Fargo

[Craig Clark]

I wrote:
 
 >I think the Coens intend 
 >us to believe that this applies well outside the narrow confines of 
 >Minnesota. Small wonder then that when our heroine reprimands 
 >the one surviving kidnapper for thinking only of money, she sounds 
 >less like she's delivering a moral to the audience than like she's 
 >trying to reassure herself that her values still have any meaning in 
 >the world she inhabits.

Bill Burns replies: 
 > My sense is they intend us to believe the inverse--that what applies
 > elsewhere also applies in this backwater Minnesota community. The Coens are
 > flouting the expectations of the audience by associating this dialect with
 > criminal behavior. Typically, criminals in American movies tend to speak a
 > limited range of dialects, which often represent other biases that Americans
 > harbor covertly. 
 > It's not the most original use of dialect, but its effect is interesting. 
 
I think that's a good point, and to some extent intensifies the 
political impact of the film: it's almost as though the film is 
arguing that the rot has reached right into the backwoods of the 
midwest. There's another link IMHO to Pynchon here - both _Fargo_ and 
_GR_ are explorations of the corruption of innocence by money.

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"