|
I was an early adopter of DVD and one of the first
DVDs I bought was “Fargo” in really, really bad packaging.
It didn’t matter. I loved the Coens and “Fargo” remains
along with “Raising Arizona” and “No Country for Old Men”
one of my favorite films by the Coen brothers. With “Fargo”
the Coen’s play mind games with the audience from the first
title on the screen—a lie about “Fargo” being based on a
true story (it’s not) and, in fact, is about as far from
real life as one can imagine but almost absurd enough for
viewers to believe that this story is true. ***
Car salesman Jerry Undegaard (William H. Macy)has cooked
up a scheme to deal with his money problems; he’s hired
thugs to kidnap his wife and bilk his in-laws for her ransom.
The only problem is that Jerry’s wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud)
has been kidnapped by a pair of idiotic criminals (Peter
Stormare and Steve Buscemi) who manage to really kill folks
along the way. Those murders naturally attract the attention
of the police and the Chief of the department pregnant Marge
Gunderson (Frances McDormand) jumps on the case upchucking
at the scene of the first crime. She knows that something
other than a simple kidnapping has unfolded in her neck
of the woods and she’s determined to bring the criminals
to justice. ***
Make no mistake “Fargo” isn’t a nice little tale of
criminals brought to justice. It’s brutal, graphic and amusing
as the absurd kidnapping plot begins to fall apart. “Fargo”
isn’t for everyone and the humor of Coen films are often
an acquired taste but they juggle so many balls so well
in “Fargo” that one has to give the Coen brothers credit
for their technical brilliance. ---
Image & Sound:
“Fargo” looks extremely good in its Blu-ray debut.
The grainy look of the film was intentional from the get-go
and the Coen’s have retained that look for “Fargo” shying
away from over processing the image with DNR. ***
Audio sounds extremely good with a nice audio mix that
favors dialogue. ---
|
