Fargo (1996)Movies

The Coen brothers’ 1996 film “Fargo” is a cinematic original.

Surely, it derives certain tropes the brothers had worked out over the course of their learning curve—from “Blood Simple” (1984)—through gems like “Raising Arizona” (1987), “Miller’s Crossing” (1990), “Barton Fink” (1991) and “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994).

In fact, everything present in “Fargo” can be traced back to their previous films. And everything the Coen brothers have created has been founded upon and been a development of an undeniable film signature developed and embellished ever since.

If they were both diagnosed with a terminal illness, their coda could be, from “No Country for Old Men:

“I don’t want...