One of 'Fargo’s' highlights is Roger Pratt’s mesmerizing cinematography. Filmed in North Dakota and Minnesota, 'Fargo' employs a white-on-white color scheme, and the harsh wintry landscape becomes as important and symbolic to the plot as most of the characters. 'Fargo' was not photographed with a "soft-matte" process, so the theatrical 1.85:1 image is exactly how the filmmakers intended 'Fargo' to be seen. The letterboxed disc faithfully captures the proper aspect ratio, and reveals substantially more picture information on the sides as compared to the pan-and-scan video. The subtlety and poetry of the film’s compositions is done justice by the letterboxing. Usually, I find most letterboxed 1.85:1 films to be a "so what" proposition, because they’re not as compromised on video, and many of them merely block out extraneous visual information, hidden behind artificial "soft mattes." 'Fargo' is the rare exception, a narrow-aspect-ratio film that really demands to be seen letterboxed. The quality of the disc is excellent, probably the best title ever to be released by Polygram.
The film’s Stereo Surround mix gives a kick to Carter Burwell’s haunting musical score, which creeps up on you from all directions. Other than the music, not much of the 'Fargo' audio mix takes advantage of the stereo separations.
The movie is presented on 2 sides of one disc, in CLV. The one side break is perfectly timed.
There are no extras on this disc, but if the film snags some of the major Oscars® for which it has been nominated, maybe there will be a cry for a special edition. A newly-repriced VHS collector’s set includes a trailer and behind-the-scenes materials, so there’s stuff about the movie already out there. And, personally, I’d love to listen to the admittedly twisted Coen brothers on an audio commentary track. Anyone out there at Polygram or Criterion listening?
It’s no wonder Joel Coen’s 'Fargo' was nominated for 7 1996 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. It is truly one of the best films we’ve seen in years. Coen’s serio-comic thriller is alternately funny, touching, wicked, cynical, scary, violent and suspenseful. Frances McDormand is simply divine as the very-pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson, who waddles her way through a brutal case of triple murder in the snow-covered expanse of the upper Midwest, and tracks down the killers, a pair of mis-matched thugs who have botched a kidnapping job. The kidnapping is the brainchild of weasely car salesman Jerry Lundergard (Best Supporting Actor nominee William H. Macy), who figures that by hiring the thugs to kidnap his own wife, his wealthy, bullying father-in-law will pay the ransom, and Jerry will secretly get a split. Of course, nothing goes quite as planned.
Stats: Polygram Home Video; 2 sides; CLV; Widescreen (1.85:1); Stereo Surround; Chapter stops; Closed captioned; $34.95
S. Damien Segal.
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