Defining Favourites: Fargo (1996)

The Coen brothers' masterpiece breaks apart the notion of the "perfect crime" in the most entertaining way possible.

Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Welcome to my Defining Favourites, a section dedicated to essays about films that I feel confident in calling favourites in some way or another - akin to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” reviews. These essays are for paid subscribers, so if you would like to read more beyond the free preview, please consider subscribing.

Directed by Joel Coen
Screenplay by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Produced by Ethan Coen
Starring Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell, Peter Stormare
Premiere Date: March 8, 1996
Running Time: 98 minutes

It’s often agreed upon by many cinephiles that Marge Gunderson is the protagonist of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo. Despite this, she does not appear into the film until a little over 30 minutes in, and yet she ends up becoming one of the most memorable characters in all of American cinema – because of how much attention she commands throughout Fargo. Not only is it a career-best role for Frances McDormand, but for the Coen brothers, her screen presence is an absolute treasure. There’s not a minute of Fargo that isn’t made any more indicative of how the Coen brothers view the United States, and in turn making one of the great American films of the 1990’s.

A more blunt statement could not be made about how Joel and Ethan Coen view bubbling cruelty within the United States much like that of a disclaimer that the film is based on a true story. Even though the events depicted in Fargo are largely fictitious, it’s a moment that also speaks towards the extensive research which Joel and Ethan Coen had underwent, given an urban legend that tells of a crime that had went horribly awry in Minnesota, where Fargo is set. But the fact that such stories also become legends within the United States might be the perfect thesis for which the Coen brothers can build upon, because Fargo is a story all about greed, ineptitude, and ultimately the idea that even the “nice” people that build up the America you know can just so easily be corrupted by this influence.