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Dom Robinson reviews

Fargo

Small Town. Big Crime. Dead Cold.

Distributed by

Polygram

Cat.no: 047 804 2
Cert: 18
Running time: 94 minutes
Year: 1996
Pressing: 1998
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 17 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Surround
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Dutch
Widescreen: 16:9, Fullscreen: 4:3
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Price: £17.99
Extras : Scene index, Biographies, Filmographies.

Director:

Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski

Producer:

Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski

Screenplay:

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski

Music:

Carter Burwell

Cast:

Jerry Lundegaard : William H. Macy (Air Force One, Mr. Holland's Opus, Murder In The First, The Client, "E.R." (TV))
Carl Showalter : Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Trees Lounge, Desperado, Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead)
Marge Gunderson : Frances McDormand (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Mississippi Burning)
Gaear Grimsrud : Peter Stormare
Jean Lundegaard : Kristin Rudrud
Jose Feliciano : Himself

Fargo tells the true story of events which took place in Minnesota in 1987. The names have been changed to protect the innocent, but the rest has been told exactly as it occured.

Jerry Lundegaard is a stressed-out executive car salesman on the verge of failure who arranges for his wife Jean to be kidnapped, in the hope that splitting the ransom with the kidnappers will enable him to finance a new business venture. When one of the kidnappers goes off the rails and events career out of control, it falls to Marge Gunderson, Cheif of the Brainerd Police Department, to set things to rights.

William H. Macy is best known for his role as Dr. Morgenstern in the hit television series, E.R., although he has also had roles in the films Mr. Holland's Opus, Murder In The First and The Client, not to mention last year's turn as an aide to President Harrison Ford in Air Force One. Here he does very well as a man who is trying not to suffer a nervous breakdown. He just wants a good life for himself and his family, despite having a job which doesn't appreciate him, but the methods he employs to do this have a strong possibility of going wrong.

Frances McDormand, also a star of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple won an Oscar for Best Actress for Fargo, although I can't really see why as her role requires her to do little more than go round asking questions about the increasing number of dead bodies that turn up in and around town, or to mention the fact that she's "carrying a load here" (ie. pregnant), when all the other cast on show totally outshine her.

It was an inspired piece of casting to pair Steve Buscemi together with Peter Stormare, the latter being an actor I have never seen before, but who looks like an extremely tired Bruce Willis lookalike.

Steve Buscemi, who has many films to his credit including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and who made his directorial debut with Trees Lounge, plays a fast-talking small-time criminal who is just interested in making a quick buck with as little hassle as possible along the way, while making his grievances as vocal as possible whenever anything goes wrong.

Peter Stormare, on the other hand, plays a character who we don't get to find out much about and is a man of very few words. It's clear that he also wants to get the job done, but his methods are more severe. If someone gets in their way, or poses a threat to him, the simple answer is a bullet through the head... or sometimes worse.

The picture quality is, on the whole, excellent. However, there are occasionally some artifacts, eg. the scene where Jean's father meets up with Steve Buscemi to offer the ransom money - and something close to a cure for toothache - in chapter 12. As he drives the car there's a large dark area over most of the picture, since he's driving at night, in which the artifacts are noticeable (both fullscreen and widescreen sides). Also, there's a fair amount of artifacts in the black background behind the end credits.

It's a bonus though that both widescreen and fullscreen versions have been included on the disc as that pleases both sections of the public. Since the film was shot at 1.85:1 - and this is a 16:9 transfer - the widescreen image will lose a sliver of picture information to bring it down to 1.78:1 (16:9). This certainly does not lessen the impact of the gorgeous snow-covered landscapes captured on film by Joel Coen. For anyone wondering, the fullscreen version is pan-and-scan as opposed to an open-matte transfer, so you will lose approximately 28% of the original 1.85:1 film image by watching that format.

The Dolby Surround soundmix comes across very clear during the film and is used mainly for the memorable musical score, any scenes featuring only ambience, plus those which have clear gunshot sounds, or the rather gruesome scenes in which Steve Buscemi makes his last appearance in the film...

Another thing to note is that on playing the disc you can't skip past the Polygram logo and copyright info.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 17 chapters spread throughout the film which is fair enough for a 94-minute film, but there's not a lot apart from that.

Cast and Production Notes :

There are brief biographies and filmographies for the three principal cast members as well as the Coen brothers which go as far as this film (strange considering it's two years old and they've all been busy since then), save for a mention of "Upcoming 1997 - The Big Lebowski", but no trailers or commentary tracks.

Also Available :

This option brings up a small list of other DVD titles available now or coming soon.

Languages :

The languages and subtitles to be found on the disc come in four variations : English, French, Spanish and Dutch.

Overall, this film is definitely one of the Coen brother's better offerings alongside Barton Fink and Hudsucker Proxy and is one that can be watched time and time again, mainly for the class acting on display and the writing, for which they received an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Given the amount of space available on a DVD, it would be nice to have seen a trailer and some other behind-the-scenes extras. However, it's nice to see one of the first UK DVD titles being one from the well-respected Coen brothers and given the mostly-excellent picture quality this would make a good start to your UK region 2 DVD collection.

FILM	 			: ****½
PICTURE QUALITY (4:3)		: ****
PICTURE QUALITY	(16:9)		: ****
SOUND QUALITY 			: ****
EXTRAS				: *
PACKAGE				: **½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.

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