The Coen Brothers created a fictionalized story based on a real event that occurred. This is a prominent feature to their film as they state this in the opening, that the events were real and took place in Minnesota in 1987. This statement at the beginning of the film allows them to craft a story that, regardless of how warped it is to anyone watching, will allow the audience to enter into the picture without reducing it to a work of fiction. Instead, the audience is engaged from the beginning and inherits the attitude that this story is true and the unbelievable becomes reality.
Another major influence that the director had was casting William H. Macy in the lead role. Macy was considered for a smaller part, but because of his persistence and his reading them offered him the lead role which turned out to earn an Oscar nomination for the actor and cement him into the lore of the Fargo story.
The Coens crafted a film that had a lot of space to breathe. Fargo adopted the landscape of the frozen tundra of the American North in winter, which is causes people to move at a different pace, see things differently, act in a certain way. This rhythm was key to the success of the film. One shot that stands out is when Jerry has been rejected by Wade for a loan to make an investment. We see a wide shot of Jerry walking to his car in a snow-covered lot. It's the only car there, he's the only man. He gets into his car and sighs heavily before getting back out to furiously scrape the ice off of his windshield, now enraged at being rejected. This entire sequence of shots delicately tunes us to who this character is, what he feels and experiences in relationship to specific people in his life and what he is going through. This type of filmmaking is what separates them from the pack and puts them in a category that is original and unique.
