Thursday, March 27, 2008

Fargo the movie

I've seen "Fargo," but after reading David Denby in the New Yorker last month, I don't think I saw deep enough:

The Coens grew up in Minnesota and believed that something strange was going on there—a regional verbal tic that masked a collective nervous breakdown. Jerry’s idiocy is a product not just of personal fecklessness but of a way of life in which rampant greed (among other things) gets covered over by an implacable blandness. Committed to politeness and the best of all possible worlds, Jerry has no inkling of his own wickedness—no words to put it in—and not the slightest fear that his idiotic scheme might fail.


Ouch. If they, or Denby, really think that this insight is limited to Minnesota, or to the Midwest, they're missing something.

2 comments:

Saradevil said...

Just what I needed to justify another Cohen brother's movie night. Did you ever get to see the Big Lebowski?

Harold Henderson said...

Yes, thanks to you!