Characterization in Fargo

2857 Words12 Pages
Characterization in Fargo It is difficult to define Fargo, a movie written produced and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen in 1996, in terms of genre. Film noir? Comedy? Crime? The plot seems not very complicated, presented chronologically by a cross-cutting technique: Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is a car salesman from Minnesota who needs money. As he cannot get it from his father-in-law, a wealthy businessman Wade Dustafson (Herve Presnell) he invents a plan of kidnapping his own wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud). In order to do so, Jerry makes a deal with Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare). Wade would pay the ransom, the two criminals would pocket 40.000 dollars and Jerry would take the rest. But the kidnap goes wrong in an uncontrolled manner: three men are killed and a police officer Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) starts an investigation. The base of a story is a simple although surprising deal which allows a variation on human life in particular circumstances. Indeed, Coen brothers pull off one improbable scene after another but use very few camera movements as if to say that their apparently simple characters are the most important part of the movie. Coen brothers try to depict the lives of ordinary people with an air of decided realism. At the beginning of the movie, just before credits, we can read “This is a true story. The events (…) took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect of the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.” That opening notice is familiar to the point of banality. But the story is indeed true to the rhythms of a small-town life. The research of truth introduces a specific characterization due to close observation of human nature. Not only the protagonists of Fargo are ordinary people but also they are presented to be as

More about Characterization in Fargo

Open Document