THIS IS A TRUE STORY. Amidst the barren and icy landscape of Minnesota, Jerry (William H. Macy), a car salesman with financial troubles, hires two men (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife so that his father-in-law will send a ransom of $1,000,000. After the kidnappers are paid their fee, his wife will be returned and the remaining cash left from the ransom will solve all of his troubles. Of course, because this “true” story, Fargo, is one told by Joel and Ethan Coen, every last bit of the plan goes horribly, and ridiculously wrong. For starters, there’s a clever pregnant police officer, Marge (Frances McDormand), hot on Jerry’s tracks. And who knew that the two men Jerry hired would turn out to be two greedy, cold-blooded killers lacking any shred of moral decency? This dark and funny noir film won Joel Coen the Cannes Best Director Award in 1989; more important, it caused an epidemic among fans trying out their refrain of a Midwestern accent:  “Ya? Ya.”

While all of the performances in Fargo are absolutely brilliant (Thanks to Frances McDormand’s performance, Marge Gunderson is now ranked # 33 on the American Film Institute’s list of greatest film heroes in history) much of the humor that permeates through this psychotic and ultra-violent tale has a lot to do with the way the Coens have written their script. In Fargo, there are no slap-stick hijinks jerking out open-mouthed laughs; rather, we chuckle or shake our heads with pleasure at the seamless way in which dialogue moves from crime speak (“From his footprints, he looks like a big fellow.”) to mundane everyday conversation (“Where’s the pancakes house?”): we laugh for relief because the truth we are served up in this “true story” is how senseless evil and the good grace of everyday moments can so easily shift from one another; or in the Jerry’s case, how the later can be traded so thoughtlessly for the former. In the end, Marge sets Jerry straight: "There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don't you know that? And here you are. And it's a beautiful day.''

(Photo: On the set of Fargo: Ethan Coen, Cinematographer Roger Deakins, Joel Coen, 1996. © Gramercy Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.)