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Fargo
(1996)
In the Coen Brothers' masterpiece:
- the opening credits sequence with images (beautifully
filmed by Roger Deakins) of a frozen, snow-blanketed North Dakota
and a car (with another car in tow) emerging in the white-out conditions
and making its way along the deserted highway
- the crime scene at which 7 months-pregnant Brainerd
Minnesota's Chief of Police Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) doubled
over, bent down, and supported herself on her knee as her morning
sickness overwhelmed her instead of the tragedy of the roadside triple
murder - as she stated: "I just think I'm gonna barf"
- Marge's interrogation of two dim-witted hookers (Larissa
Kokernot and Melissa Peterman) at the Lakeside Club to learn what
the suspects looked like, with one of them describing a "funny
looking" uncircumcised male: ("The little guy was kinda
funny-Iookin'...I don't know. Just funny-Iookin'...I couldn't really
say. He wasn't circumcised"); Marge was astonished and asked
again: "Was he funny-lookin' apart from that?"
- Marge's questioning of smarmy and snippy car salesman
Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) in his auto-sales office: ("Ma'am,
I answered your question. I answered the darn... I'm cooperating
here, and there's, there's no, uhm...Well, heck! If you wanna, if
you wanna play games here. I'm workin' with ya on this thing here,
but, OK, I'll do a damn lot count...Yah, right now. You're darned
tootin'. If it's so damned important to ya") - but then fled
from the showroom, and her shocked realization: "Oh, for Pete's
sake, he's fleeing the interview! He's fleeing the interview!" when
she saw suspect Jerry escaping in a car outside the auto dealership
- the violent money-drop scene when Carl was shot in
the cheek by a dying Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell)
- the infamous body disposal scene in which Marge slowly
edged her way around a lakeside cabin to discover a mad Grimsrud
(Peter Stormare) supplying his wood chipper with the body of his
kidnapping accomplice Carl (Steve Buscemi) - with only one shoeless
leg/foot left to be shredded
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The Wood Chipper
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"There's more to life than a little money,
you know"
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- in the patrol car, Marge's chastisement to the
captured criminal: ("So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor
in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper.
And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little
bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know.
Don't you know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day.
Well, I just don't understand it.")
- the satisfying epilogue between Marge and her loving
husband Norm (John Carroll Lynch) anticipating a hopeful future:
("We're doing pretty good...Two more months...")
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Opening Credits
Police Chief Marge's "Morning Sickness"
Questioning Two Hookers
Car Salesman Jerry Lundegaard
(William H. Macy)
"Two more months..."
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