This movie is "inspired" by Fargo. By that I mean it is close to a full-blown "rip-off". It has many of the same plotlines as Fargo (inside job, no one will be hurt, a couple low-life hoods, a lot of innocent people killed, etc.) except that it has none of Fargo's dark humor.
Also, this is a movie that could have used some cutting here and there. Was PSH's rock pouring/bed messing scene so symbolic it had to be there?
It has many of the same plotlines as Fargo (inside job, no one will be hurt, a couple low-life hoods, a lot of innocent people killed, etc.)
I agree and Carter Burwell's score was not effective this time. Suggest Burwell isn't a fine composer but just quirky. All his harmonic progressions were stock and the stylistic continuity was missing. What's with DUST IN THE WIND references. The film didn't work for me but Fargo sure did.
shareI love both movies but I don't see any similarities.
"You suck on a tit the movie gets rated R. you hack it off with an axe, PG" Jack Nicholson
You don't see any similarities???
1. Protagonist is a business manager with recent history of financial fraud that is about to be exposed, so he's desperately in need of cash to cover his misdeeds.
2. Protagonist plots a crime against members of his own family.
3. Protagonist never won the love or respect of the family patriarch.
4. This "victimless" crime spirals out of control because the recruited perpetrators are inept and thuggish.
5. The net closes in as the perpetrators leave a trail of breadcrumbs linking them to the crime.
6. Before the dust finally settles, large numbers of innocent victims have died.
The main point of departure is that in BTDKYD is that the law enforcement officers are faceless and mostly uninvolved with plot development. Whereas in Faro, the investigative efforts of our heroine police officer Marge Gunderson, a well developed character, plays a vital role in the plot.
And in both...
THERE ARE ACTORS PORTRAYING PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!
This movie is "inspired" by Fargo. By that I mean it is close to a full-blown "rip-off". It has many of the same plotlines as Fargo (inside job, no one will be hurt, a couple low-life hoods, a lot of innocent people killed, etc.) except that it has none of Fargo's dark humor.
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The comparison between Fargo and Before the devil is very shallow. the only thing in common is their being about a crime gone wrong. but the directors have completely different takes on the situation. From what I remember the coen brothers make Fargo more of a plot-driven story, most of the movie's emotions coming from the actions that happen. Lumet's take is much more character driven as the movies brilliance comes in how the characters react to whats going on and how the actions affect them. I do have to see fargo again as I vaguely remember some deep characterization in Jerry, but not to the extent of BTDKYD.
shareWhich I never really got, in Fargo that is. All this death and horrible things occurring to people and somehow it's supposed to be funny? As if it would really happen in life that way or that any sane person would find that humorous in real life? I guess I just don't get the concept of "dark humor" and can't find death and gruesome things funny, I don't know call me old fashioned I guess. Plus the whole time I was watching Fargo it just felt like the Coen brothers were poking fun at North Dakotans rather than focusing on the plot or character development, it was extremely bland and uninteresting, a real yawn-fest. This movie however, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, is really well done and the characters feel rather real as opposed to the cartoons of human beings in Fargo.....
share"Which I never really got in Fargo is that; All this death and horrible things occurring to people and somehow it's supposed to be funny? As if it would really happen in life that way or that any sane person would find that humorous in real life? I guess I just don't get the concept of "dark humor" and can't find death and gruesome things funny, I don't know call me old fashioned I guess. Plus the whole time I was watching Fargo it just felt like the Coen brothers were poking fun at North Dakotans rather than focusing on the plot or character development, it was extremely bland and uninteresting, a real yawn-fest. This movie however, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, is really well done and the characters feel rather real as opposed to the cartoons of human beings in Fargo....."
"I thought the humor was very badly conceived in Fargo anyway. It wasn't so much "dark humor" as it was cutesy one-joke "look at how North Dakotans talk and act, eh!" humor. It clashed badly with the rest of the movie's tension and pretty much killed it for me."
Wow. You two really just don't understand the humor at all hahaha. The stupid Dakotan spiel is just hokey and retarded and it comes out exactly like that. It's perfect. Some of the things that they're saying in that accent are funny and some of it can be placed on how they're saying it but just the fact that they're saying things that way isn't what's funny at all.
The dark humor is the shi+ that's actually funny. Mostly scenes involving the two abductors/killers. When she pukes at the start is funny. The scenes involving Macy freaking out are pretty funny too. The old man thinking he should be handling the situation and royally fu<ks it up is really good. The woodchipper scene has me rolling on the floor laughing, it's epicly hilarious.
Here are some examples of hilarious scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJUvPZI3Cr4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu5McR-bPpU&feature=related
"Smoke a fu<kin' peace pipe!" Hahaha.
"I guess I just don't get the concept of "dark humor" and can't find death and gruesome things funny, I don't know call me old fashioned I guess."
Oh dark humor is totally old fashioned. The ancient Greeks used it. Or, this famous example from Romeo and Juliet: Mercutio, after being fatally run through by a sword: "No, ’tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man."
Regarding the North Dakotans, only the opening scene takes place in Fargo; the whole rest of the film takes place in Minnesota, which is where the Coens are from. Yes there are a few in-jokes about ND's vs Minns. but there's a lot more about upstate folks vs city folks, and the pervading presence of snow. It's part of the Minnesota setting and it's typical Coen treatment.