Twenty-five years ago, my fellow film critics and I assembled in the very small, but well appointed screening room inside the notorious 666 5th Avenue building in New York City. By the time the lights came up after the showing of Fargo, there was mostly stunned silence (the same group would have the same reaction two years later to The Big Lebowski in the same room, but that’s another story).
But it didn’t take long for us and the few others who had seen it to start working out that we had just seen a film that people would talk about, whether they loved it or hated it, for years to come. One year and a few weeks later, the Coen Brothers film would win two Academy Awards, but lose Best Picture to The English Patient.
Who’s talking about that film 25 years later?
The crime drama that purported to be a “true story” (it wasn’t) is seared into our cinematic memories – the stark, snowy landscape, the performances by Frances McDormand, William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi…the wood chipper! The Coens blended graphic violence in ways that only Tarantino dared – but they were first.
Well, it turns out there’s a superfan for anything in the world you can name, and author Todd Melby is that guy when it comes to Fargo. His book “A Lot Can Happen In The Middle Of Nowhere – The Untold Story of the Making of Fargo” gives new meaning to the term “granular.” For a start, Melby reports, the movie was mostly filmed in Minnesota. And one of the biggest location obstacles was the lack of snow.
But the book dives much deeper than that – almost all of the cast are interviewed for the book, and they’ve all got stories to tell. Want an example of how much detail the book dishes out? How about this one: Steve Park, the actor who has exactly one short scene as Mike Yanagita, a former classmate who invites Marge to lunch and awkwardly tries to put the moves on her. Remember that? It’s 4 minutes in a 2 hour movie. 4 super uncomfortable minutes and an enigmatic scene that has spurred internet discussions for years. But Park’s own personal take on the character, the process, the accent, the auditions- I mean, it’s pages of reading.
Same with the actress who played Hooker #1, for example. Minutes onscreen translates into heretofore untold detail that were fascinating to a nerd like me. And it’s all fun stuff. I loved reading how they worked on the Minnesota accents, too.
If there is any disappointment, it’s that the author never interviewed Joel and Ethan Coen. Never even met them. It seems like an important missing element, but they are heavily quoted by all of those who worked for them, and maybe that’s even better. I don’t know. I have interviewed them a few times, always as a pair, and they aren’t always as loquacious and gregarious as you might think people with their comedic talents would be.
A Lot Can Happen in the Middle of Nowhere is ultimately for the nerds like me out there. I haven’t watched it in years, but the book shakes loose hundreds of mental images and many fond memories.
Speaking of which: I’ve heard conflicting reports that this 1996 classic will be theatrically re-released for the 25th Anniversary. I cannot confirm that now, but I invite you to snoop around and see if it gets confirmed as a Fathom Event type of thing.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins was robbed of an Oscar that year for his work – that, all by itself, is reason to want to re-visit Brainerd, MN on a big screen, if only for a couple of hours.
P.S. This is a cute article from an actual Fargo news outlet that will give you a smile.
