This is my favorite film of all time.

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2006)

The opening shot of the film is the best. It immediately establishes how dry and strange the film is. The opening shot is just white. Eventually out of the white emerges a truck in the middle. It is soon established that what we were looking at was a road. We wouldn't have known this since we couldn't see anything that was indicating that a second ago. The plot(which the film shamelessly exclaims at the beginning is based on a true story) is pretty original. a man, Jerry Lundigard, who is behind in dept needs money. He comes up with an ingenious scheme. He is to hire two criminals to kidnap his innocent wife and ask for a ransom from her rich father. Then, when her father hands over the dough, they split it with him. The plan doesn't go as well as it should. A body count starts across the valley of Minnesota and dead bodies are found everywhere. The two criminals hideout in a cabin in the woods where they try to communicate with Jerry so they can rearrange the deal as blood has been shed by them. Meanwhile, Marge, a very pregnant police officer, gets involved as the body count rises and things get more twisted and more out-of-hand. What makes this film particularly interesting to me are the bystanders. They all sound exactly the way they are supposed to. The film takes place in Minnesota, which I am very familiar with, so the people all have accents and talk a certain way that may sound funny and quite friendly with many people who are not familiar with these kind of people. This puts the film at a really interesting angle and fits perfectly. This may sound weird to have this kind of a dark theme in a film that has such light little quirks, but somehow the Coen brothers pull it off. The theme of the film itself may not fit with many viewers. My mother rented it one time thinking that it was a comedy. She hated it. So this basically puts viewers who have not seen this film in a weird spot. The people going in to it thinking that it'll be a comedy will most likely be disturbed by the strong violence and intense feeling that this film uncomfortably radiates. The people going into it thinking that it's a thriller or a serious drama will be a little bewildered to find the film having a light sense of humor detracting from the horror and the violence. But the people going into it wishing nothing more than for it to be an entertaining film will most likely be satisfied. That being said, I really loved this movie and have watched it millions of times. There are very few people i know who, surprisingly, don't really like it. It is so weird when i see a film that, in my eyes is brilliant, but i then recommend it to somebody and they return saying nothing but how much they hated it. This film doesn't appeal to everyone. Anyway, the film's music score is so beautiful in expressing the grim looking locations and the intensity of the storyline. With it's droning violin hang downs and its low sounding rhythm, the score sounds beautiful and makes it more than worthwhile to get the soundtrack. The haters of this film have one good thing that they absolutely can't deny. The acting is completely top-notch. William H. Macy as Jerry is perfectly weaselly as the imperfect husband. Steve Buscemi(one of my favorite actors) is also perfect as the the leader of the two criminals and manages to make somewhat of a sympathetic feeling out of a wacky and sadistic guy. But it is Francis Mcdormand as Marge who truly gives the role of a lifetime as the pregnant cop who has everything to win and is appropriately cheerful when she needs to be. This film's sense of humor can be somewhat dry, but thats partly what makes the film so different. And aside from having the greatest death scene in a film since PSYCHO(1960), boasts incredible believability. This is comparable in terms of very realistic thrillers such as THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE(1974) and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT(1999), and yet can also just about stand next to comedy classics such as PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES(1987), and MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL(1972). This film succeeds in spades as being an excessively violent thriller and a chuckle inducing comedy, but what it succeeds most at doing in my eyes is be good entertainment. The ending is so haunting and yet so fitting that it truly seals the deal that this film is an American classic.
PROS:
-Incredible originality in everything
-stunning performances by the whole cast
-incredible genuine horror and humor
-unpredictable
-the most shocking and brilliant ending to a film I've seen
-gripping plot and characters
CONS:
-the dry humor and the graphic violence isn't for everybody