Fargo - Film Review Fridays
“Heck, Norm, you know, we're doing pretty good…two more months”
What does it say about humans that a large percentage of screen audiences binge-watch and enjoy true crime documentaries? What does it say about us that we've unintentionally glorified and created a hierarchy of serial killers? That a lot of us are clamouring for the latest season of ‘Monster’, where we’ll see Charlie Hunnam harvest innocent people for their organs, decorate his house with human skin and dress in his mother's corpse?
Does it say that a murder has to be gruesome for it to matter? And that a killer has to be so depraved and commit unthinkable acts to care about the victims?
‘Fargo’ is a Coen Brothers neo-western crime film which opens with the statement, “based on true events”. I apologise if I'm the one breaking this to you, but it's a completely fictional story. However, in examining the film under the pretense of a true story, I've come to appreciate it more as a satire of True Crime film and television. Over time, the True Crime genre has become more stylised, with big-name actors becoming a major selling point. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater in ‘Dr Death', Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer in season 1 of ‘Monster’ and Zac Efron as Ted Bundy in ‘Extremely Wicked, Shocking, Evil and Vile’. It's sickening to see studios promote tragic stories of real murders through famous faces and pop culture references. To promote season 3 of ‘Monster’, Charlie Hunnam posed for posters referencing ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’. It's horrific in itself that the main selling point of such films and shows are by treating the murders like midnight showings or gross-out splatter-fests.
‘Fargo’ pokes fun at the genre by driving in the opposite direction and detailing a crime so minor in comparison that it's more believable than any other True-Crime film. In intimate scenes between criminals, a True-Crime film might have the characters discuss the inhuman acts they may inflict upon their victim, but ‘Fargo’ takes a more humourous approach.
“Where is pancakes house? We stop at pancakes house.”
“What are you, nuts? We had pancakes for breakfast. Got to go to a place where I can get a shot and a beer and steak maybe, not more fucking pancakes. Okay, here's an idea, we can stop outside of Brainerd, I know a place there we can get laid”
The criminals are pursued by Brainerd police chief Marge Gunderson, one of the many Minnesota residents that have the exact same vocal patterns (“Huh, oh yeah!”). In the True-Crime genre, detectives usually have a gruff voice with ungroomed facial hair and a hyper-nihilistic attitude, but ‘Fargo’ offers a short, pregnant police chief with a happy-go-lucky personality.
“So we got a trooper pull someone over, we got a shooting, these folks drive by, there's a high-speed pursuit, ends here and then this execution type deal. I'd be very surprised if our suspect is from Brainerd. And I tell you what, from his footprints he looks like a big fella.”
Frances McDormand, a frequent collaborator of the Coens since their first film, ‘Blood Simple’ (and Joel Coen’s wife) plays Marge and does such a delightful job, it's genuinely confusing that she isn't considered one of the best heroines in cinema. She's incredibly smart, always polite, has no vices or addictions, and has the perfect relationship with her husband. She's the complete opposite of the stereotypical on-screen detective.
William H. Macy plays Jerry Lindegaard, a car salesman who hires criminals, Carl and Gaear to kidnap his wife, Jean for his father-in-law's money. Macy does an incredible job at portraying that one guy you know who will argue that he could get away with a crime, only for him to pathetically crumble under pressure. His best scenes are with McDormand as he portrays Jerry struggling to appear innocent, often overreacting to try and shake Marge off his tail.
“Well, heck! If you wanna- if you wanna play games here, I'm working with ya on this thing here, but…okay! I'll do a damn lot count! If it's so damned important to ya…”
Steve Buscemi plays Carl, and he is easily the funniest character in the film. He loses his mind almost every time he’s on screen. He's emotionally sensitive, has a penchant for sex workers and is often humiliated and abused by bigger thugs. While most of his screentime is alongside Peter Stormare as Gaear, I would argue Buscemi’s best scene is when he arrives at the ransom handoff, supposedly meeting Jerry, but instead being met by Wade, Jerry’s father-in-law. After being beaten up, suffering through cabin fever at the safehouse and having to deal with an anti-social partner, the bewildering “Who the fuck are you” is absolutely gut-busting, even more as he continues his mental breakdown before turning his rage into violence.
Peter Stormare’s role is minor in the film, more tagging along and fixing Carl's mistakes, but he puts his screentime to good use. Whether it's killing witnesses, staring people down or feeding a corpse through a mulcher, Stormare is guaranteed to give you a moment to keep in your mind for the next 20 years. It wouldn't surprise me if he was a runner-up for the role of Anton Chigurh in the Coen’s adaptation of No Country for Old Men.
In such a day and age where it almost becomes self-parody with the constant Hollywood-isation of horrific and tragic murders, it feels so refreshing and relieving to see ‘Fargo’ imitate and mock the True-Crime genre tropes. It can feel incredibly stressful and anxiety-inducing to watch and listen to stories about how a 20-year-old waitress was taken to the swamp and drowned before being fed to a crocodile, and ‘Fargo’ seems to understand that. I guess I'm not much of a True-Crime guy, but ‘Fargo’ seems to reflect the majority of crimes committed. It's as if the film says “the world isn't as dark as Hollywood makes it out to be”, and now, ‘Fargo’ has turned into my latest comfort film.
