Fargo Based on True Story or not?
#1
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Fargo Based on True Story or not?
Is Fargo Based on True Story or not? Imdb says that it is not. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/trivia
Anyone know for sure?
Anyone know for sure?
#6
Snopes has an article about the 'based on a true story' claim about Fargo.
www.snopes.com/movies/films/fargo.htm
www.snopes.com/movies/films/fargo.htm
#7
DVD Talk Special Edition
the only thing that I can say about it resembling a true story is when the cop gets shot in the beginning. it reminds me of the story from Errol Morris's Thin Blue Line and how they shot the cop in a similar fashion. Small fact...they just recently executed the real killer from this crime. Morris's documentary helped free the wrongly convicted person.
#8
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Well why does it say that all of the names have been changed to protect the living??? That is stupid to put that if it's not true.
http://www.pinpow.com/9RoundsHitMix.mp3
http://www.pinpow.com/9RoundsHitMix2.mp3
http://www.pinpow.com/9RoundsHitMix.mp3
http://www.pinpow.com/9RoundsHitMix2.mp3
Last edited by Soapstreet; 05-19-09 at 03:49 PM.
#9
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally posted by Soapstreet
Well why does it say that all of the names have been changed to protect the living??? That is stupid to put that if it's not true.
Well why does it say that all of the names have been changed to protect the living??? That is stupid to put that if it's not true.
#10
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Originally posted by Soapstreet
Well why does it say that all of the names have been changed to protect the living??? That is stupid to put that if it's not true.
Well why does it say that all of the names have been changed to protect the living??? That is stupid to put that if it's not true.
#11
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It's just a little wink-wink joke by the Coens - kinda shows their weird sense of humor. They actually "got me" to believe that it was based on a true story the first time I saw it - did some research to then find out that it wasn't true. At least I wasn't the only one who fell for it.
#12
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Yeah, they're making a joke about movies ... that's pretty much what they do ... I've heard it said that people found the story too unbelievable, so they put that disclaimer at the front of the script, and then people believed it.
Actually, on the DVD, he says that when he found out that it wasn't true, he said, "You can't do that!"
I heard William Macy (maybe on the DVD) talking about how funny they thought it was to do that.
#13
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This is always a fun little story....
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=1&id=185547
Japanese woman hunting "Fargo" movie loot dies in Minnesota
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Friday, December 7, 2001 at 09:30 JST
DETROIT LAKES, Minnesota — A Japanese woman whose body was found by a hunter near the North Woods town of Detroit Lakes was apparently obsessed by the the fictional buried treasure of the movie "Fargo," police said on Thursday.
After flying to Minneapolis, Takako Konishi, 28, of Tokyo, boarded a bus for Bismarck. Bismarck Police Lt Nick Sevart said she stayed at the Holiday Inn in Bismarck on Nov 9, and left behind clothing, saying it was trash.
The next day, a man found Konishi wandering around near the city landfill and Oasis truckstop in northeast Bismarck, Sevart said. Konishi didn't speak much English, so the man drove her to the Bismarck Police Department.
While there, she showed police a crude treasure map she had drawn based on the darkly comic film of 1996, in which a character takes ransom money and buries it in a snowdrift in the barren Minnesota landscape — a location he marks poorly with a short stick. The character ends up dead, and his body is fed into a wood chipper.
Seemingly rational, she made clear to non-Japanese-speaking officers that she had come from Tokyo to search for the cache of money from "Fargo," and she could not be talked out of her project, Sevart said. Police tried to explain to her that "Fargo" was only a movie, but faced a language barrier. The department has interpreters for several languages, he said, but not Japanese. Police called area ethnic restaurants looking for a Japanese interpretor, but they were unable to find one.
Since Konishi hadn't done anything illegal and her paperwork was apparently in order, Sevart said police had no reason to hold her. "She indicated she wanted to go to Fargo. There was nothing we could hold her on," Sevart said. Konishi apparently took a bus to Fargo, then a 72-kilometer taxi ride to Detroit Lakes, where she hitched a ride outside town.
"She apparently had money, so she wasn't in need of a place to stay or anything," Sevart said. Bismarck police didn't write a report because they had no reason to believe anything was amiss, Sevart said.
"We've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities — either a (prescription) drug overdose or an exposure death," Detroit Lakes Police Chief Cal Keena said. He said he was awaiting the results of toxicology tests.
"I haven't seen the movie," Keena said in answer to a question about Joel and Ethan Coen's cinematic "Fargo," adding: "I don't need to. I live here." (Compiled from wire reports)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=1&id=185547
Japanese woman hunting "Fargo" movie loot dies in Minnesota
Send to a friendPrint
Friday, December 7, 2001 at 09:30 JST
DETROIT LAKES, Minnesota — A Japanese woman whose body was found by a hunter near the North Woods town of Detroit Lakes was apparently obsessed by the the fictional buried treasure of the movie "Fargo," police said on Thursday.
After flying to Minneapolis, Takako Konishi, 28, of Tokyo, boarded a bus for Bismarck. Bismarck Police Lt Nick Sevart said she stayed at the Holiday Inn in Bismarck on Nov 9, and left behind clothing, saying it was trash.
The next day, a man found Konishi wandering around near the city landfill and Oasis truckstop in northeast Bismarck, Sevart said. Konishi didn't speak much English, so the man drove her to the Bismarck Police Department.
While there, she showed police a crude treasure map she had drawn based on the darkly comic film of 1996, in which a character takes ransom money and buries it in a snowdrift in the barren Minnesota landscape — a location he marks poorly with a short stick. The character ends up dead, and his body is fed into a wood chipper.
Seemingly rational, she made clear to non-Japanese-speaking officers that she had come from Tokyo to search for the cache of money from "Fargo," and she could not be talked out of her project, Sevart said. Police tried to explain to her that "Fargo" was only a movie, but faced a language barrier. The department has interpreters for several languages, he said, but not Japanese. Police called area ethnic restaurants looking for a Japanese interpretor, but they were unable to find one.
Since Konishi hadn't done anything illegal and her paperwork was apparently in order, Sevart said police had no reason to hold her. "She indicated she wanted to go to Fargo. There was nothing we could hold her on," Sevart said. Konishi apparently took a bus to Fargo, then a 72-kilometer taxi ride to Detroit Lakes, where she hitched a ride outside town.
"She apparently had money, so she wasn't in need of a place to stay or anything," Sevart said. Bismarck police didn't write a report because they had no reason to believe anything was amiss, Sevart said.
"We've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities — either a (prescription) drug overdose or an exposure death," Detroit Lakes Police Chief Cal Keena said. He said he was awaiting the results of toxicology tests.
"I haven't seen the movie," Keena said in answer to a question about Joel and Ethan Coen's cinematic "Fargo," adding: "I don't need to. I live here." (Compiled from wire reports)
#14
DVD Talk Limited Edition
When this movie first came out I was skeptical as there had not been a MN State Trooper killed in the line of duty for many many years prior to the movie.
This included 1987...so I was doubting it from the beginning...then the truth came out, that it was all false.
Still a great film though.
This included 1987...so I was doubting it from the beginning...then the truth came out, that it was all false.
Still a great film though.
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#17
Originally posted by Jamezuva
Hm, wonder what the Coen brothers' reaction to this Japanese girl's apparent suicide was
Hm, wonder what the Coen brothers' reaction to this Japanese girl's apparent suicide was
I believe they gave their reaction to it in the April 1st issue of Floor Covers Weekely.
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Originally posted by Crocker Jarmen
I believe they gave their reaction to it in the April 1st issue of Floor Covers Weekely.
I believe they gave their reaction to it in the April 1st issue of Floor Covers Weekely.
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I don't think the Japanese woman's death has ever been actually connected to Fargo. In any case, it definitely wasn't a case of "crazy Japanese woman thinks the treasure from Fargo was real and dies looking for it". She was there to commit suicide.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/fargo.htm
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/fargo.htm
#21
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Originally posted by icruise
I don't think the Japanese woman's death has ever been actually connected to Fargo. In any case, it definitely wasn't a case of "crazy Japanese woman thinks the treasure from Fargo was real and dies looking for it". She was there to commit suicide.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/fargo.htm
I don't think the Japanese woman's death has ever been actually connected to Fargo. In any case, it definitely wasn't a case of "crazy Japanese woman thinks the treasure from Fargo was real and dies looking for it". She was there to commit suicide.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/fargo.htm
Last edited by NEUMANN; 07-04-04 at 07:19 PM.