Fargo (Season 1)

It was winter in Minnesota and a car sped down an empty highway in the middle of the night.  Suddenly, a deer was in the road.  The collision left the deer mortally wounded and the car in a ditch on the side of the road.  Then, the trunk popped open and a man dressed in boxers fled through a snowy field and into the nearby woods.  The driver, Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), awoke to find a bloody wound on his forehead.

Lester Nygard (Martin Freeman) was a mousy insurance salesman in Bemidji, Minnesota.  While walking down the street, he encountered Sam Hess.  Hess used to bully him in school and decided to relive the good old days.  Shortly thereafter, Lester was in the emergency room for his injuries.  He happened be next to a man with a head wound, none other than Lorne Malvo.  Upon hearing Lester's story, Lorne claimed that he would have killed the man.  In fact, would Lester like Malvo to kill Hess?  Lester dithered but called 'Yes' to the nurse when she summoned him.  It was a fateful yes.

Sheriff Thurman was called away from the frozen naked man in the forest to the corpse of Sam Hess at a strip club.  Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) had some keen insights and Thurman viewed her as his natural successor when he retired.  Molly linked the frozen man to the man with the head wound to Lester Nygard to Sam Hess.  It was all connected.  Though she wanted to interview Lester, the Sheriff went.  He arrived at the Nygard house to find that Lester had murdered his wife.  Before he could take action, Malvo arrived and killed him with a shotgun!

Now Lester must convince the police that he was a victim.  Malvo was only passing through Bemidgi on his way to Duluth. His car wrecked earlier, he took Lester's.  A tangled web is thus woven; it is up to Bemidji Deputy Solverson and Duluth Officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) to unwind the threads and find the solution to the murders.  However, it gets much worse, as Sam was connected to a criminal organization who sent some fixers to find and kill his murderer.

An outstanding series with lots of interlinking storylines and interesting characters.  Billy Bob Thornton is outstanding as an agent of chaos, a man who causes trouble for the sake of causing trouble.  His Duluth job was to solve a blackmail scheme, but he instead took over when he uncovered the culprit.  Though a slight fellow, Thornton imbued Malvo with an astonishing level of menace and danger.  Really terrific villain.  By contrast, Martin Freeman begins as the most wimpy of characters but evolves into a conniving rat who sells out anyone to protect himself.  Allison Tolman felt like a retread of Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), going so far as to be pregnant for the climax.  Key & Peele star as a pair of FBI agents out of Fargo who are on the trail of Lorne Malvo.  They proved to be quite funny, more because it is them than any of their actions and dialogue.  Bob Odenkirk plays the new sheriff who is in way over his head and won't listen to Molly's theories. Keith Carradine plays Molly's father, a former cop who now runs a diner; he has a limp that ended his career.  Oliver Platt plays the blackmail victim and is also a man who, back in 1996, discovered a bag of a million dollars on the side of the road (see Fargo movie).  A terrific cast for an excellent ten episodes of dark comedy and crime thriller.

Throughout the series, there are several references to a dark event that led to Molly's father's injury, among other things.  This proved to be foreshadowing for season 2.

Highly recommended.

Deadwood (season 1)

The story opens in Montana Territory where Sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) hangs a prisoner outside the jail door rather than allow a mob to lynch him.  With that as his final act as sheriff, he resigns and leaves for Deadwood.  The road into Deadwood is crowded with wagons bound for the gold rush.  Among the wagons are Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine), Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert), and Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie).  The town of Deadwood is only a few months old and situated on Indian land, thus placing it outside the jurisdiction of the United States.  To make matters more interesting, news of Custer's Last Stand at the Little Bighorn has just happened.  Many of the proprietors are a law unto themselves, most notably Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the owner of the Gem Theater, which is really a bar and brothel.  Into this maelstrom ride Seith Bullock and his partner, Sol Star (John Hawkes), who open a hardware store.

Many of the characters are historical figures who lived and died in Deadwood while others are composites, and many others are just fictional.  Though many of the events are true, the chronology is not.  For instance, Bullock arrived in Deadwood after Hickok had been killed, but the show has them meeting and becoming friends.  Bullock arrived in early August 1876 (1st episode) and General George Crook arrived in Deadwood in September 1876 (12th episode).  Eventful place!

Ian McShane is too old for the real Swearengen, who was 30 at the time, but he does a great job.  It is no wonder he won a Golden Globe for his performance.  Much as I like Timothy Olyphant, he has a limited emotional range here: simmering anger.  He is too often about to blow a gasket.  So much righteous indignation.  I like the incorruptible good guy more than most but give him a sense of humor.  He's going to have a stroke with how high-strung he is portrayed.  Keith Carradine doesn't last long in the series but makes for an excellent Wild Bill.  Oddly enough, a decade earlier he played Buffalo Bill Cody to Jeff Bridges Wild Bill.

The show does not shy away from profanity and many of the characters are quite proud their colorful speech.  Nudity and violence are also plentiful.  Entertaining and recommended.

The Duelists (1977)

It is 1800 in Strasbourg, France.  Lt. Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine) of the 3rd Hussars is dispatched to place Lt. Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel) of the 7th Hussars under arrest for grievously wounding the mayor's nephew in a duel.  Feraud takes offense at d'Hubert's handling of his arrest and challenges him to a duel.  Feraud will not take no for an answer and a duel if fought but it ends inconclusively.  Throughout the Napoleonic Wars, the two meet repeatedly but Feraud is never satisfied with the result.

 

The first feature film by Ridley Scott, it is based on a short story by Joseph Conrad which itself is based on a true event.  The movie includes 6 duels over a 16 year period whereas the historical figures fought 30 duels over 19 years.

 

Harvey Keitel is very good as the unhinged hyper-aggressive duelist.  He exploits the rules of honor to satisfy his desires.  He was entirely willing to repeatedly provoke d'Hubert until his duel challenge was accepted, hardly the actions of an honorable soldier.  Keith Carradine is passable but just didn't seem French.  His creaky voice that is perfect for a Western singer or an American cowboy seems entirely out of place for a French Hussar.

 

It is an excellent movie and, unlike some of Scott's more recent movies, doesn't rely on the characters' abysmal stupidity to advance the plot.  Also noteworthy is that this is the first of his many historical epics but cleaves closest to actual history.  Robin Hood (2010), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), and Gladiator (2000) all made substantial revisions of history.