Fargo: Coen Masterpiece to T.V. Gold

The basic plot of both follows an individual who is a bit of a simpleton who gets in way over their head albeit in different ways. William H. Macy’s Jerry Lundegaard has a seemingly fool proof plan to get his hands on his father-in-laws money by having two hoodlums kidnap his wife, while Martin Freeman’s Lester Nigaard ends up being driven to murder his wife thus setting off a descent into personal hell. While both are fairly pathetic individuals, neither of them are particularly ‘bad’ people. Both are put upon and bullied and seemingly trapped in their own existence. Crucially, neither of them are driven by money. Lester’s murder of his wife serves no overt financial gain and while Jerry may need money, it’s not out of greed but a desire to provide for himself and his wife and son (whom his father-in-law says ‘never need to worry’). It’s the temptation to do something bad to their betrothed that sets off the spiralling plotlines and temptation is a major theme.

The opening scene of the film in which Jerry meets the would be kidnappers sets off the bloody events and this is juxtaposed with a later scene in which Police Chief Marge meets up with former school-friend Mike Yanagita, who clearly fancies her. Famed for the brilliant ‘son-of-a-Gunderson’ gag, the scene serves no real purpose to the plot itself. Yet note how it is similar in some ways to that opening scene – the characters sit across from one another and the temptation to do something wrong creeps up. Yet while Jerry persists with his plan (despite Carl (Steve Buscemi) having reservations), Marge is quick to nip in the bud the advances of Mike. ‘I’d prefer it if you sit over there’ she says to him as he becomes overly friendly, thus quashing any temptation that she may have to have an extra-marital affair. Thusly, things work out for her come the films climax, happily looking forward to the birth of her child with her husband while Jerry is left widowed and arrested. Similarly Lester in an admittedly less thought out and more violent way, is tempted to kill his wife after having enough of her. He does, and the trail of destruction is set.

And of course the money, not really involved in the T.V. show, becomes immaterial to the plot of the film, simply buried in the snow, unbeknown to any of the survivors. It’s a fairly common trait in Coen brothers films; the bounty which drives the plot in No Country For Old Men ends up in an empty, stolen, crashed car and even in their deeply flawed re-make of The Ladykillers the police aren’t interested when Marva tries to return the stolen loot she has happened upon. The only purpose the money that Steve Buscemi hides is to eventually, and quite brilliantly, link the stories of the film and T.V. show together – different stories, same universe.

And the T.V. series of Fargo is very much set in the Coen brothers universe. The Biblical plagues that Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo inflicts upon Stavros Milos (the rivers of blood, the plague of locusts) alongside the parable of Jeremy Hoffstead (the man who gave everything) carry with them more than a hint of the Coen’s re-telling of the biblical story of Job, A Serious Man.
Malvo himself is brilliantly played by Thornton, no stranger to the Coen world. From his somewhat non-human lead role in The Man Who Wasn’t There to his cameo in Intolerable Cruelty, he also starred in Bad Santa which the brothers executively produced and then there’s his Oscar nominated turn in Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan which has a distinctive air of Fargo about it. And while his character may well appear to be derived somewhat from similarly silent Peter Stormare’s psychopath Gaer Grimsrud, in truth the Angel of Death approach, monotone delivery, distinctive lack of emotion, seeming infallibility and obscure references make him more akin to Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) in No Country For Old Men.

On the other side of the law is the brilliant police woman Molly Solverson (Allison Tollman). The hero of the film is Marge Gundarson (Frances McDormand), as clued up as she is pregnant, the sort of woman you would want on the police force in any town. She is always one step ahead of her counterparts (‘I’m not quite sure I agree with your police work there, Lou’) managing to dissect the scene of a triple homicide and car crash while deciphering clues (‘From his footprint he looks like a big fella!’) all the while fighting off morning sickness (‘Well that passed. Now I’m hungry again’). It’s perhaps a bit of a stretch to suggest that Molly is Marge’s daughter, but there seems to be a connection. Molly is likewise very clued up and refuses to accept coincidences. This is the middle of nowhere but, as the films tagline suggests, a lot can happen here. She is similarly one step ahead of her counterparts, identifying via the lack of correlation of blood between the forehead and the steering wheel, that the body found in the snow near the car crash of the series opening scene was not that of the driver. It is perhaps not too much of a stretch to suggest that her dad Lou (now running a diner) is the one time policeman whose police work Marge did not quite agree with in the film.

Only time will tell whether the T.V. series lasts in quite the same way as the film, which has become a cult classic (how many other films will inspire a T.V. series nearly twenty years later?). The film was tightly plotted and relatively short and while the series is also tightly plotted, the fact that it will be approximately six hours longer when watched from start to end (unless there is a second series) allows for more characters and story strands to be explored and developed. Yet both manage to incorporate the same quirky humour, the same themes of temptation, a big body count, inventive ways of disposing of the dead (be it under the ice or in the wood chipper) and an awful lot of snow. Both are in the same wonderful world that Joel and Ethan set their films in. It’s a world to revel in.

Written by Phil Slatter

Fargo Film Page