109. Fargo (1996)

Stars:  Frances McDormand (Marge Gunderson), William H. Macy (Jerry Lundegaard), Steve Buscemi (Carl Showalter), Peter Stormare (Gaear Grimsrud)

Director(s):  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Awards / Honors

• 2 Oscar wins - Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Wrtining (Original Screenplay - Joel and Ethan Coen)
• 5 Additional Oscar Nominations - Best Picture, Best Director (Joel Coen), Best Supporting Actor(William H. Macy), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing
• #84 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (1998)
• #93 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list (2000)
• #33 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villians list - Marge Gunderson, Hero (2003)
• In 2006, Fargo was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Genre:  Comedy

Running Time:  1 Hour, 38 Minutes

Format:  DVD, Blu-ray

Odyssey Rating:  4 Stars (John - 4 Stars, Beth - 4 Stars, Jon - 4 Stars, Becky - 4 Stars)

John's Take

Again Beth and I we were happy to have Official Friends of Beth and John’s Movie Odyssey, Jon and his wife Becky, join us during our screening of Fargo.  As you might guess we watched both Fargo and The Sixth Sense the same evening.  I believe that Jon and Becky had both seen the movie before, but Beth and I had not.

Fargo is a strange little movie.  That is not to say that it isn’t a good movie.  It is a very good movie, just a little odd.  It is a little difficult to classify what kind of genre and style that Fargo falls under.  For example, most sources just simply list the film’s genre as a “black comedy” and leave it at that.  I guess that works.  However, the standard definition of black comedy states the story be an ironic, satirical take on a rather dark, even morbid subject.  A classic example would be Dr. Strangelove (# 30 on our list).  In that movie, the subject of all-out nuclear war is played for laughs (the satire), and it is happening because the very fail-safes that are supposed to prevent nuclear war are now enabling it (the irony).  Fargo certainly uses a morbid subject (murder) for humorous effect, I am not exactly sure what precisely is being satirized (murder stories, Minnesota, both?) and where is the irony exactly?  I am not saying it isn’t there; it is just not obvious to me.  I would like to think that my level of “movie sophistication” is slightly above average.  However, I am probably not as savvy as I would like to think I am.

For example, while watching the film I was a little confused on what the purpose of the restaurant scene where Marge meets up with her old acquaintance, Mike.  It didn't seem to have a purpose, nor did it seem advance plot.  Despite being confused, I was really enjoying the story, and since the movie kind of kept chugging along, I didn’t give it much thought and kept enjoying the ride.  A few days after watching the film, I found myself thinking about that scene, so I got busy on the internet and tried to find more about the movie and hopefully that scene in particular.  Apparently, I was not the only one with questions about this scene and a number of movie sights had references to it in their FAQ sections.  If you think you know the importance of that scene, go ahead and leave a comment detailing what you think it is.  I have read three different explanations, and they are all basically the same.  I will let you know if you are correct.  However, I never would have come up with the reason of why that scene was important on my own.  Not in a million years.  I am sure many of you got it right away, but sometimes I need to get wonked upside the head before I notice things. 

The confusion I felt over which genre applied to Fargo also applies to its cinematic style.  Fargo has been called a good example of the neo-noir style.  What does neo-noir mean?  Well, the term film noir (“black film”) was coined in the mid 1940’s but didn’t come into common use until much later – the 70’s and 80’s.  It is generally used to describe American crime dramas and psychological thrillers made during the 40’s and 50’s (The Maltese Falcon – #25 on our list – is the quintessential example).  Noir films have a number of common themes, plot devices, and distinctive visual elements.  Characters were often conflicted and flawed.  They usually find themselves in difficult situations and making choices out of desperation or for self-centered reasons.  The visual elements of these films included low-key lighting, unusual camera placement, and use of shadow to establish mood.  Despite the fact that they stopped making these films by the late 50’s, the style of filmmaking and story telling had big influences on later filmmakers.  Films such as Chinatown (#19 on our list), Taxi Driver (# 49 on our list), and Pulp Fiction (#101 on our list) borrowed / were heavily influenced by those classic noir films but added their own specific variations to the established noir themes.  Since they were not classic film noir, but were clearly noir-like (for lack of a better term), these films and others often get lumped together under the heading of “new (neo) noir”.

So with all of that stated, is Fargo a good example of neo-noir style?  If forced to answer I would say no, but actually I have no idea.  It certainly doesn’t seem to share much, if any, of the classic film noir attributes – Marge isn’t a nihilistic gumshoe, for example, nor is the film particularly dark and shadowy.  About the only noir-like attributes I can think of are the facts that the film features a “detective” and a crime.  In fact, the Coen brothers seem to take great pains to be the exactly the opposite of classic film noir.  Something being the exact opposite of a particular style doesn’t seem to be a good reason to include that something in a sub-type of said style, but then again, I may be missing the obvious.

What is the point of all this babbling about genre and style?  The point is that it ultimately doesn’t really matter what genre or cinematic style a film belongs to.  Fargo is just a bit of an enigma, and one just needs to get comfortable with that.  Heck, even its the film's title really doesn't make much sense since the city that the movie gets it name from only appears in the film's open scene, has nothing to do with the plot and rest of the movie takes place in Minnesota, not North Dakota.  What is important, however, is whether or not the film is good.  And Fargo is a very good film, whether it is a neo-noir black comedy or not.

I give Fargo a ranking of 4 Stars.

John