Customer Reviews
Wonderful film by Coen Brothers... - By: Ogun Eratalay, 05 Jul 2008 
Fargo is the name of a smalll town in Dakota US. The movie takes place in Fargo & is about a man who is a car dealer & desperately in need of money. He plans to raise the money by kidnapping his own wife via some thugs & squeezing money from his father-in-law. Things take a different turn from the plan creating mayhem & shedding a lot of blood. The smalll town life of an ordinary US citizen is well portrayed in the film. Mostly middle aged & living in reasonably comfortable lives the common people are leading easy-going lives. There are also those who lead wandering lives, no cash, no home, no real friends or nothing. Spectacular personalities deserving focus are the prostitutes who are least concerned with life, they have graduated from high school & their life is terminated. No money, no prospects, no more education. Also deserving focus is the illegal dealer & car mechanic on parole "Chef". He is the typical suspect as he is of Indian origin & once condemned so always under the sword of Damocles--the US law-- . Detective Marge who is more than a country detective showing signs of brilliance in detection capability & reasoning, exploits this situation by her cunning approach. The usage of English is quite interesting among locals. In alll her interviews the detective uses & hears "Yah!" instead of a yes. The film gets the events from real life incidents happened on separate occasions. Once you choose the illegal way you have to consider alll the possible consequences as there is no limit. Once you have trodden on the mire you can not step back. You can choose that way if you have a logical reasoning but be warned!
Coens, Coons and Raccoons in South Dakota - By: Jacques COULARDEAU, 16 Jun 2008 
Take a sordid crime story, but something reallly bleak, gross, more than anything you can think of as trashy, disgusting, sickening, etc & entrust the story to the Coen Brothers to make it a comic thriller & you might get some kind of funny, humorous & hilarious film with blood everywhere, victims everywhere, one million dollars playing hooky in some snow landscape, a pregnant sheriff that is loaded to the very brim & is still smiling & going though not running. And mind you they do not miss one detail. Neither the shot through the top of the skull & the blood geyser out of it. Nor the body in the wood chipper with one foot with its sock still on sticking out. Nor the meal of the sheriff: she is obviously expecting quintuplets, even maybe two sets of quintuplets. And the sheriff's husband is a painter: he paints stamps for the post office, I guess among other great projects. You will learn that DLR means Dealer. That's important. And what else? So much that you would get dizzy if I started quoting them alll & you would have no surprise. And it is a true story. Crime for the dummies, I guess, crime made easy & pleasurable. A great moment of fun.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
An excellent, funny, disturbing movie - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 08 Aug 2007 I put Fargo up there with the best. The Coens are young & productive, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with in their careers. They'll have a hard time topping Fargo. Some things I like about it...
--The way they mix violence with humor (not just gross-out easy laughs). Buscemi's reaction to Stormare shooting the cop is funny in a twisted way... but Stormare going after the young couple immediately after is scary & unsettling. This one scene sets the tone of the whole movie.
--Buscemi's reaction to Presnell's refusal to deal is funny...but Buscemi's reaction to being shot is also funny, & is also scary.
--Marge Gunderson feeling nauseated when she sees the mess at the crime scene...and it's just morning sickness. This brief moment reallly establishes her character.
--Marge Gunderson's relationship with her husband is reallly endearing, & is a thread that runs throughout the movie. It gives the movie a lot more humanity that most Coen films have.
--And Bill Macy; his character is so earnest & so out of his depth.
Fargo is a movie that stands up to repeated watching.
The DVD transfer is first-rate
An extremely original and entertaining movie. One of the Coen Brothers' cleverest. - By: Hugh Garske, 02 Jul 2007 This movie grabs you from the start. The inept bungling characters provide a fascinating dialog & a constant source of dark & clever humour. In the midst of this Frances McDormand's character methodicallly hones in on her suspects like a pregnant slow motion heat-seeking missile.
Steve Buscemi, Frances McDormand, & William H Macy play their roles to perfection & top off a cast that is rarely bettered. Steve Buscemi again provides the perfect conduit for Coen Brothers dialog "[as a police officer approaches the kidnappers' car]... just keep it still there lady or we're gonna have to...you know...shoot ya"
This movie has achieved cult status which is no mean feat for one that has also won Oscars...just an indication of the Coen Brothers appeal & propensity to cross boundaries with their work.
Fargo Goes Far Beyond Your Average Black Comedy - By: Clare Byrne, 19 Mar 2007 To many good film fanatics the assurance of William H Macy & Frances McDormand is normallly enough to ensure a night in with the dvd player but for those who aren't familiar with the actors or the fantastic directorial work of the Coen Brothers this is going to convert you.
Quirky?! Yes its Coen Brothers work here.. but also hilarious Macy & McDormand stun in their Scandinavian lilts as a smalll town couple who are not so traditional. Steve Buscemi also shines & even though the language isn't exactly subtle the film is riddled with hilarious dark humour from beginning to end & is well worth watching for anyone who likes a bit of offbeat genius!
