Over the past few days I’ve been listening to news reports of how America is being besieged by a barricade of unforeseen weather conditions, which seem to have spooked the countryside & its inhabitants rock bottom.
The government have already issued a public warning - “not to stay outside your shelters for more than 15 minutes” – which is just the kind of mind-numbing time stopper warning, that sets the alarm bells ringing against concurrent negligence.
Now TRY EXPLAINING THAT TO THE COEN BROTHERS.
Joel & Ethan Coen shot “Fargo” in 1996 on the NORTH of DAKOTA off the coast of Minnesota - a cold white snowy wasteland where the temperatures drops below 0 degree, vehicles won’t start & even where the residents wear Elmer fudds hats(more often than not).
A sort place which is only 250 meters above the sea level at the least & one which is so cosmically dangerous that nobody would dare of trespassing through it on bare feet – “forget about making a feature length live action film”.(And “make” they did!)
The Ingenious thing about Fargo is the way in which it blends an eminently watchable police procedural with such a good hearted portrait of a gutsy & pregnant policewomen played by Francis McDormand.
Her “Marge Gunderson” is after a couple of thugs –Carl & Gaear played byBuscemi & Stormare respectively - who killed a middle aged woman at the request of her own Husband “Jerry Lundegaard”(played byWilliam H Macy), a nervous Minnesota Car salesman manager/num-nuts who induces that debauched felony of letting his own better half be kidnapped in order to gain some much needed ransom(40, 000 bucks).
He hires the henchmen, to kidnap his wife “Jean” but the thugs, as it turns out, goes nuts & kill both the lady, her father & while in-the-process taking their lives some incidental witnesses on the sideway road as well, people who were just merely trespassing by. These two are callous. Audacious & stupid and they eff up everything so ridiculously that things go haywire, inducing ourleading lady Gunderson, the pregnant cop, take up the case & ensue an investigation.
“Fargo” is a crime procedural “based on a true story” where the outcome is more or less predictable or apparent but what makes it so fascinating & intriguing for the audience, is the way in which the narrator conveys his story by filling his screenplay with such endearing characters, idiosyncratic mannerisms & a highly touching human drama which is also painstakingly original.!
We don’t have extra intelligent cops with prophetic abilities for sniffing out clues in “Fargo” nor we have murderers & perpetrators who are shrewd in their opera d’être.
These are normal, ordinary people who have the same kind of anxieties & insecurities which any Tom, Dick & Harry would have and yet, the narrator & the screenplay writer is so daring & original in their depiction – that they makes this film “Fargo” in to such a breathtakingly poignant character study & a satirical slice of life in the American countryside’s.
These people make the same sort of stupid mistakes which we normally do - like hiding behind a bathroom curtain when a thief perpetrates the house – or speeding through a runaway traffic toll by shooting out the grumpy ol’ security guard** - personifying the Coen Brother's screenplay into a sort of satirical comedy of idiosyncratic manners, a subject in which they sound so familiar, poised & secured all the way through.
The dialogues penned by Joel Coen along with his brother Ethan, mirror a real, near satirical slice of life.
In ma favorite exchange of “Fargo” we see Lundegaard & Carl Showalter –the main henchman - arguing over the ransom amount which they are supposed to part in equals.
After effing up things, the Henchman rings him from a telephone booth expecting to bargain more money from his recruiter. When Lundegaard picks up the phone
he asks “You know who is this.?.
Before the henchman even knew it coing, Lundegaard replies in a hilariously typical Car salesman’s accent:- “Yah.! I got an idea. How’s that Cierra working for ya.?”
The whole conversation is so irresistible funny that we laugh out loud on to the screens even when the subject matter being talked, are diabolically dangerous.
And then, to support all this - there is that wonderfully prolonged theme music which plays out like a soothing Beethoven symphony along with the pitch perfect photography by the legendary “Roger Deakins” which provides whether & soul into these characters.
The movie defied cliché & conventional arc at every turn and along wiht it, the Coen Brother’s emerge as a duo of two gifted film-makers knowing & respecting their craftsmanship from top to bottom.
Along-with Paul Thomas Anderson & Quintin Tarantino – they are the two unique revelations of the 90’s decade, those exceptionally talented artists who upstaged the sub-standard crime genre into a dialogue driven, cutting edge piece of noirish genre, which not only toys with the audiences but also entertains them - thoroughly.
If Originality, authenticity, bravado & craftsmanship are the four must-have qualities for a film & filmmaker, then Ceon Brother’s & their “Fargo” succeeds in every aspects of film-making be it production values, acting, screenplay writing, photography or even sound track mixing.
A stupid “R” rating given by the censor board is terribly unfair. Sure it has its sporadic moments of blood & filth but that doesn’t undermine the visual texture of this stunningly visualized film by the great Roger Deakins or even the subtlety with which the screenplay forges ahead so rightfully acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Pictures with a Best original screenplay.!
“Fargo” is a thing a startling power & transcendent beauty. A soothing symphony devoid of utter coercion, sensory assault & grotesque violence which moves in a measured, melancholic & nostalgic pacing coupled with the wonderful acting by its four main actors – all fixated on the bedrock of Debauchery and existentialism – the two quintessential elements of the lives in American pop culture & the countryside’s off the coast of western California & St. Louis Park the same place where these two genius’s were born and brought up with.
After all – “How many crime dramas are so bittersweet & endearing such as this one.?”(NONE.!)
I don’t think I’ve said it many-a-times before but this is a magnificent motion picture. A truly great picture which smothered its way into my heart via lungs via pancreas -(like smoke) - all set in that cold, white snowy wasteland called “FARGO” situated in between Dakota & Minnesota.
Deakins captured the idyllic, pristine beauty of these places with such eloquence & artistry that it makes him an overnight Hollywood legend by default.
I don’t have much words to say about this great, great film. Trust me “Fargo” is a true treasure. A real sight to behold.!
