Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Sometimes they can barely hide it.
He fits right in there.
The frontier closed decades before the Dude was born, but its restless spirit has lingered.
So have some of its dangers.
There are places governed by just laws meant to protect the innocent and punish the guilty.
But Texas, at least the Texas ofBlood Simple, isnt one of them.
Its a borderland, a place where civilization ends.
InBlood Simple, the darkness on the edge of town has a way of bleeding into city limits.
Whats true of Texas is just as true in Minnesota.
As a location, Fargo barely figures intoFargo.
Yet it looms large over the film, less as a city than an idea.
Fargo is where Jerry has to go to find men not beholden by the restrictions of polite society.
Not the real Fargo, which is probably no more good or evil than any other place.
This, too, was once the frontier, even if you wouldnt know it now.
Not that the frontier has to be all chaos and destruction.
McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) inRaising Arizona.
Then he softens a bit, I dunno.
They say hes a decent man, so maybe his advisers are confused.
Only his time is drawing to a close, even if he doesnt realize it.
Sometimes youre the man for your time and place.
Sometimes you become a relic of it.
Of course, a Coen brothers Western would have melancholy built into it.
They knew what was coming next.
Yet part of what makesThe Ballad of Buster Scruggsso exciting is how unpredictable it is.
It wouldnt be the first time.
