Editing Fargo (1996 film) (section)

==Production==
===Casting===
The Coens initially considered [[William H. Macy]] for a smaller role, but they were so impressed by his reading that they asked him to come back in and read for the role of Jerry. According to Macy, he was very persistent in getting the role, saying: "I found out that they [the Coen brothers] were auditioning in [[New York City|New York]] still, so I got my jolly, jolly [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] ass on an airplane and walked in and said, 'I want to read again because I'm scared you're going to screw this up and hire someone else.' I actually said that. You know, you can't play that card too often as an actor. Sometimes it just blows up in your face, but I said, 'Guys, this is my role. I want this.{{'"}}<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Sullivan |first=Kevin P. |date=March 8, 2016 |title=Fargo at 20: William H. Macy recalls his wonderful wintry freakout |url=https://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/08/fargo-20th-anniversary-william-h-macy |url-status=live |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805185304/https://ew.com/article/2016/03/08/fargo-20th-anniversary-william-h-macy/ |archive-date=August 5, 2020}}</ref> Ethan Coen later remarked, "I don't think either of us [Coen brothers] realised what a tough acting challenge we were handing Bill Macy with this part. Jerry's a fascinating mix of the completely ingenuous and the utterly deceitful. Yet he's also guileless; even though he set these horrible events in motion, he's surprised when they go wrong."<ref>{{cite web |author=Floyd |first=Nigel |date=May 31, 1996 |title=Snow blind |url=https://archive.list.co.uk/the-list/1996-05-31/21/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014123543/https://archive.list.co.uk/the-list/1996-05-31/21/ |archive-date=October 14, 2020 |access-date=July 7, 2019 |website=The List}}</ref>

[[Frances McDormand]] learned how to use and fire a gun, spent days talking with a pregnant police officer and developed a backstory for her character along with [[John Carroll Lynch]]. She said she may have modeled Marge's personality on that of her sister, a chaplain at a women's maximum-security prison.<ref>{{cite web |author=Fuller |first=Graham |date=March 17, 1996 |title=How Frances McDormand Got Into 'Minnesota Nice' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/movies/how-frances-mcdormand-got-into-minnesota-nice.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922233820/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/movies/how-frances-mcdormand-got-into-minnesota-nice.html |archive-date=September 22, 2020 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

===Filming===
''Fargo'' was filmed during the winter of 1995, mainly in the [[Minneapolis-St. Paul area]] and around [[Pembina County, North Dakota]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dwyer |first=Michael |date=May 31, 1996 |title=Lepage Leaps Into the Limelight |page=11 |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/lepage-leaps-into-the-limelight-1.54276 |url-status=live |access-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230514004232/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/lepage-leaps-into-the-limelight-1.54276 |archive-date=May 14, 2023}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |last=Probst |first=Christopher |date=March 1996 |title=Fargo: Cold-Blooded Scheming |url=https://theasc.com/articles/fargo-cold-blooded-scheming |access-date=2023-05-14 |magazine=[[American Cinematographer]] |archive-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514011251/https://theasc.com/articles/fargo-cold-blooded-scheming |url-status=live }}</ref> Due to unusually low snowfall totals in central and southern Minnesota that winter, scenes requiring snow-covered landscapes had to be shot in northern Minnesota and northeastern North Dakota, though not in or near the actual towns of [[Fargo, North Dakota|Fargo]] and [[Brainerd, Minnesota|Brainerd]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=October 18, 1996 |title='Sleepers' Casts Faith to Wind |page=23 |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]}}</ref> Cinematographer [[Roger Deakins]] shot the film on an [[Arriflex 35BL|Arriflex 35 BL-4]] camera.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Movie Fargo Paul Bunyan.jpg|thumb|Original [[Paul Bunyan]] sculpture created by [[Rick Heinrichs]]]]
Jerry's initial meeting with Carl and Gaear was shot at a pool hall and bar called The King of Clubs in the northeast section of Minneapolis.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cgstock.com/894 |title=Stock photo with location |publisher=Cgstock.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014125924/http://www.cgstock.com/894|archive-date=October 14, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> It was demolished in 2003, along with most other buildings on that block of Central Avenue, and replaced by [[low-income housing]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Peterson |first=Susan |date=September 24, 2005 |title=At last, a real home |url=http://www.ccht.org/At_last_a_real_home.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927094703/http://www.ccht.org/At_last_a_real_home.html |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |access-date=February 28, 2010 |website=[[Star Tribune]] |via=Ccht.org}}</ref> Wade's car dealership was actually Wally McCarthy Oldsmobile in [[Richfield, Minnesota]], a southern suburb of Minneapolis. The site is now occupied by [[Best Buy]]'s national corporate headquarters. The 24-foot [[Paul Bunyan]] statue was built for the film (and subsequently dismantled) on Pembina County Highway 1, four miles west of [[Bathgate, North Dakota]], near the Canadian border.<ref name="loc" /> The Blue Ox motel/truckstop was Stockmen's Truck Stop in [[South St. Paul, Minnesota|South St. Paul]], which is still in business. Ember's, the restaurant where Jerry discusses the ransom drop with Gustafson, was located in [[St. Louis Park, Minnesota|St. Louis Park]], the Coens' hometown; the building now houses a medical outpatient treatment center.<ref name="loc" />

The [[strip club]] where Marge interviews the two call girls was two separate locations; its exterior was the Lakeside Club in [[Mahtomedi, Minnesota]], and interior the Loch Ness Lounge in [[Houlton, Wisconsin]]. The kidnappers' Moose Lake hideout actually stood on the shore of [[Square Lake (Washington County, Minnesota)|Square Lake]], near [[May Township, Cass County, Minnesota|May, Minnesota]]. The cabin was relocated to [[Barnes, Wisconsin]], in 2002. The [[Edina, Minnesota|Edina]] police station where the interior police headquarters scenes were filmed is still in operation but has been completely rebuilt. The Carlton Celebrity Room was an actual venue in [[Bloomington, Minnesota]], and [[José Feliciano]] did once appear there, but it had been closed for almost ten years when filming began. The Feliciano scene was shot at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in [[Chanhassen, Minnesota|Chanhassen]], near Minneapolis.<ref name="loc">{{cite web|url=http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/f/Fargo.html|title=Fargo|website=movie-locations.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006063408/http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/f/Fargo.html|archive-date=October 6, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> The ransom drop was filmed in two adjacent parking garages on South 8th Street in downtown Minneapolis. Scenes in the Lundegaards' kitchen were shot in a private home on Pillsbury Avenue in Minneapolis,<ref>{{cite web |author=Pinkley |first=J. |date=April 28, 2003 |title=Kitchen of Kemp, Melroe home |url=http://www.startribune.com/1641/story/70938.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014084018/http://www.startribune.com/1641/story/70938.html |archive-date=October 14, 2007 |access-date=February 28, 2011 |newspaper=[[Star Tribune]]}}</ref> and the house where Mr. Mohra describes the "funny looking little guy" to police is in [[Hallock, Minnesota|Hallock]], in northwest Minnesota. The motel "outside of Bismarck", where the police finally catch up with Jerry, is the Hitching Post Motel in [[Forest Lake, Minnesota|Forest Lake]], north of Minneapolis.<ref name="loc"/>

While none of ''Fargo'' was actually filmed in Fargo, the Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau exhibits original script copies and several props used in the film, including the wood chipper prop.<ref name="loc"/>

===Music===
As with all the Coen brothers' films, except ''[[Inside Llewyn Davis]]'', the score to ''Fargo'' is by [[Carter Burwell]].<ref name="Soundtrack Collector">{{cite web|url=http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog/soundtrackdetail.php?movieid=45147|title=Fargo - Soundtrack details|website=SoundtrackCollector.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731040852/http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog/soundtrackdetail.php?movieid=45147|archive-date=July 31, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> The main musical [[motif (music)|motif]] is based on a Norwegian folk song, "The Lost Sheep" ({{langx|no|Den bortkomne sauen}}).<ref>{{cite web |author=Broxton |first=Jonathan |title=Fargo/Barton Fink |url=http://www.moviemusicuk.us/fargocd.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928000011/http://www.moviemusicuk.us/fargocd.htm |archive-date=September 28, 2007 |access-date=October 11, 2007 |website=www.moviemusicuk.us}}</ref>

Other songs featured in the film include: "[[Big City (Merle Haggard song)|Big City]]" by [[Merle Haggard]], heard in the King of Clubs while Jerry meets with Carl and Gaear; "[[These Boots Are Made for Walkin']]" by [[Boy George]], which plays in the [[Automobile repair shop|garage]] as Shep works, and "Let's Find Each Other Tonight", a live nightclub performance by [[José Feliciano]] that is viewed by Carl and a female escort at such a far distance without a close-up that the viewer might deem it's a lip synched stand-in.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fargo Soundtrack (1996) & Complete List of Songs |url=https://www.what-song.com/Movies/Soundtrack/101/Fargo |access-date=2023-05-14 |website=WhatSong |language=en}}</ref> In the diner, when Jerry is urging Wade not to get police involved in his wife's kidnapping, [[Chuck Mangione]]'s "[[Feels So Good (Chuck Mangione song)|Feels So Good]]" can be heard faintly in the background. An instrumental version of "[[Do You Know the Way to San Jose]]" plays during the scene where Marge and Norm are eating at a buffet. The restaurant scene with Mike Yanagita is accompanied by a piano arrangement of "[[Blood, Sweat & Tears (Blood, Sweat & Tears album)|Sometimes in Winter]]" by [[Blood, Sweat & Tears]]. All the songs heard in the film are featured only as background music, usually on a radio, and do not appear on the soundtrack album.

The soundtrack was released in 1996 on [[TVT Records]], combined with selections from the score to ''[[Barton Fink]]''.<ref name="Soundtrack Collector"/>

===Claims of factual basis===
The film opens with the following text:
{{blockquote|This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.}}
The Coen brothers said that they based their script on an actual criminal event, but wrote a fictional story around it. "We weren't interested in that kind of fidelity", said Joel Coen. "The basic events are the same as in the real case, but the characterizations are fully imagined&nbsp;... If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept."<ref>{{cite web |author=Heitmueller |first=Karl |date=April 11, 2005 |title=Rewind: What Part Of 'Based On' Don't You Understand? |url=https://www.mtv.com/news/1499898/rewind-what-part-of-based-on-dont-you-understand/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014122542/https://www.mtv.com/news/1499898/rewind-what-part-of-based-on-dont-you-understand/ |archive-date=October 14, 2020 |website=[[MTV]]}}</ref>

The brothers have modified their explanation more than once. In 1996, Joel Coen told a reporter that—contrary to the opening graphic—the actual murders were not committed in Minnesota.<ref>{{cite news |author=O'Rourke |first=Mike |date=February 11, 1997 |title=Reaction to 'Fargo' nomination |newspaper=[[Brainerd Dispatch]] |url=http://www.brainerddispatch.com/fargo/fargoacdmynom.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021231145342/http://www.brainerddispatch.com/fargo/fargoacdmynom.shtml |archive-date=December 31, 2002}}</ref><ref name="We're ready for our close-up, Mr. Coen(s)">{{cite news |author=Smetanka |first=Mary Jane |date=August 8, 2008 |title=We're ready for our close-up, Mr. Coen(s) |newspaper=[[Star Tribune]] |url=http://www.startribune.com/local/west/26437374.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014122840/https://www.startribune.com/we-re-ready-for-our-close-up-mr-coen-s/26437374/ |archive-date=October 14, 2020}}</ref> Many Minnesotans speculated that the story was inspired by [[T. Eugene Thompson]], a [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] attorney who was convicted of hiring a man to murder his wife in 1963, near the Coens' hometown of [[St. Louis Park, Minnesota|St. Louis Park]]; but the Coens said that they had never heard of Thompson. After Thompson's death in 2015, Joel Coen changed the explanation again: "[The story was] completely made up. Or, as we like to say, the only thing true about it is that it's a story."<ref>{{cite news |author=Roberts |first=Sam |date=September 6, 2015 |title=T. Eugene Thompson Dies at 88; Crime Stunned St. Paul |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/t-eugene-thompson-dies-at-88-crime-stunned-st-paul.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014123107/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/t-eugene-thompson-dies-at-88-crime-stunned-st-paul.html |archive-date=October 14, 2020}}</ref>

The film's special edition DVD contains yet another account, that the film was inspired by the 1986 [[murder of Helle Crafts]], a Danish–American flight attendant from [[Connecticut]] at the hands of her husband, Richard, who disposed of her body through a wood chipper.<ref>{{cite web |author=Gado |first=Mark |date=November 18, 1986 |title=All about the Woodchipper Murder Case |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/woodchipper_murder/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512005217/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/woodchipper_murder/index.html |archive-date=May 12, 2008 |website=[[Crime Library]]}}</ref>

In a 1998 article on the film's "true story" claim, the fact-checking website [[Snopes]] concluded that it was a prank of the kind the Coen brothers often inserted in their films, without "a word of truth to it." Snopes said that doubters should note that a [[all persons fictitious disclaimer|fictitious persons disclaimer]], used in works of fiction, is at the end of the film.<ref>{{cite web |date=June 8, 1998 |title=Was 'Fargo' Based on a True Story? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fargo/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117164329/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fargo/ |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |access-date=October 14, 2020 |website=[[Snopes]]}}</ref>

===Accent===
The film's illustrations of "[[Minnesota nice]]" and distinctive [[North-Central American English|regional accents]] and expressions made a lasting impression on audiences; years later, locals reported continuing to field tourist requests to say "Yah, you betcha", and other tag lines from the movie.<ref name="ND">{{cite news |author=McMacken |first=Robin |date=May 9, 2004 |title=North Dakota: Where the accent is on friendship |newspaper=[[Tampa Bay Times|St. Petersburg Times]] |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/09/Travel/North_Dakota__Where_t.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311094023/http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/09/Travel/North_Dakota__Where_t.shtml |archive-date=March 11, 2008}}</ref> Dialect coach Liz Himelstein said that "the accent was another character". She coached the cast using audiotapes and field trips.<ref>{{cite news |author=Randall |first=Laura |date=March 26, 2004 |title=She Accentuates Film Performances |newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0326/p13s03-almo.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040603155209/https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0326/p13s03-almo.html |archive-date=June 3, 2004}}</ref> Another dialect coach, Larissa Kokernot (who also played one of the prostitutes), noted that the "small-town, Minnesota accent is close to the sound of the Nords and the Swedes", which is "where the musicality comes from". She taught McDormand "Minnesota nice" and the characteristic head-nodding to show agreement.<ref>{{cite news |author=Hewitt |first=Chris |date=October 19, 2005 |title=Forget 'Fargo' – actors put accent on Minnesota realism |newspaper=[[St. Paul Pioneer Press]] |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-31663962_ITM |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210151930/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-31663962_ITM |archive-date=December 10, 2008}}</ref> The strong accent spoken by Macy's and McDormand's characters, which was exaggerated for effect, is less common in the [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul|Twin Cities]] area, where over 60% of the state's population lives. The Minneapolis and St. Paul dialect is characterized by the [[Inland Northern American English#Northern Cities Vowel Shift|Northern Cities Vowel Shift]], which is also found in other places in the Northern United States as far east as [[Rochester, New York]].<ref name="ND"/>