Fargo (1996)
- The lead role in Fargo was originally offered to a massive A-list star who turned it down because they didn't understand the script.
- The most famous, quotable line in Fargo wasn't actually in the script; it was completely improvised by the actor on the third take.
- During the filming of Fargo, the director famously rewrote the ending on the fly after seeing the incredible chemistry between the lead actors on set.
Fargo is a 1996 American dark comedy crime film written, directed, and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film follows Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy, a desperate Minneapolis car salesman who hires two criminals β the talkative Carl Showalter played by Steve Buscemi and the silent, menacing Gaear Grimsrud played by Peter Stormare β to kidnap his own wife so he can collect ransom money from his wealthy father-in-law.
When the scheme goes violently wrong during a routine traffic stop, heavily pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson, played by Frances McDormand, investigates the resulting murders with a cheerful, folksy demeanor that belies her sharp investigative mind. Fargo won two Academy Awards β Best Actress for McDormand and Best Original Screenplay for the Coens β and earned seven nominations total. Frances McDormand's Marge Gunderson is one of the most beloved characters in American cinema β a woman of extraordinary competence and moral clarity whose "oh ya" Minnesotan niceness coexists with unflinching courage when confronting evil.
William H. Macy's Jerry was an equally masterful creation β a man so pathetically bad at deception that his schemes collapse almost immediately, yet he persists with sweating, stammering desperation. The Coens' trademark black humor was perfectly calibrated, finding comedy in the yawning gap between the criminals' incompetence and the horrific consequences of their actions.
Fargo earned $60 million worldwide on a $7 million budget.
