if some aspects of the movie are sort of goofy. Jerry is hilariously cowardly, and William H. Macy, the actor portraying him, has some of the most dynamic facial expressions I think I've ever seen in a movie. He's a villain who's simultaneously despicable and extremely hard to hate because the performance that Macy gives is just so outstanding. Carl and Gaear are your bumbling criminal duo who do the dirty work for Jerry, and even though it's a character archetype that's been portrayed a million times before, their contrasting worldviews, attitudes, and abilities make for a very interesting dynamic that leads to an extremely unexpected and satisfying conclusion to their work together. The other performances in this film are fantastic, but these four are the standouts, Marge most of all.

As for the overall plot of Fargo, that's probably my favorite thing about this movie. The story it tells is virtually flawless, introducing the individual plot threads of the film in a well-paced and timely manner and then wrapping them up in an even more satisfying and cohesive way than it introduced them. This film's command and control of its characters, what they do, and its understanding of the cause and effect of their actions is an utterly remarkable feat of storytelling, and its plot is on par with or even superior to both The Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight, two films that contain comparable and likewise well-executed plots. I like to say that after everything has been established, a good movie is always trying to end itself, and Fargo could be the gold standard for this rule. This movie never fools around, and everything in it happens for a reason. The writing is incredibly tight and lacks the self-indulgence that very easily and even rightfully could have arisen in a story this unique and immersively crafted. Fargo absolutely deserved to pat itself on the back, and yet it never stops to do so, and I really appreciate that about the movie. Instead of succumbing to self-praise, Fargo always tends to have its climax in mind, and so even if the movie didn't exactly end with a massive gunfight that a lot of us have come to expect in movies, we knew that the movie has to end somehow, and no plot threads get left open to leave any doubt of this or lessen our anticipation of the story's end. More and more things go wrong for these characters as the movie progresses, and we know that eventually, some or all of these characters are going to bite the bullet (or the axe or the woodchipper), and this story is going to come to an end. Fargo sets itself up in a way that makes it impossible for all of its characters to walk away at the end, and that sense of inevitability, combined with dynamic and interesting characters you will almost certainly become attached to, is an unmistakable hallmark of clever writing. And yet, the expected climax somehow still surprised me with its twists, turns, and revelations.

Roger Ebert, likely the most respected film critic of all time, called Fargo one of the best films he's ever seen, and while I was initially surprised by such high praise coming from such a powerhouse of film criticism, I understood what he meant. I was floored by Fargo. After watching it, I can confidently consider it to be one of the best films of all time. There are a million and one good things I could say about this movie and very few criticisms I could level at it. In fact, as I sit here and write this article, no particular complaints come to mind. Reading through some reviews, it appears like some of the lower reviews have to do with the "based on a true story" memo at the start of the film and the fact that Fargo isn't as true-to-life as it may have claimed to be in its opening moments. And to that criticism, I give a resounding "who cares?" There seem to be some elements of true stories in the film, and even if there aren't, and everything that happened in Fargo is pure fantasy, that statement was an effective storytelling device that made us pay attention. Besides, it has no bearing on the pristine plot of this film whatsoever. Now, I've praised this movie up and down the board, but I do have to give some respective notices about periodic graphic violence, strong language throughout, and a spattering of nudity and sexual content. So take my review how you will. But Fargo is one of my favorite movies, and that's a title it rightfully and skillfully earned.

Fargo - 10/10

Isaiah 1:16-18