The film Fargo - is it based on a true story?

Question

Watched it on Sky last week. At the start it says apart from names, everything is based on a true story.

However, at the end we do not get told what happended to everyone & in small print it states that it's fictitious.

I'm confused.

Answer 1

The story is definitely ficticious although I seem to remember that the character played by Francis McDormand (the pregnant police woman) was based on a real person.

You aren't the only person to have been confused over wether it was true or not. Click on the link below and read about this tragic story in the "Trivia" section.

In November 2001, a Japanese woman named Takako Konishi arrived in Fargo, North Dakota, where with the help of a scrawled map and due to the inherent language barrier, police deduced that she must have been in search of the lost cache of money that was buried in the film. She was found dead in the woods six days later near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, possibly due to a combination of drugs and exposure to the cold.[7] However, three weeks after her death, her parents in Japan received a suicide note that she had sent several days before she died -- the story of her searching for the cache was, ironically, fictional

Answer 2

no.

All movies are in some way fiction, so what does it matter? The Coen brothers' Fargo claimed to be based on a true story, and they admit it wasn't; the "true story" bit at the beginning was just a stylistic device."

Fargo is a comedy-thriller about a wacky kidnapping scheme that goes incredibly wrong. The brothers originally said it was based on a true story, but a New York Post "investigation" got the brothers to admit the story actually popped out of their heads.

Answer 3

It's fictitious - entirely - the announcement that it is true is PART OF the story telling. The makers decided that, as a film is a fiction told as if reality, that they could put that notice at the front, just as part of their story telling / part of the fictional plot.

Answer 4

No, it's not. The Coen brothers are jokesters. They put the "based on a true story" disclaimer at the front as a gag. They also have a fictitious editor - "Roderick Jaymes" - which is really them.

Answer 5

No it is fiction and almost a parody, it is a "urban legand" that it is true. In fact it is listed under the Urban Legends as false. Many people have the misconception that it was based on a true story

Answer 6

i thought it was based on a true story - never noticed the fictional part at the end.

Answer 7

Parts of it are based on actual events, but that disclaimer at the end is to prevent getting sued

Answer 8

its not based on a true story, but a true event. I.E. it was just the bit when he(william h macy) gets hi wife kidnapped. that was the only true bit

Answer 9

they genuinely did attempt to pass it off as having been in keeping with genuine activities, yet after some digging and examine the human beings who made that is going to easily had to admit they lied or it grew to become right into a joke

Answer 10

yes fargo is a true story