Watched Fargo

[madhair60]

Didn't like it. What do you think of Fargo? Why is it good?

[Steven]

Didn't like it. What do you think of Fargo? Why is it good?

They talk funny.

[Sin Agog]

I think it just goes to show that you shouldn't fuck around with this 'based on a true story' shit unless you want to end up with dead Japanese girls on your hands.  The Coens are murderers!!!

[Mary is not amused]

What do you think of Fargo?

I like the film a good deal.

Why is it good?

It's Space Cunts set in the American Midwest.  Dialogue by a yankee Alan Bennett.

[St_Eddie]

Fargo is a a very good filum, you daft apeth.

I think it just goes to show that you shouldn't fuck around with this 'based on a true story' shit unless you want to end up with dead Japanese girls on your hands.  The Coens are murderers!!!

That's a myth.  Takako Konishi committed suicide and the story was misreported.  She downed two bottles of champagne and lay down in the snow.  She left a suicide note and everything.

[Avril Lavigne]

Do you like any other Coen Bros movies? They're an acquired taste.

[madhair60]

actually I've decided I did like Fargo.

[Sin Agog]

Fargo is a a very good filum, you daft apeth.

That's a myth.  Takako Konishi committed suicide and the story was misreported.  She downed two bottles of champagne and lay down in the snow.  She left a suicide note and everything.

My post was based on a true story.

[Shit Good Nose]

I've never thought Fargo (the film) was all that.  I love the TV series, and I love most of the Coens' other films (although I've similarly never got the fuss for Blood Simple or Miller's Crossing either - it's all about Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy and Barton Fink for me), but, for whatever reason, the film just doesn't click with me at all.  And I must've seen it half a dozen or more times, so it's not as if I haven't tried.

Mind you, Frances McDormand is fucking aces in it.  But then she's aces in most stuff.  Even REALLY shit films like Aeon Flux and The Killer Inside.

[St_Eddie]

actually I've decided I did like Fargo.

Now you're talking sense.

My post was based on a true story.

Mate, you're a true story.

[bgmnts]

I like Fargo a lot.

But I also like cry wanks.

[Steven]

It's immensely quotable, almost to Withnailian levels.

Wade, it's Jerry! We gotta talk! Oh, geez, it's terrible.

That truecoat..

I'm not gonna debate you, Jerry. I'm not gonna sit here and debate.

I'm not a bank, Jerry.

But it's my deal here, Wade!

Yeah, but this TruCoat--

Yeah, I wanna be in compliance. I was just thinking we could take care of it right here, in Brainerd.

You're such a super lady!

So you went and married Norm Son of a Gunderson!

He was little, kinda funny looking.

I'm going crazy down here by the lake.

I'm cooperating here!

You're darn tootin'!

He's fleeing the interview!

No Jean, no money.

I got fucking shot in the face!

LOADS MOAR.

[St_Eddie]

It's immensely quotable, almost to Withnailian levels.

You're darn tootin'.

[Avril Lavigne]

It's immensely quotable, almost to Withnailian levels.

Total fuckin' silence.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

I've never thought Fargo (the film) was all that.  I love the TV series, and I love most of the Coens' other films (although I've similarly never got the fuss for Blood Simple or Miller's Crossing either - it's all about Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy and Barton Fink for me), but, for whatever reason, the film just doesn't click with me at all.  And I must've seen it half a dozen or more times, so it's not as if I haven't tried.

Mind you, Frances McDormand is fucking aces in it.  But then she's aces in most stuff.  Even REALLY shit films like Aeon Flux and The Killer Inside.

Blood Simple's the one that's never clicked for me. It's touted as this taut, terse thriller, yet I find it very slow, dry and a chore to get through, while recognising many of the flourishes that would go on to become hallmarks of the Coen's inimitable style.

Fargo's majestic, though.

[St_Eddie]

Blood Simple's the one that's never clicked for me. It's touted as this taut, terse thriller, yet I find it very slow, dry and a chore to get through, while recognising many of the flourishes that would go on to become hallmarks of the Coen's inimitable style.

Personally, I'm very fond of Blood Simple.  The cinematography is strikingly vivid, as much as the burial scene is unforgettably harrowing and M. Emmet Walsh is perfectly cast in the role of the sleazy P.I.  Also, it's nice to be reminded that unlike in Alien Resurrection, Dan Hedaya is more than capable of turning in a restrained and subtle performance.

[Ferris]

I thought it was a bit shit, though Steve Buscemi was very good.

Actually, am I even thinking of the right film?

[wooders1978]

I thought it was a bit shit, though Steve Buscemi was very good.

Actually, am I even thinking of the right film?

Are you thinking if "Con Air"?

[QDRPHNC]

Fargo is nigh-on perfect and I don't trust anyone who doesn't also think that.

[Wet Blanket]

Probably my favourite Coens film, and probably one of my favourite films full stop. Looks great; sounds great; great performances; great dialogue; great plot; great violence; Steve Buscemi. It's got everything I want in a film. I've always avoided the series in case it retrospectively spoils it for me

[NoSleep]

No need to avoid the series; it doesn't have a direct connection to the film (just plays a few familiar-sounding riffs and themes); plus it's really good TV.

[phantom_power]

Well the first series does have a tangential link to the film that may or may not spoil the film. It would be unlikely but you never know

[NoSleep]

It's more of a "could be" than a definite; something mentioned in an anecdote, anyway.

[Gregory Torso]

Fargo the film is wonderful, fantastic cast, the aforementioned quotable lines (back when the Coens were unstoppable). I love the relationship between Marge and her husband, and the scene with her old classmate. William H Macy is brilliant, obviously. The really idiosyncratic manners and accents of the locals can be a bit much at first, but I think it adds to the peculiar charm of it all once you get into it. Peter Stormare getting pissed off with Steve Buscemi. I don't really know what's good about it, if you don't like it, if it doesn't come together for you, it just does it for me. Like a lot of Coen films, hard to really say why.

The TV series though, I liked the first one, thought the second one was good except for the spaceship bullshit and haven't seen the third. Thanks for reading.

"Kumiko The Treasure Hunter" is worth seeing, too, about the Japanese girl (a fictionalised story based on a fictionalised version of a true story inspired by a film that claimed to be a true story!). It's really depressing, though.

[Steven]

The Coens are from Minnesota so I see it as a particular kind of affectionate introspection into that small town life little bubble they must have been familiar with growing up, rather than a sarcastic attack on 'Hick' rural types with funny accents. It just so happens the accent is what makes a whole heap of the lines really funny/work.

I even find myself constantly repeating stupid stuff like "Oh yah, is it reasonable?" when the opportunity arises.

[phantom_power]

It's more of a "could be" than a definite; something mentioned in an anecdote, anyway.

Are you talking about the money?. Because that is pretty much certain isn't it?

[manticore]

I would have really liked it if it wasn't for the treatment of Jean Lundegaard. I hated the way she was painted as an idiot so as to allow us to be amused by her terror at being kidnapped (I think it's horrible the way that scene is played for laughs), and then, just in passing, they kill her.

Left me with a really bad feeling about the film.

[Steven]

I would have really liked it if it wasn't for the treatment of Jean Lundegaard. I hated the way she was painted as an idiot so as to allow us to be amused by her terror at being kidnapped (I think it's horrible the way that scene is played for laughs), and then, just in passing, they kill her

Isn't everyone in the film painted as an idiot? Jerry, Wade, the pair of criminals, even Margie who's too provincial and naive to really understand the kind of serious murderous plot she's stepped into. The whole thing (like a lot of the Coens stuff) is about how chance and human ineptitude scuppers its own best laid plans etc.

[NoSleep]

Are you talking about .... ........?. Because that is pretty much certain isn't it?

Remarkable coincidences are more of a season 3 thing. Season 1 was biblical manifestations.

[QDRPHNC]

Isn't everyone in the film painted as an idiot? Jerry, Wade, the pair of criminals, even Margie who's too provincial and naive to really understand the kind of serious murderous plot she's stepped into. The whole thing (like a lot of the Coens stuff) is about how chance and human ineptitude scuppers its own best laid plans etc.

Nah, I don't think that's a fair reading, it would be fairer to say that Coens characters are flawed. Jerry and Carl absolutely are stupid though, but not entirely without their redeeming qualities (Jerry tries to call off his various scams when he realizes he no longer needs them to provide for his family, Carl has a big mouth but is clearly not a killer). Gaear is intensely smart and cold-hearted along with it. Wade is pragmatic and hotheaded.

Jerry's wife is, I think, just supposed to be nice (and in fact hiding behind the curtain was pretty smart and almost worked). I'm not sure her kidnap scene is played for laughs exactly - the fact she has been established as a kind and goodhearted person, and is treated with such callousness by the kidnappers is the point.

I'd love to start a Coens thread, as I have a few theories about them I think are worth discussing. Thematically, each one of their movies boils down to a simple, single point which is never explicitly stated, but which everything underscores. They work on an emotional level, and if you're able / willing to meet them there, their work is incredibly rich. That's why Cormac McCarthy was such a perfect fit for them with No Country for Old Men, as he operates in a similar fashion.

I tried to give the show a go, but couldn't stick with it beyond one episode. Much like Mad Men, it was too easy to hear the writers behind the scenes.