Fargo [Blu-ray]

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Joel Coen

Overview

Filmmaking siblings Joel Coen and Ethan Coen both embraced and poked satirical fun at their Minnesotan roots with this comedy-drama-thriller that earned seven Oscar nominations, winning for Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant police chief whose affable, folksy demeanor masks a whip-smart mind. When a pair of motorists are found slain not far from the corpse of a state trooper, Marge begins piecing together a case involving a pair of dopey would-be kidnappers, Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Bergman stock player Peter Stormare). They've been hired by Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a car salesman under the thumb of his wealthy, overbearing boss and father-in-law, Wade (Harve Presnell). Jerry's raised some money illegally through a petty scam he's run on General Motors and he's about to get caught. When Wade sours a business deal that could save his son-in-law's hide, the desperate Jerry hires Carl and Gaear to kidnap his wife and hold her for ransom. Things go predictably wrong and a series of murders occur, with Marge, waddling along behind her enormous belly and ever-hungering for an all-you-can-eat buffet, hot on the trail of the killers. Although the credits for Fargo state that the film is loosely based on real events, the story is entirely fictional, the claim being just an ironic jibe on the part of the Coens.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/02/2018
UPC:	0826663181388
Original Release:	1996
Rating:	R
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	16,001

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Frances McDormand	Marge Gunderson
Steve Buscemi	Carl Showalter
William H. Macy	Jerry Lundegaard,Actor
Peter Stormare	Gaear Grimsrud
Harve Presnell	Wade Gustafson
Kristin Rudrud	Jean Lundegaard
John Carroll Lynch	Norm Gunderson
Steve Park	Mike Yanagita,Mike Yanagita
Tony Denman	Scotty Lundegaard
Warren Keith	Reilly Diefenbach
Larry Brandenburg	Stan Grossman
Bruce Bohne	Lou
Cliff Rakerd	Officer Olson
Jose Feliciano	Himself
Bain Boehlke	Mr. Mohra
Rose Stockton	Valerie
Gary Houston	Irate Customer
Sally Wingert	Irate Customer's Wife
Kurt Schweickhardt	Car Salesman
Larissa Kokernot	Hooker No. 1
Melissa Peterman	Hooker No. 2
Steve Edelman	Morning Show Host
Sharon Anderson	Morning Show Hostess,Victim in the Field
James Gaulke	State Trooper
Michelle Suzanne Le Doux	Victim in Car
Petra Boden	Cashier
Wayne Evenson	Customer
Jessica Shepherd	Hotel Clerk
Peter Schmitz	Airport Lot Attendant
Steve Shaefer	Mechanic
Michelle Hutchinson	Escort
David Lomax	Man in Hallway
Don William Skahill	Night Parking Attendant
Robert Ozasky	Bismarck Cop No. 1
John Bandemer	Bismarck Cop No. 2
Don Wescott	Bark Beetle Narrator
Steve Reevis	Shep Proudfoot
Kristin Rudrüd	Actor
Michelle LeDoux	Victim in Car
Bruce Campbell	Soap Opera Star on TV
Carter Burwell	Composer

Technical Credits

Joel Coen

Joel Coen	Director,Screenwriter,Screenwriter,Producer,Director,Producer
Tim Bevan	Executive Producer
Eric Fellner	Executive Producer
Jery Hewitt	Stunts
John Lyons	Casting
Paul Murphy	Special Effects
John Alagna	Special Effects
Michael Barry	Sound Effects
John Cameron	Producer
Allan Byer	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

The Coen brothers (Blood Simple, Barton Fink) scored their biggest critical success with this darkly funny thriller set in a small, winter-bound Minnesota town. The story revolves around a kidnapping that goes awry and the efforts of a quiet, efficient -- and very pregnant -- Fargo police chief (Frances McDormand) to solve a series of increasingly gruesome murders. McDormand won an Oscar for her marvelously understated portrayal of a kind-hearted, coffee-swilling sleuth, but the whole cast -- including William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi -- is superb, delivering the kind of offbeat, stylized performances that are a Coen brothers trademark. Music by regular Coen collaborator Carter Burwell sets a moody tone, beautifully evoking the long nights and frozen expanses of a Minnesota winter. Holding it all together is the directors' complete confidence in their own sensibility; despite the film's mainstream recognition -- it got an Oscar nomination for best picture -- Fargo shows no hint of Hollywood compromise. The film is distinguished by the brothers' unique and very black sense of humor, right down to the foot poking out of the wood chipper.

Barnes & Noble - Gregory Baird

Fargo never seems to make up its mind if it wants to be an absurdist comedy or a stylized crime drama, and that's a big part of its charm: somehow it manages to be both at the same time. While the movie never shies away from the grim facts or consequences of the kidnapping and multiple murders at the core of the narrative, Fargo does manage to skate playfully into a dryly comic look at life in the frozen wastes of Minnesota, where cuisine is ruled by the buffet and folks really say "You betcha!" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, former Minnesotans themselves, understand the physical and emotional landscape of the little town of Brainerd, and they seem to laugh both with it and at it; while they can't help but find humor in the nasal, Nordic drawl and implacably low-key nature of these people, Joel and Ethan seem genuinely to like them -- especially Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand, in a deservedly Oscar-winning performance), whose perversely sunny disposition only partially obscures the fact that she's a clever, observant, and very effective cop. The Coens have even more fun (though of an edgier variety) with Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi, who steals every scene he's in), a weasely crook whose every word and gesture screams, "I'm Not From Around Here." Despite the film's assured comic sensibility, the Coens bring a nail-biting tension to the murder scenes, and William H. Macy's Jerry Lundergaard is a pathetically compelling mass of misguided motivation and bad choices. While most of their films are remarkable for a gymnastic visual style, the Coen brothers give Fargo a stark, clean look that's the perfect match for the chilly near-monochrome of the snowy Midwestern landscape; Fargo looks less like a Coen brothers film than anything else they've done, while defining their signature themes as clearly as anything else they've done.

All Movie Guide - Mark Deming