One fuck up after another, strung together with marvellous effect.
Collateral damage is everywhere, you have no idea of the undue damage merely spilling a glass of water can do. A puddle can spread out and a rogue live wire can fall into it taking the whole place up in flames, starting a wild forest fire which takes the whole county down with it. Jesus, where did this random Final Destination-esque tangent come from, somewhere through the backdoor of my mind it may have snuck in to create an image, I’m not so sure if it did or not but I’m no judge of that. You could be walking down the street, on your way to get some biscuits from the shop and little could you know that you’ve been embroiled in a scene happening across the street that could cost you your life.
This is the sort of bad-luck bullshit that plagues the characters in Fargo (1996). Having seen the first season of the show and falling in love with the series of savagely unfortunate events that leave a messy trail leading back to the unlucky Lester (Jerry in the film), I’ve always wanted to experience the source material. It apparently took a bowl of chips and a few cans of cider to finally get me around to watching the film and may I say that I love it so! The general bent ambience of the setting is so vile and upside down that the littlest of things leave a butterfly effect in the small innocent town of Brainard, Minnesota. Lester, bumbling car salesman, commissions some kidnappers to nab his wife so he can split the ransom with them but turns out this one thing goes disastrously wrong with a whirlwind of collateral ricocheting off the walls.
The bleak white setting of snowy Minnesota turns the whole town into a white canvas upon which the landmarks and characters are painted objects, idly wandering in a frozen stupor. What I’m badly trying to get across here is that the shots have a very painterly quality and it’s some of the Cohen Brother’s best work I’ve seen. There are some extremely cool scene transitions which catch you with your socks rolled and they make you pull them right up with surprise. Slow zooms cutting right back to invasive close-ups create this eerie sense of tension leading up to a virulent explosion of psychotic proportions.
The natives of Brainard have such a strange accent, sounding like Leprechauns born and raised in America, they sound so ridiculous (no offence to the people of Minnesota) that you can’t help but take what comes out of their mouth seriously, even if it is to do with homicides. If I sipped my cider each time someone said “Yeah”, I’d be so booze-bent that I would have to have my stomach pumped and wringed. It’s hilariously silly and I love it.
The soundtrack isn’t something that I caught much attention of but that could be because my ears were clogged with a tipsy sort of deafness. I welcome anyone to bring my attention to the wonders of this films soundtrack if there are any.
You get so caught up in the snare of the narrative that you can’t seem to take your eyes off how the situations exacerbate and reach such unrelenting depths of depravity. It’s such a beautiful sight because for some people out there, things do blow up in their faces this badly.
The Cohen brothers have such a distinct style of filmmaking which is ever-present here, you could sit down and write a whole essay about just their use of the camera, their shot-reverse shot… wait, people already have, well seems you’ve got your work cut out for you. Either way, watch the film because it’s truly exhilarating and while you’re at it with several hours spare of your life to wash away, watch the show too.
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