Reflections on a second viewing

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2005)

This should stand as the Coen brothers' tour de force, although I found "The Big Lebowski" to be an even more satisfying film. I look at "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", and "Brother, Where Art Thou?" as being the Coen's three best movies. I hope there is more from them in the future that can rival these three; though recent offerings such as "Intolerable Cruelty" and "The Ladykillers", could be proving their peak creativity is behind them. "Fargo" is beyond a doubt, their masterpiece. IMDb's ratings bear this out - 8.2 for "Fargo", 8.0 for "Lebowski", and 7.8 for "Brother". For sheer entertainment, "Lebowski" or should I call it, "The Dude" wins handsdown, but "Fargo" has all the elements of a true classic. Beyond a doubt, I have never seen such a dramatically-obvious portrayal of good vs. evil, and never, never, have I seen such gut-wrenching violence. Oh, the violence, beautifully believable, in it's grotesque way. This movie is proof that artistic freedom to portray such violence should never be denied. Steve Buscemi's bullet-grazed face becomes almost as painful for the watcher as it is for his character; Steve Buscemi's leg in the wood chipper is as horrific a scene as you are ever going to see. Enough to give Marge Gunderson morning sickness all over again. And the good vs evil thing: so obvious in the contrasts between Marge (the good), Buscemi and Stormare (the evil), and poor Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) squeamishly caught in a trap in-between. I could only handle the violence because of Marge. She is the rock of normality, who continues trumpeting the virtuous life, when all hell is breaking loose around her. She knows all-to-well that "you know what" happens, but always knows "you know what" can be flushed down the toilet. Frances McDormand, as Marge, deserves every acting award she ever got for this role. Marge, to me, is the most perfect cop I've ever encountered. She is polite, non-judgemental, yet able to ask the tough questions that gets her the information she needs. You can see how thoroughly she sizes up those she interviews: watching every nuance of their body language, and hearing ever inflection of their speech. Now here's a woman who can spot a lie when others can't. Unlike so many cops in movies, she doesn't have to beat information out of someone; she can charm it out of them, all the while appealing to their moral responsibility, no matter how immoral they may be.This is so well-shown in scenes such as talking to the two young hookers in the bar, and putting Jerry on the hotseat in the car dealership interrogations. I elected not to watch some of the scenes on my second viewing. Somewhat oddly, I skipped almost all the scenes involving Jean Lundegaard (the kidnapped one) - I couldn't bear to watch what was happening to this woman, knowing full well her fate. I felt so sorry for her; she was the true victim in this - the most innocent, yet the one who suffered the most. I guess a case could also be made that her son, Scotty, suffered equally, but most of what he went through was not presented on camera. Maybe he would suffer the most, for he had to live afterward. Even Marge would suffer from this catastrophe, but you know her suffering will be tempered by an unwavering belief that good triumphs over evil. As the last scene shows (Marge getting into bed with her husband): despite the horrors that might go on around us, we must seek solace in the everyday beauty of the things that are nearest and dearest to us all. And this message is conveyed to us all by the Coen brothers without any allusions to religion whatsoever. But I'm getting into a personal bias of my own here - if you take solace in religion playing a part in morality, so be it.