The 1996 crime-thriller Fargo was one of the first big hits for the Coen brothers, who later went on to direct movies such as The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men. With Fargo revered as some of their best work, questions still linger around the plot. During the opening titles, the movie claims to be based on true events, yet the characters and storyline feel a little too absurd to be real.
Fargo tells the story of weaselly salesman Jerry, who plans to have his wife kidnapped and traded for his father-in-law's money. However, things quickly take a turn as the two kidnappers he hired are caught and forced to murder a police officer to escape. With Jerry's terrible lying and the kidnappers' obvious trail, the police finally catch up to them and arrest whoever's still alive.
The first thing seen on screen is, "THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987," which sets the tone for the film to potentially be dark and depressing. However, the on-screen text goes on to say that names have been changed, but that the rest of the film is "told exactly as it occurred."
With the movie's release, people started searching for this 1987 crime and found nothing. Shortly after, the Coen brothers announced that the story was made up, and the opening titles were there purely to set the tone of the film. While it feels somewhat questionable to lie about the story, there's no law stopping a film from claiming that it's based on true events.
For years, people accepted that Fargo was pure fiction. However, a 2016 Coen brothers' interview with The Huffington Post reveals that there's actually some truth to the tale. When talking about the "true story," Joel Coen explained, "There are actually two little elements in the story that were based on actual incidents."
He claims the first of these incidents was during the '60s or '70s, where a man was "gumming up serial numbers for cars and defrauding the General Motors Finance Corporation. There was no kidnapping. There was no murder." What Joel Coen describes loosely resembles Jerry's plan with the money he tried to ransom. But it's still a far cry from the story depicted in the movie.
The other event Fargo was purportedly inspired by was a murder in Connecticut, "where a man killed his wife and disposed of the body -- put her into a woodchipper." This refers to the murder of Helle Crafts in 1947, and while it is what Peter Stormare's character does at the end of Fargo, it again is just one small aspect of the movie.
And so, not only is Fargo not based on a true story, it barely resembles any true crime at all. Yet there's no denying that the claim sets a specific tone for first-time watchers, and it's undoubtedly a bold move for the directors to start their movie off with an obvious lie. Interestingly, the opening has become so memorable that the more recent Fargo TV series uses the same false claim.
The Fargo movie is currently available to stream on Netflix, while all four seasons of the series are available on Hulu.