Fargo - Special Edition

Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Frances McDormand	Marge Gunderson
William H. Macy	Jerry Lundegaard
Steve Buscemi	Carl Showalter
Peter Stormare	Gaear Grimsrud
Harve Presnell	Wade Gustafson
John Carroll Lynch	Norm Gunderson
Kristin Rudrud	Jean Lundegaard
Larry Brandenburg	Stan Grossman
Stephen Park	Mike Yanagita
Sharon Anderson	Morning Show Hostess
Kristin Rudrüd	Jean Lundegaard
Tony Denman	Scotty Lundegaard
Kurt Schweickhardt	Car Salesman
Gary Houston	Irate Customer
Sally Wingert	Irate Customer's Wife
Larissa Kokernot	Hooker #1

Director	Ethan Coen; Joel Coen
Producer	Ethan Coen; Tim Bevan; John Cameron
Writer	Ethan Coen; Joel Coen

Filmmaking siblings Joel Coen and Ethan Coen both embraced and poked satirical fun at their rural Minnesota roots with this comedy-drama-thriller that earned seven Oscar nominations, winning for Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant police chief whose affable, folksy demeanor masks a whip-smart mind. When a pair of motorists are found slain not far from the corpse of a state trooper, Marge begins piecing together a case involving a pair of dopey would-be kidnappers, Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Bergman stock player Peter Stormare). They've been hired by Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a car salesman under the thumb of his wealthy, overbearing boss and father-in-law, Wade (Harve Presnell). Jerry's raised some money illegally through a petty scam he's run on General Motors and he's about to get caught. When Wade sours a business deal that could save his son-in-law's hide, the desperate Jerry hires Carl and Gaear to kidnap his wife and hold her for ransom. Things go predictably wrong and a series of murders occur, with Marge, waddling along behind her enormous belly and ever-hungering for an all-you-can-eat buffet, hot on the trail of the killers. Although the credits for Fargo state that the film is loosely based on real events, the story is entirely fictional, the claim being just an ironic jibe on the part of the Coens. — Karl Williams