Fargo – Blu-ray Disc Review

May 16, 2009 – 5:52 PM --- by: Justin Sluss

Tags: Ethan Coen, FOX, Frances McDormand, Harve Presnell, Joel Coen, MGM, Peter Stormare, Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy

has an average rating of 8.3 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 MA & Dolby Surround
include basic DVD ports & Trivia track
–
– 1996
– 98 minutes
– MGM
–
This uses 29.6GB for the movie out of 32.1GB total.

Overall Verdict – Recommended

Buy it for $18.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself was the sixth film from The Coen Brothers (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen). The screenplay was written by both brothers while the film was Directed by Joel Coen. The film is based on a true story. The story involves a Minnesota car salesman by the name of “Jerry Lundergaard” (played by William H. Macy) who hires two thugs “Carl” (Steve Buscemi) and “Gaear” (Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife. The original plan involved Jerry collecting the ransom but things go dreadfully wrong when his father-in-law “Wade Gustafson” (Harve Presnell) who’s paying the ransom is determined to get involved with the hostage negotiations — since it is after all, his money.

A bit of while this is still going on but mostly after, we get a change of perspective to that of a pregnant female Police Chief “Marge Gunderson” (played by Frances McDormand) who is sent to investigate the first few murders that occur because of the kidnapping. The two hired thugs get pulled over by a police officer because they forgot to pot license plates on the car. One overreacts and shoots the cop, what follows is a couple more murders that our friend Marge is investigating.

The Coen Brothers rarely do action and drama in this way and it’s truly a sight to behold. “Fargo” is easily their most popular film to-date and an obvious “fan favorite”. It’s with great pleasure I welcome it to the catalog of Blu-ray Disc titles from MGM.

Overall, looking back on “Fargo” some thirteen years later it’s really no surprise that it walked away with an “Oscar” (Academy Award) wins for “Best Writing / Screenplay” for Joel & Ethan Coen as well as “Best Actress in a Leading Role” for Frances McDormand. It was nominated in a total of 5 other categories that included “Best Film Editing“, “Best Director“, “Best Cinematography“, “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (William H. Macy) and most importantly “Best Picture“. The Coen Brothers would go on to walk away with another 4 “Oscar” wins and 4 other nominations in 2007 for “No Country for Old Men“. I’d totally suggest checking out that film if you enjoy this.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Having owned this previously on DVD I was honestly looking forward to this receiving a Hi-Def release to serve as an obvious upgrade. I’m happy to report, to those of you who haven’t had the chance to see it yet, this is a definite upgrade. There’s a large amount of detail to be found in this 35mm to Hi-Def transfer — especially in close-ups. Roger Deakins beautiful cinematography is certainly done justice here in Hi-Def. Obviously since it was filmed on 35mm, a good amount of film grain is present which also proves that DNR likely was not used, nor edge enhancement. The black level is very solid, color palette is vibrant and fleshtones are accurate. No complaints here at all. This isn’t a 100% perfect video presentation but it is a very solid presentation and that is enough to earn it a “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in both DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and Dolby Digital Surround @224kbps. The original DVD release contained just Dolby Digital Surround so this serves as a major improvement in just codec alone. From the start of the film you’ll notice that the original musical score done by Carter Burwell sounds wonderful with excellent rear channel and bass presence in the 5.1 soundscape. A film like “Fargo” is very much dialogue-driven so it’s important that it be delivered perfectly in this 5.1 mix. I’m happy to report that to be just the case, the dialogue is “dead on” throughout and never should require any volume adjustments — even in the few action sequences. Speaking of action in the film, sound effects sound extremely realistic and make excellent use of the 5.1 soundscape themselves. It’s all enough to keep you on the edge of the seat, if it’s your first time watching the film — that is. Overall this proves to really be a very, very nice upgrade for fans who previously owned this on DVD, earning it an impressive “4.5 Star Rating” for audio quality.

Bonus Materials are presented in a variety of both Hi-Def (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound @224kbps.

• Audio Commentary with Director of Photography Roger A. Deakins
• “Minnesota Nice Documentary” (27:47 – SD) is the original “making of” documentary and includes lots of interviews with the cast members and crew. This featurette proves to be a MUST-WATCH for any fans of the film who never saw it on DVD. Great interview footage with filmmakers Ethan Coen & Joel Coen can be found here.
• “Trivia Track” is included and can be toggled in the “Special Features” menu on or off. This is actually a new Blu-ray Disc exclusive feature that appears to be using BD-J (BD-Java). It offers some really informative trivia not just about the film itself but also on the studio (MGM) and etc. Very much worth enabling for huge fans of the film like myself.
• “Photo Gallery” (HD) is comprised of still images and you can navigate through this using the “previous” |<< and "next" >>| buttons on your Blu-ray Disc Player remote control. These are from the most recent DVD release but are for the first time now in Hi-Def visual quality.
• “Theatrical Trailer” (1:58 – HD) is nice to see presented in full 1080p Hi-Def video quality, even if it does only get Stereo sound.
• “TV Spot” (0:32 – SD) is basically a short trailer turned commercial that ran for the film during it’s theatrical campaign.
• “American Cinematographer Article” (HD) is much like the “Photo Gallery” above in it’s navigation, it uses the “previous” |<< and "next" >>| buttons on your Blu-ray Disc Player remote control. This again was taken from the most recent DVD release but is now available for the first time in Hi-Def. Cinematographer Roger Deakins does a great interview here and the write-up by the magazine is marvelous as well.

Overall, the bonus materials we get here are nothing more than the basic DVD ports with the addition of a “trivia track” running in what would appear to be BD-J (BD-Java). The standard definition ported DVD supplemental materials feel overly recycled and it’s also a shame we don’t get a digital copy of the film as well.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.