Blood, blizzards, and the true(ish) story behind Fargo
The mischevious Coen brothers ran rings around their audiences for decades, before revealing a woman blitzed in a woodchipper inspired Fargo
You betcha! Frances McDormand as Marge in Fargo
Credit: Archive Photos
It’s 25 years since Fargo – “a homespun murder story”, as it was then billed – premiered in Cannes. We think of it now as quintessential Coen Brothers, and part of the pantheon of great American crime movies. Belatedly, it spawned the spin-off TV series on FX in 2014, which has run by now to four seasons and counting.
If you asked the average filmgoer to put on a Minnesotan accent, there’s a sizeable chance they’d attempt an impression of Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand’s pregnant cop, with her litany of “you betcha”s and “real good then”s and “oh yaah”s. Thanks to Marge and every one of its finely etched characters, Fargo is part of the cultural furniture at this point – as enshrined as any 1990s classic you could name.