‘A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere’
The tagline of the Coen Brothers’ sixth film creates a genius little bit of intrigue in one short sentence. It doesn’t give away any specific details yet nonetheless grabs the viewer’s attention; we have no idea about the myriad possibility of events that could take place, and we don’t know the specified location where these happenings will occur. Unless you knew about Fargo before the film, and also knew where precisely in the world it was. In which case, congrats. But even if you did, that’s immaterial, because not a single scene was actually filmed in Fargo, with most of the film being shot in Minnesota. The more you know, eh? The tagline also neatly summarises the film’s outstanding opening sequence, where the slow journey of a car through snow is complemented with a majestic, Odyssean grandeur through the use of the powerful orchestra of regular Cohen collaborator Carter Burwell.
The scene begins with the typical ‘This is a true story’ shtick. In case you were sucked in by those intriguing words, they’re a lie. A porky pie. Hokum. Not a word of truth of truth in ‘em. Still creates a bit of intrigue though. The screen morphs into white as the cast is listed and a minimalist orchestra begins to be heard as a car can vaguely be distantly seen in the mist. A serene harp enters the soundscape, followed by some folk-like violins, with the car disappearing beneath the snowy road. Once the cast listing is over and the words disappear, we see the car rising again as some mighty drums accompany its return alongside a rich orchestra and louder volume. We see a shadowy figure in the vehicle as it drives by, but have no idea who they are. The title appears, and we witness the car disappear into the mist in classic film noir style. The text in the next shot finally informs us that Fargo is in North Dakota, with the miniscule size of the words subtly suggesting that this information isn’t nearly as important as the mighty soundscape that we heard before it.
If you thought that tune sounded awfully Norwegian, you’d be right, as Burwell based the music on ‘The Lost Sheep’, a Norwegian folk song. The majestic tune makes what might be a fairly substandard sequence of a car driving through snow inherently fascinating. We might be in the middle of nowhere, but music nonetheless makes us feel like we’re in the realm of somewhere, wherever that might be.