Script To Screen: “Fargo”

Here is a terrific scene from a terrific movie, the 1996 film Fargo, screenplay by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen for which they won an Academy Award.

Setup: Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), who have kidnapped Jean (Kristin Rudrüd) and stashed her in the back seat of their car, are driving on a North Dakota highway when something happens…

Here is the movie version of the scene:

It never ceases to amaze me how close scenes in the Coens’ movies hew to the script. Almost word for word the same. They figure out exactly what they want at the script stage, then translate it almost verbatim to the screen.

I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this scene from Fargo.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.