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Fargo won two Academy Awards in 1996 — for Best Screenplay and another for Best Actress for Frances McDormand. The film also won the British BAFTA Award and several other international film awards, including the Award for Best Director (Joel Coen) at the Cannes Film Festival of 1996. The film was ranked #84 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movies" list and #93 on its "100 Years...100 Laughs" list. In addition, Marge Gunderson was ranked #33 on the AFI's list of greatest film heroes.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Set in 1987, Fargo tells the "true" story of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), an Oldsmobile car salesman from Minneapolis, Minnesota with financial troubles. Taking place before the film's beginning, Jerry has hatched a simple plan. He turns to a small-time criminal, Shep Proudfoot, and enlists the service of two hit men to kidnap his wife. Jerry meets with the two hit men, the "funny looking" Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and the laconic Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), at a bar in Fargo, North Dakota to stage a pre-arranged kidnapping in which his wife, Jean (Kristin Rudrüd), will be returned unharmed for a payment of $80,000. However, Jerry's plan is to tell his wealthy but antagonistic father-in-law that the ransom is $1,000,000 intending to use the large difference to settle debts and enrich himself. Image:Fargo Body.jpg Gunderson examines the dead state trooper. Image:Fargo Parklot.jpg The shootout on the parking lot. The plan falls apart. Jerry's financial troubles are not explained. He is shown receiving progressively angrier phone calls demanding that he provide vehicle identification numbers for cars he used to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in GMAC loans. Even after the kidnapping plan is afoot, he resorts to attempting to get extra money out of one customer by adding an unrequested weather-proof sealant to a car.
The deaths are investigated by local police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) who quickly figures out the chain of events and, while seven months pregnant, follows leads through Minneapolis and the backwoods of Minnesota. Marge displays a combination of Minnesota nice and a clear aptitude for police work, quietly piecing together clues and moving towards the two hired thugs despite nearly every witness being unable to describe Carl beyond his being "funny-looking." Jerry's plan spirals further out of control both on- and off-screen. Carl calls Jerry up to tell him he's stopping in Minneapolis to pick up the money. Marge meanwhile discovers that Shep is linked to the murderers through phone records. After Marge interviews him, Shep flees and goes after Carl and beats him up for getting him in trouble. Carl is now very angry and demands Jerry deliver him the money in thirty minutes or Carl shoots Jerry's wife and son. Wade decides to get involved and unwisely tries to apply his business-world bullying when he attempts to deliver Carl the money. Wade is then shot dead by Carl, but not before the former manages to get off a shot that tracks along the edge of Carl's face. In leaving the parking garage, Carl also shoots and kills the lot attendant, in contrast to his previous disgust at Gaear's cold-blooded triple murder. Carl buries the money by the side of the highway and returns to the shack where Gaear is staying. Gaear has in this time killed Jean. Carl, bleeding and frantic over being shot, wants to leave as soon as possible and says that he's taking the car. Gaear, in a rare use of speech, says that they'll split the car as one will pay the other for his half. Carl angrily tells Gaear that he's been shot in the face and the car is therefore his for his trouble. As Carl walks to the car, Gaear runs up behind him and hits Carl in the head with an axe. Image:Fargo WoodPulp.jpg Gaear tries to dispose of Carl's body. Marge, after investigating various leads, and after Jerry flees her questioning at the auto lot, gets an idea of where the kidnappers are holing up and comes on the property just in time to see Gaear pushing the last of Carl into a wood chipper. As Gaear flees, Marge shoots him in the leg and arrests him. On the drive back to the station, Marge tries to talk to the clearly sociopathic Gaear, unable to comprehend how he can do what he does "for a little bit of money." And, as Marge says, "it's a beautiful day." Jerry, going by the alias "Anderson", is staying at a remote motel outside of Bismarck, North Dakota where he finds police knocking at his door and seizing him. As Jerry is being wrestled out of the window and handcuffed on the bed, he bucks and screams like an animal. In the final scene, Marge and her husband, Norm, sit in bed together watching television. Norm comments that the results were announced. Marge enthusiastically demands, "So?" Norm diffidently shares that his duck painting got the 3-cent stamp, but that it's not a very popular denomination. Marge disagrees, supportively assuring him that people use the 3-cent every time the postage goes up. The couple contentedly murmur, "two more months" in anticipation of the baby, thus sharply contrasting the evil that Marge has seen. In the end nobody gets the money. Spoilers end here.
Primary castImage:Fargo Salesman.jpg William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard. Image:Fargo Buscemi.jpg Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter. Image:Fargo Gael.jpg Peter Stormare as Gaear Grimsrud. Image:Fargo Marge.jpg Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson.
ProductionThe unseasonably mild winter weather of early 1995 forced the crew to move locations frequently to find suitable snow-covered landscapes. Fake snow had to be used for many scenes. Pools and streams of meltwater are visible in many scenes. Fargo was also shot very cheaply after the Coen's recent box office failure, The Hudsucker Proxy. Locations used during production include:
AwardsWins
Nominations
Fact Vs. FictionFargo begins with the opening text: "THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred." Although the film itself is completely fictional, the Coens claim that many of the events that take place in the movie were actually based on true events from other cases that they all threw together to make one story. Joel Coen said, "We weren't interested in that kind of fidelity. The basic events are the same as in the real case, but the characterizations are fully imagined." He later noted, "If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept." The main reason for the film's Minnesota setting was based on the fact that the Coens were born and raised in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. On the DVD commentary for Fargo, it is revealed that the main case for the movie's inspiration was based off the infamous murder of Helle Crafts from Connecticut by the hands of her husband, Richard, who killed her and disposed her body through a woodchipper. [1] The end credits to Fargo bear the standard disclaimer for a work of fiction.[6] Trivia
Fargo in Pop Culture
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