Sir, - I am a simple soul who likes a simple night out. Based therefore on a glowing recommendation from your very own film pages I went to see Fargo with my husband and son.
In my opinion this film with its mindless, sickening violence cruelty and sexism verges on the pornographic. Worse still, by attempting to be humorous in some parts it actually made the violence even more brutal and gratuitous.
I cannot understand how a reputable newspaper could recommend this intrinsically evil film either as art or entertainment. Critics do not have a lot of control over film makers but neither should they ally themselves with the lowest common denominator merely because it is profitable. And that's my point; the mindless, uncritical use of violence in this film is for box office appeal, I.e., profits only. Any explanation of its content as an attempt at depicting reality or art can only be a very poor secondary aim, if such an aim exists at all. The message this film is trying to get across seems to me to be, roughly, that remorseless butchering of innocent people is a normal part of life and at times can even have its humorous moments.
I warn anyone who has not seen it that to be involved in a minor car accident would be just as pleasurable an experience. - Yours, etc.,
Edenvale Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.