Great Character: Marge Gunderson (“Fargo”)
Today’s Great Character post is a guest column from longtime GITS follower Jason Cuthbert.
Another peculiar phenomenon in Hollywood movies, to add to your personal list, is the total lack of female cops. Go ahead, try to compose a relatively mainstream Top Ten list of law-enforcing badge ladies that protect and serve.
If we cheated and opened the selection pool to television, it would be an easy cinch when you consider shows like 21 Jump Street, T.J. Hooker, CSI, Cagney & Lacey, Law & Order, Hill Street Blues, Saving Grace, The Shield, Southland and The Wire. This is why it is crucial to salute screenwriting and directing siblings the Coen Brothers for giving moviegoers Fargo in 1996, featuring one of the best female cops in celluloid — the sweet, humble yet firm Marge Gunderson played by the always interesting Frances McDormand.
Fargo plot summary from IMDB:
Jerry Lundegaard’s inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen’s bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson.
Ethan Coen and older brother Joel Coen, who is also married to actress Frances McDormand, first cast McDormand in their feature film debut Blood Simple, and she continued to become a part of their casting click with Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn’t There and Burn After Reading. Marge Gunderson in Fargo is McDormand’s standout tour de force. Not only did it win Frances McDormand the first, and currently only Academy Award in her accolade collection, she also accomplished this stellar achievement by not popping up until the last half of the movie.
Marge Gunderson is on the look out for murderous culprits, all the while handling this disturbing investigation with a full-blown pregnancy, an artistic husband Norm whom she appears to be supporting financially, and a sense of humor that stems from the fertile soil of her honest sincerity.
Marge at the crime scene:
LOU: You alright there, Margie?
MARGE GUNDERSON: Oh, I just think I’m gonna barf… [standing up again after a moment] … Well, that passed. Now I’m hungry again.
Marge’s police humor:
MARGE GUNDERSON: Say, Lou, didya hear the one about the guy who couldn’t afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404?
LOU: Yah, that’s a good one.
But Marge doesn’t just cruise around town coping with her dangerous profession by hiding her emotions behind a shield of wit. Marge Gunderson maintains a heart big enough for her husband, her co-workers, her community and even those that are out to ruin it.
Marge’s advice to a murderer losing his religion:
MARGE GUNDERSON: So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.
If the world needed to become a better place by artificial means, the admirable purity and irrevocable goodness of Marge’s intentions make her the ideal candidate for cloning. Would she cheat on her husband with an old school friend of a higher earning bracket? Not Marge Gunderson. No flippin’ way.
Even with a career filled with bloodstains and scumbag prevention, Marge Gunderson never seems jaded or blind to her brightest priorities in life:
Marge is a highly relatable protagonist who could just as easily be that precious neighbor who never forgets a birthday. Her strength doesn’t stem from steroid-infused muscles or “I don’t give a f**K” bravery that quite often is just careless stupidity.
Marge’s strength is in her unwavering loyalty to those she loves, her give-respect-to-earn-respect ethos, intelligent deductive detective instincts and addictive decency. If that awesome batch of traits doesn’t make Marge Gunderson a GREAT CHARACTER — watch Fargo with your eyes open this time.
I lived in North Dakota. For four years. Four long years. Minot Air Force Base, my father stationed there commanding a squadron of B-52s. Fargo is a pushed-out take on reality, but there is truth to the characterizations. You can not live in an environment in which it does not get above zero degrees for a month [which I experienced], then hits 100 degrees in the summer without a certain amount of steadfastness. That is Marge. Contrast to Jerry who dares to transgress his Lutheran upbringing to go for a quick deal. That may wash in NYC or LA. Not in Fargo.
This movie is a case of the tortoise defeating the hare. Check that. A pregnant tortoise.
Who else loves Fargo?
Thanks to Jason for today’s Great Character post. By the way, have you noticed that each post in the series during July has been a female? That was Jason’s idea — and a good one, too, exploring a variety of notable women characters.
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