rate FARGO (1996)

I just can't stand any of TCB movies. They're always so over the top with their self-conscious, hip attitudes. Smug, unlikable and nasty. I do not enjoy or appreciate their humor in the slightest. Never have I laughed once watching one of their movies. And if there was one scene that turned me off them, it was the scene from "Fargo" where the kidnap victim had the bag over her head and was running around and freaking out. I think I was the only one in the audience who wasn't laughing. I did not and do not find that scene to be funny in the slightest. To begin with, I felt awful for the poor lady and to then have everybody around me laughing their asses off was very discomforting. And then when I understood that this is what the Coen Brothers are all about... That did it right there.

Quentin Tarantino has some of this quality as well. He is also over the top with violence and bad language flows. The scene in "Pulp Fiction" where John Travolta accidentally blows the head off the guy in the back seat... again, I think I was the only person in the theater who didn't find it hysterical.

But I do think there is a difference between the two scenes. In PF, that depiction of violence was like a big shock to the system. It came out of nowhere. I didn't find it funny myself, but I wasn't overly bothered by it, either. In Fargo, the victim's suffering was prolonged and everybody was laughing. It was appalling. Funny as a rape scene, but somehow even worse.

The other difference between QT and TCB is that while QT may be be a wild man and totally arrogant, he does what he does with zest and affection and even warmth. TCB are, to me, smug and cold cold cold.