Jolt Country

About the movie Fargo, and why I listed it as second worst film after Murder on the Orient Express.

This is a response to my own posting in Topic 6295.

Oh where can I begin, it was just so bad that I think words escape me.
"Baby baby/There's things I'd like to say."
- New Colony Six, Things I'd like to say

"There is so much a man can tell you/So much he can say."
- Seal, Kiss From a Rose

The thing is, I probably saw it several years ago and so it's basically a blur. The horrible thing is I might have to see it again to put my finger on why it was so bad.

Yet you're right, if I think it was bad I should have a reason.

Okay, let's see.

* It was boring.
* I couldn't emphasize with any of the characters so I couldn't really care what happened to them. Not even the poor woman who basically was butchered.
* I think it ran too long such that it just basically was tedious.

I've seen many films about crime, some where you liked the bad guys, were engrossed or fascinated by the plotting of the crime, or pitied the victim. I guess I couldn't do any of these in the case of Fargo.

Name crime films I liked:
Die Hard
Bound
The Usual Suspects (Great Twist Ending, made famous)
Inside Job
The Italian Job (the 2000s remake)
The Day of the Jackal - great movie and I'm sure it was lots longer than Fargo, but the whole thing is terriffic

Maybe it was Francis McDormand although I did like her performance as the mother in Almost Famous. Maybe it was William H. Macy although I've seen him elsewhere and don't have bad vibes. Steve Buscemi? I thought his performance in Armageddon was good. ("No Nukes! No Nukes" "Sir, get off the nuclear weapon.")

My brother and sister also did not like Fargo, and I have no problem disagreeing with them. Both of them did not like the Clint Eastwood-directed Unforgiven which I though was a very good, realistic portrayal of the west.

Maybe it's the directing of the Cohen Brothers, I did not like Raising Arizona either.

I'll be damned if I can put my finger on exactly why I didn't like it, other than it bored me.

Oh.

Well, okay, if it bored you, it bored you. What am I gonna do, tell you it's not boring, if you found it boring?

I would -- I mean, I've found a lot of movies boring, but I wouldn't put them anywhere near my "worst of all time" list. If you're on THAT list, you've committed far worse sins than being boring.

If you're on THAT list, you've been ACTIVELY, INSISTENTLY OFFENSIVE to me, like splicing "recreation" film together with "actual documentary footage" which was also fake in order to pretend you're not making the dumbest movie ever, or blatantly ripping off Magnolia, except making a movie orders of magnitude worse, while also garnering an Academy Award.

Boring? No. I don't even necessarily use "boring" disparagingly. Gerry is the most boring movie ever made, and I love it.

I have seen Gerry over five times. I am probably the only person on the world who 1) can say that, 2) would say that, even if they could.

EDIT: Fargo fucking rules.

EDIT 2: So does Raising Arizona.

I have to agree with Ben on one point: boring does not appear to be a crime. I fell asleep in both of the first two Lord of the Rings movies and never watched the third. Sorry, but hours of watching digitally altered actors walking across digital landscapes puts me to sleep every time.

I'mma have to go watch Fargo again sometime now. I love watching movies and two weeks later I completely forget everything about them. I must've liked Fargo enough to buy it on DVD at some point (or maybe it was just really cheap in the Walmart discount bin) but really all I could tell you now was that it had a wood chipper and took place in Fargo.

Flack wrote:and took place in Fargo.

Brainerd, MN.

FUN FARGO FAX: The opening title card says "This is a true story." Of course, it's not, but the punchline was delivered 12 years later in the Coens' Academy Award-winning "No Country For Old Men":

"Is that a true story?"
"Well, it's true that it's a story."

Oh, those lovable scamps!

Tdarcos wrote:I couldn't emphasize with any of the characters

You couldn't "emphasize with" any of them? Meaning, you couldn't put emphasis on any of them? I don't get it.

Finsternis wrote:

Tdarcos wrote:I couldn't emphasize with any of the characters

You couldn't "emphasize with" any of them? Meaning, you couldn't put emphasis on any of them? I don't get it.

You emphasize with a character either when you understand, sympathize with, or are interested in their predicament.

Most of us are fascinated with crime dramas because in our black hearts we all consider that, given enough of a payout for the risk of getting arrested for the crime, we'd probably participate too.

Studies estimate that something over 94% of the U.S. population has committed an act at least once, that was a felony in the jurisdiction where the act was committed. We were just lucky that we didn't get caught.

But we have to care about the characters or at least want someone to succeed: maybe we want to see the good guys win, or catch the bad guys, or see if they get away with it.

In the case of Fargo I don't think I had any feeling for anyone. If I remember correctly, the husband was killing his wife for the insurance, the two killers were incompetent idiots, and the woman playing the sheriff acted like she was "phoning it in". So there's no feeling for the guy who killed his wife, no interest in the killers, and the sheriff's performance is wooden, something like Montgomery County Maryland Chief of Police Charles Moose when he was holding press conferences over the Beltway Sniper case.

I haven't seen Natural Born Killers but I understand they go to the opposite extreme in which they show us how sick the killers are. In this case, if I am correct, here they interest the audience the way people are interested in an automobile accident.

Other films can make the killer sympathetic, Lifetime television does a bang-up job humanizing women who kill their abusive husbands/boyfriends.

But I think Fargo basically didn't rise to either making the husband and killers into sick fucks that we want to see the Sheriff catch them, nor do they show that he/they are worthy of some consideration.

Tdarcos wrote:You emphasize with a character

That word you keep using. I do not sink it means what you sink it means!

But I think Fargo basically didn't rise to either making the husband and killers into sick fucks that we want to see the Sheriff catch them, nor do they show that he/they are worthy of some consideration.

So that makes it the SECOND WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME?

I don't get it.

pinback wrote:

Flack wrote:and took place in Fargo.

Brainerd, MN.

That is correct. The directors figured most people would recognize the town of Fargo, which, by the way, is in North Dakota as opposed to the more-or-less unknown town of Brainerd.

The two cities are actually about 440 miles from each other.

Tdarcos wrote:

pinback wrote:

Tdarcos wrote:You emphasize with a character

That word you keep using. I do not sink it means what you sink it means!

So tell me what word I should be using.

I thank you for your e-mail pointing out the word I should be using is - to quote you - "Empathize".

pinback wrote:Oh.

Well, okay, if it bored you, it bored you. What am I gonna do, tell you it's not boring, if you found it boring?

I would -- I mean, I've found a lot of movies boring, but I wouldn't put them anywhere near my "worst of all time" list. If you're on THAT list, you've committed far worse sins than being boring.

Ben, I've committed sins that would cause your hair to fall out. That is, if you had hair; I was really shocked by how much you aged from the last time I saw you. Oh by the way, you suck when you do live video. [Or radio, if the recordings you left of some of your on-air incidents are any indication]. You need to stick to a script and get more practice.

If you're on THAT list, you've been ACTIVELY, INSISTENTLY OFFENSIVE to me, like splicing "recreation" film together with "actual documentary footage" which was also fake in order to pretend you're not making the dumbest movie ever,

I've never seen The Fourth Kind, I didn't even know about it until you mentioned it here.

or blatantly ripping off Magnolia, except making a movie orders of magnitude worse, while also garnering an Academy Award.

I didn't think the "Crash" movie you were referring to to be quite that bad. I did, however, announce I did not like the other movie named "Crash" about people who go to see, or restage famous automobile accidents, because they get sexually excited by them; I thought that movie was sick, twisted and uninteresting, but you might like it if you like quirky movies.

Sick, twisted and interesting, however is a different matter.

EDIT: Fargo fucking rules.
EDIT 2: So does Raising Arizona.

You're entitled to your obviously incorrect and clearly erroneous opinion, just as much as I'm entitled to my provably correct and unarguably accurate one.

Flack wrote:I have to agree with Ben on one point: boring does not appear to be a crime.

I didn't say that, either. But it does put it on my list of films I do not like. But I suspect a film would be more than boring (or rather, worse than boring) for me to consider a film as "bad".

pinback wrote:

Tdarcos wrote:But I think Fargo basically didn't rise to either making the husband and killers into sick fucks that we want to see the Sheriff catch them, nor do they show that he/they are worthy of some consideration.

So that makes it the SECOND WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME?

I don't get it.

No, I don't think that is what I said. What I think I said - or what I meant if I didn't say it that way - is it is the second worst film that I have seen. I'm sure there are many really horrible and/or disgusting films which are far worse than Fargo, some of which probably can be found on YouTube, and, some of these, depending on your point of view, have yours truly as the star.

But I think it is both unreasonable and possibly disingenuous - that may not be the correct word, but I'll use it for now - for me to bad mouth a movie I have not seen. I don't think I'm hard to please, but when I don't like a movie I say so. But I'm not the type to be hypocritical - that may also be the wrong word - and declare as my opinion that a film is bad simply because other people - critics, usually, many of which I disagree with - say it is.

Where the fuck is pancakes-house!


SPEAKING OF FARGO
AARDVARK

Hi, I'm from another forum. We had a bet that nobody could think that Fargo and a few others was a bad movie, but then a guy found this thread. Just saying hi from the future. Hi!

Yes, but I feel Tdarcos should be excluded from your poll, because... well. Long story, but I mean, here's a hint.