Fargo [RSC Film Club 41]

[LimeGreenLegend 4,277]

To celebrate this years Oscars, and Will Smith's mental breakdown, we're rounding out the 'big five' by watching films that won the award for Best Actress and Best Screenplay.  @omarcomin71will be pleased with the results of the Best Actress pick, Frances McDormand's winning performance as Marge Gunderson in the Coen Brother's Fargo, something he's been nominating for months 😉 

A pitch-black crime comedy, McDormand plays the sweet natured yet ruthlessly efficient cop investigating a kidnapping case for car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) and a series of murders committed by the psychopathic Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stomare) and his quick talking partner Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi).  

One of the Coen Brothers most acclaimed films, this was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for William H. Macy.  As well as McDormand's award, the film also won for Best Original Screenplay.

he was a little guy, kinda funny lookin'

Edited April 1, 2022 by LimeGreenLegend

[omarcomin71 3,892]

Available free on Amazon Prime. 🙂

[djw180 6,980]

One of the best films ever made. It's got a superb cast lead, of course, by Oscar Winner Francis McDormand, as small town sheriff Marge Gunderson, on the trail of three of the most stupid, incompetent crooks ever. Oscar nominated William H. Macy plays Minneapolis car dealership manager Jerry Lundergard who hires two small time thugs, Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsund (Peter Stormare), to kidnap his wife, demand a ransom from her millionaire father but insist they only deal with Jerry who intends to keep most of the ransom money for himself. The script is brilliant. There's things left unexplained, like why Jerry needs the money, that just don't need to be explained but some other scriptwriters would have probably been tempted to invent an explanation for. It's very funny but not in a full-of-jokes way, just by what the characters do and say, and how they say things. And of course it is a very dark comedy as Jerry's stupid plan, equally stupidly executed by Carl and Gaear, spirals out of control leaving a trail of dead bodies in it's wake. The line describing Carl as 'kind of funny lookin' is wonderful, how else do you describe Steve Buscemi? And then the girl giving the description to the police adds, she thinks helpfully, ' he wasn't circumcised!'.

Other things I like. The accents! Do people in Minnesota really talk like that? All the 'Oh, yarr..., yarrr....' (may make no sense if you haven't seen it yet). Also the fact that Marge just happens to be pregnant, it's not relevant to the plot, barely mentioned, she just gets on with her job regardless. Nice music as well.

 

10 / 10

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by djw180